Scott Pelley Quotes

“America is strong because its journalism is strong. That's how democracies work. They're only as good as the quality of the information that the public possesses. And that is where we come in.”

— Scott Pelley

“We have entered a time when a writer's first idea is his best idea, when the first thing a reporter hears is the first thing that she reports. We live in a time now when we have seen major television networks take video off of YouTube and broadcast it to millions of Americans without verifying whether the video had been fabricated or not.”

— Scott Pelley

“Science doesn't care, by and large, what the answers are. It's only interested in getting the right answer. And journalism should be very much that way.”

— Scott Pelley

“Democracies succeed or fail based on their journalism.”

— Scott Pelley

“I'm always trying to get those interviews that are impossible to get, because they are the ones that are most interesting to the audience.”

— Scott Pelley

“Never before in human history has more information been available to more people. But at the same time, never before in human history has more bad information been available to more people.”

— Scott Pelley

“The quality of life in America is dependent on the quality of the journalism. Most people don't realize that, but if you think about it, journalism is one of the pillars on which our society is perched.”

— Scott Pelley

“No one ever wanted to hire me. Ever. I've never been recruited anywhere. I have beat my head against every wall, at every place that I worked.”

— Scott Pelley

In a world where everyone is a publisher, no one is an editor. And that is the danger that we face today.

— Scott Pelley

“Most people don't realize that two-thirds of the federal budget is Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and the Pentagon. The U.S. government is an insurance company with an Army.”

— Scott Pelley

“There is no democracy without journalism.”

— Scott Pelley

“If you're first, no one will ever remember. If you're wrong, no one will ever forget.”

— Scott Pelley

The country is only as strong as its journalism - that's the way democracies work. The higher the quality of the information, the better informed the electorate is and the better the government runs.

— Scott Pelley

“The American people can always be trusted with the information.”

— Scott Pelley

“I wonder at what point do you stop doing what you think is right and you start doing what the majority of the American people want?”

— Scott Pelley

“That's gossip. Journalism was invented as an antidote to gossip.”

— Scott Pelley

Journalists are getting big stories wrong, over and over again.

— Scott Pelley

“When you are talking to 7 million viewers across the country, man you have got to represent everybody's views and have got to give them the impression that you are being as honest as you know how to be.”

— Scott Pelley

“No one wanted to hire me. No newspaper, television station, television network that I worked for ever wanted to hire me.”

— Scott Pelley

“Not a lot of people watch cable news, they just don't.”

— Scott Pelley

“If I do an interview with [Holocaust survivor] Elie Wiesel, am I required as a journalist to find a Holocaust denier?”

— Scott Pelley

“The problem the cable channels have is they have to fill 24 hours. That's a terrible thing. We only do that on the biggest stories. The thing is there has happened to be a lot o”

— Scott Pelley

“You have to take risks on policy. You can't be a politician, wringing your hands, worried about what the public opinion polls are saying or worried about the negative attacks. If you believe in something, go fight for it.”

— Scott Pelley

You have to be a political leader, willing to lose an election if you want to do what's right.

— Scott Pelley