A great deal of our ratings on the morning news are people who died during the night with their TV on.
BOB SCHAFFERThe government’s view is that the best time to announce bad news, news that it doesn’t want the public to dwell on is late on a Friday, when it will wind up in the Saturday papers, which if you were readers, then the week day editions. A holiday weekend is even better.
More Bob Schaffer Quotes
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I can’t think of any other job in journalism where the newsmakers come to you.
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One cannot help being impressed by the protesters. They have begun each day of the protest in Kiev in prayer and all activities are accomplished with a collective sense of respect, kindness, and an intention to conduct a peaceful revolution.
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The truth is the Super Bowl long ago became more than just a football game. It’s part of our culture, like turkey at Thanksgiving and lights at Christmas, and like those holidays – beyond their meaning – a factor in our economy.
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And after about two years, I realized that creative writing was not going to help you ace those biological tests. So I switched over to journalism. I didn’t graduate with honors, but I did graduate on time and with some doing.
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And as a result, I guess I’m just kind of a rubberneck. I’m kind of a – someone who likes to see things and likes to see these events and talk to the people who make them happen. But I don’t think journalists are as important as the people they cover.
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They’ve asked me to do this temporarily. I don’t know what temporarily means. Life is temporary.
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I always thought writing was the foundation and the basis for journalism in the same way being able to draw is the foundation for art.
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It’s no longer just reporting the headlines of the day, but trying to put the headlines into some context and to add some perspective into what they mean.
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It’s getting the right person that’s the challenge.
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But with 9/11, we found that people tended to come back to the networks and the people who had been our core viewers in the past came back and they have stayed with us.
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Obviously, if the commander makes certain decisions that the reporter thinks is inhibiting his right to report a legitimate story, he has to appeal to the commander’s boss to get that changed.
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One thing young people have to always keep in mind when deciding what they want to do with their lives is, is it fun? Is it something that I’m interested in? Is it something I enjoy?
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Good policy always trumps bad public relations and the best PR can’t trump bad policy.
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We now assume that when people turn on the evening news, they basically already know what the news is. They’ve heard it on the radio. They’ve seen it on the Internet. They’ve seen it on one of the cable companies. So that makes our job a bit different.
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When Sam Snead was asked how to putt, he said, ‘Putt for one hundred dollars’.
BOB SCHAFFER