The lowest form of popular culture -- lack of information, misinformation, disinformation, and a contempt for the truth or the reality of most people's lives -- has overrun real journalism. Today, ordinary Americans are being stuffed with garbage."

"The pressure to compete, the fear somebody else will make the splash first, ccreates a frenzied environment in which a blizzard of information is presented and serious questions may not be raised."

"For the first time, the weird and the stupid and the coarse are becoming our cultural norms, even our cultural ideal."

"The failures of the press have contributed immensely to the emergence of a talk-show nation, in which public discourse is reduced to ranting and raving and posturing."

"The greatest felony in the news business today is to be behind, or to miss a big story. So speed and quantity substitute for thoroughness and quality, for accuracy and context."