Howell Raines

“Journalism is a flawed profession, but it has a self-correcting mechanism. The rule is, don't pander to your readers.”

“The accepted definition of news is something that occurs today. My definition of news is something that you didn't know yesterday.”

“My goal was to make the paper indispensable to anyone who cares about the country and the world.”

“We are not the people's representatives. We are the people's monitors.”

“The unforgivable sin of a journalist is to be boring.”

“I came to The Times with a view of what a great newspaper should be, and I'm leaving with that view intact.”

“Any editor who is not tough is no editor at all.”

“You cannot have a meritocracy if you have a racial spoils system.”

“It's the oldest story in the book. The story of the betrayal of trust.”

“A news organization has a social and commercial history, a personality, and a feel.”

“In a time of terror, you don't have the luxury of nuance.”

“The story of the South is the story of race.”

“Fly-fishing is the most beautiful way of trying to outwit a fish.”