A few inspirational quotes about journalism from a hugely inspiring book

“A journalist is a grumbler, a censurer, a giver of advice, a regent of sovereigns, a tutor of nations. Four hostile newspapers are more to be feared than a thousand bayonets.”
— Napoleon Bonaparte

“Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
— Thomas Jefferson, one of America's founding fathers

“Journalism will kill you, but it will keep you alive while you’re at it.”
— Horace Greeley, newspaper editor

“If you don’t have a sensation of apprehension when you set out to find a story and a swagger when you sit down to write it, you are in the wrong business.”
— A.M. Rosenthal, journalist

It is a newspaper’s duty to print the news and raise hell.”
— Wilbur F. Storey, newspaper owner

“I think perfect objectivity is an unrealistic goal; fairness, however, is not.
— Michael Pollan, journalist, author, and professor

“Bad news goes about in clogs, good news in stockinged feet.”
— Welsh proverb

“Journalism never admits that nothing much is happening.”
— Mason Cooley, professor

“The proper question isn’t what a journalist thinks is relevant but what his or her audience thinks is relevant.”
— Michael Kinsley, journalist and author

“Great questions make great reporting.”
— Diane Sawyer, journalist

“I really believe good journalism is good business.”
— Christiane Amanpour, journalist

• Who are Mike Wallace and Beth Knobel, the authors of Heat & Light? And what qualifications do they have to offer advice to the next generation of journalists? Everything will be clear after you read this touching obituary on Huffington Post: "My Colleague, Mike Wallace". Afterwards, read this tribute: "Mike Wallace: An interrogator of the famous and infamous".

MIKE WALLACE, LEGENDARY TELEVISION JOURNALIST

• In addition, you should check out the Heat & Light website, where you will not only get an explanation for the "heat" and "light" in the title, but, among other things, you will also be able to sort through a nifty "Journalists' Toolbox".

• Naturally you will want to own a copy of Heat & Light. It is available on Amazon.in as well as on Flipkart. (Commits students: A copy has been placed in the college library.)

• ALSO READ: Nobel laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez on why journalism is the best job in the world.

POSTSCRIPT
WHEN LIFE AS A JOURNALIST
GETS FRUSTRATING 

An excerpt from the final chapter of Heat & Light, titled "The Future: Advice for the Next Generation of Journalists":

It can get awfully frustrating at times in journalism. It can be hard to get yourself noticed, hard to get promoted, and hard to get good assignments. In a bad economy, it can even be hard to get a job.

We’ve both had times in our careers when we did a job we didn’t particularly like, or found it difficult to move up the career ladder. It took Mike several decades to go from being an announcer at a small radio station … to being a star on CBS.

In the end, you need to focus on building experience and expertise, and trust that the knowledge you’re acquiring will ultimately pay off in your career.

Mike Wallace: An interrogator of the famous and infamous

Before Karan Thapar, there was Mike Wallace.

Wallace, who died earlier this month aged 93, became one of America’s best-known broadcast journalists, according to a New York Times obituary, as an interrogator of the famous and infamous on the CBS news programme, 60 Minutes.

MIKE WALLACE IN HIS CBS OFFICE IN 2006. (PHOTO COURTESY: AP)

The New York Times obituary, written by Tim Weiner, gives us a glimpse into the man and his interviewing, or grilling, style:

A reporter with the presence of a performer, Mr. Wallace went head to head with chiefs of state, celebrities and con artists for more than 50 years, living for when “you forget the lights, the cameras, everything else, and you’re really talking to each other,” he said in an interview with the New York Times videotaped in July 2006 and released on his death as part of the online feature “Last Word.”

Mr. Wallace created enough such moments to become a paragon of television journalism in the heyday of network news. As he grilled his subjects, he said, he walked “a fine line between sadism and intellectual curiosity.”

His success often lay in the questions he hurled, not the answers he received.

The obit continues:

For a 1976 report on Medicaid fraud, the show’s producers set up a simulated health clinic in Chicago. Was the use of deceit to expose deceit justified? Hidden cameras and ambush interviews were all part of the game, Mr. Wallace said, though he abandoned those techniques in later years, when they became clichés and no longer good television.

Some subjects were unfazed by Mr. Wallace’s unblinking stare. When he sat down with the Ayatollah Khomeini, the Iranian leader, in 1979, he said that President Anwar el-Sadat of Egypt “calls you, Imam — forgive me, his words, not mine — a lunatic.” The translator blanched, but the Ayatollah responded, calmly calling Sadat a heretic.

“Forgive me” was a favourite Wallace phrase, the caress before the garrote. “As soon as you hear that,” he told the Times, “you realise the nasty question’s about to come.”

Journalists, especially those working in television, would surely be interested in learning more about Wallace and his reporting techniques. How about the rest of us? Are there any lessons we can draw from Wallace's life? Yes, says Eric Jackson, a Forbes contributor, and they apply whether you care about journalism or not:

1. If you don’t wake up in the morning excited to pick up where you left your work yesterday, you haven’t found your calling yet.

2. When a new medium comes along, embrace its possibilities.

3. If you aren’t breaking the rules a little in your profession, you aren’t going far enough.

4. How would your life be different if your epitaph read “Tough But Fair”?

5. Face your demons head on.

Jackson elaborates on each point on the Forbes website: "5 Lessons from Mike Wallace's Life for All of Us".

Jackson also provides links to highlights of three of Wallace's interviews. Watch the snippet from the 1976 interview with the Shah of Iran and also the nine-and-a-half-minute-long excerpt of Wallace's interview with Ayn Rand. You can watch the full Ayn Rand interview here. It was shot in 1959 in B&W and the production values may not be great. But it's riveting stuff nevertheless.

• Thank you, Kokila Jacob, for the Eric Jackson tip-off.