Paul Levinson Quotations

What he did down in New Orleans was really an extraordinary accomplishment, which goes way beyond what we would expect a news anchor to do, ... He not only reported what was going on, he did not allow other people to minimize or mischaracterize what was happening.

When the story broke, she, again, chose to support Frey. Loyalty is important, but she should have loyalty to her viewers and to the people who look up to her. That's more important than loyalty to this author.

She will certainly bring a fresh face to the program. But a woman serving as sole anchor on an evening network newscast is so long overdue that it can hardly be regarded as making a powerful statement. ... CBS had a chance to revolutionize the evening news by totally remaking the show. Instead, they are putting a new person into an old, boring format.

On the mass communication level, the notion of keeping secrets has been devalued. One hundred years ago, if someone said, 'damn,' people would take notice. Now, you can say almost anything. Secrets are the same way. Once upon a time when a secret was revealed, people paid an enormous amount of attention to it. But every time a secret is revealed, although there's some punch to it, we're whittling away at some of the psychological value of the secret.

If any good comes from the catastrophe, it will be that it signaled the beginning of the media's reassertion of aggressive, in-your-face reporting, in which it confronts government wrongdoing, rather than just swallowing the government's public-relations handouts.

Today, if knowledge of a movie is out there for a while, it may increase its appeal. It builds up a mystique. Bad buzz can actually morph into anticipation.

I think in the long run it's not going to make much difference for CBS.

Today's audiences are vastly more savvy than even audiences of 10 years ago, thanks to all the movie info that's available 24/7. Moviegoers are now more attuned to any kinds of delay. If they think it's a turkey, the word could spread.

This time, the media was right on the story, right on the scene, right away.

The Sept. 11 period really was an aberration - hurricane Katrina has reawakened the sleeping giant, and I believe we'll now see a return to the Watergate era of hard-hitting reporting in the United States.

Oprah has been in such a unique position that it takes more than just her performance (Thursday) to undo the damage that she did with Frey's book.

This goes back to ancient Greek drama. This has always been the role of fiction and entertainment to let us try these things out in a totally safe way. There's a perennial interest in these type of things. What they all have in common is bending the boundaries.

It's like night and day when you compare this to 9-11, when the national trauma was so severe that the media felt uncomfortable being too critical of the administration,

It's part of our heritage, part of our culture. The more we move into cities, the more cool we try to be, the more we miss the part of ourselves that's simple and country.

It was probably bothering her, ... She was aggravated about what she feels is not a completely accurate report about her that made her look bad, and it's still sticking in her craw.

It used to be catch as catch can. But now with the Internet, we're in an environment where all the world's knowledge is available and can be brought to bear on an appointment. It democratizes the appointment process and brings the maximum number of human minds into the process.

It used to be catch as catch can, ... But now with the Internet, we're in an environment where all the world's knowledge is available and can be brought to bear on an appointment. It democratizes the appointment process and brings the maximum number of human minds into the process.

The last thing you want to do, if you are investing dreams, energy and money into a city edition, is to basically fold up the Web page into something nobody would recognize as being a part of Newsday.

The cell phone is a conduit to things that can make dreams come true. I can now hear from people I want to talk to all the time. That's what makes cell phones irresistible.

In the public's mind, when you become famous in any way, you can go into politics,

But I think it would be tougher for Walken than it was for Reagan. His weird roles might harm him.

I don't think the First Amendment entitles journalists to take advantage of illegal activities.

The Fox Report' is the youngest, most exciting presentation of news that we now have on television. It has to do with Shep Smith's personality, the pace of the show, the way he talks, the way he relates to viewers.

All the hand-wringing misses the most enduring truth: It is wrong to jail a reporter for protecting sources, including flawed reporters. When the dust clears, journalists and newsrooms will be emboldened and Miller's reputation will be transformed.

The media rose to the occasion, shone their light on the desolation and the needy, and kept it focused there until the cavalry finally began to arrive.

If two or three hundred years from now an earthbound civilization is dying ... and they look back at the opportunity that we have here at the close of the twentieth century to move out into space and they see that we didn't do anything with it ... I don't want history to judge us on having blown this opportunity, and I think history will judge us on this more than on any other issue.

I firmly believe that we who are alive and can think today-in the closing years of the 20th century-have a commitment to our species to make sure that the flicker of movement we have thus managed in space stays sufficiently kindled so that the people of the 21st century can build upon and extend the human abode from Earth to the cosmos beyond.

Now, more than ever, we need people in space... The events of September 11 show us how vulnerable we and our civilization are down here on Earth... So let us use our strength, our awareness of mortality as a civilization, to do something truly lasting and earth-shaking for humanity. Let us join with the peoples and cultures of this planet, the diversities of its perspectives and religions and science, so we can leave it-not behind, but as a springboard to something better.

We of course have our problems, to say the least, in comportment towards ourselves and our environment, but admittance to the cosmos and the spatial infinity and temporal immortality it provides may well be just the remedy for these age-old problems. Access to the boundless resources of the universe may once and for all puncture the pressure of population and politics of scarcity which have generated war, oppression, and plagued our species from the start.

One hundred years ago, if someone said, 'damn,' people would take notice. Now, you can say almost anything. Secrets are the same way. Once upon a time when a secret was revealed, people paid an enormous amount of attention to it.

Online learning can be a lifeline to those who have obstacles, such as geographical distances or physical disabilities.