Margaret Sullivan (journalist)

“[[Tucker Carlson|[Tucker] Carlson]] has never been a stickler for the truth, as he proved in the run-up to this interview, when he claimed that he was the only western media figure who cared enough to get [[Vladimir Putin|[Vladimir] Putin]] on the record.That's absurd. Many American reporters have tried unsuccessfully to sit down with Putin, especially since the invasion of Ukraine.But the Russian president was waiting for the right stooge. With Carlson, he got just that.”

“[O]ne key to running Twitter is the tricky matter of "managing up". Anyone who's ever worked in a corporation or big agency, especially as a manager, knows that you have to handle the boss. You have to keep them informed, hold off their worst instincts, tactfully set boundaries and, most of all, somehow convince them that every move you make is really their brilliant idea – or at least a fulfillment of their underlying vision.And there's the rub. Twitter’s problems are solvable. But the volatile and narcissistic Elon Musk|Musk]] may be the boss that can’t be managed.”

“In the wacky new world of fake news, conspiracy theories, {{w|hoax}}es — and social media’s unthinking participation in spreading all of that — facts and truth get lost in the noise. A responsible media needs to be especially careful not to unwittingly spread lies by amplifying them. Some early coverage of Trump’s recent unwarranted, evidence-free blasts about the illegality of some of the popular vote fell into that trap. It’s depressing but a fact of life that a lot of people don’t know the difference between fake news and conspiracy bilge and verified fact. Nor do they seem to care.”

“If news organizations learned anything after the campaign, they should have learned that groupthink has a tendency to miss the point and journalistic myopia requires some extra-strength corrective lenses. Do something different. Represent the interests of a broader, more ideologically diverse population. Figure out what they’re thinking and feeling — and why.”

“Trump is, of course, a master of distraction and {{w|media ma­nipu­la­tion}}. It’s possible to resist being his chump, but it takes continued self-regulation.”

“Often it has been that reporter who has most skillfully played the access game — the one who has curried just enough favor with the powerful newsmaker to be smiled upon, without giving up basic credibility and integrity. That’s access journalism. Accountability journalism, by contrast, is often performed off to the side, by those who don’t have to deal with the news provider on a regular basis.”

“We — the traditional, the legacy, the mainstream media — have to change.”