Top 6 James Reston Quotes

American journalist and newspaper editor (1909–1995)

James Barrett Reston (November 3, 1909 – December 6, 1995), nicknamed "Scotty", was a prominent American journalist whose career spanned the mid 1930s to the early 1990s. Associated for many years with The New York Times, he became perhaps the most powerful, influential, and widely-read journalist of his era.

From: Wikiquote (CC BY-SA 4.0)

Alternative Names: James Barrett Reston • James B. Reston

From Wikidata (CC0)

Governments are the only vessels that leak from the top

He inherited some good instincts from his Quaker forebears but by diligent hard work, he overcame them.

In foreign policy you have to wait twenty-five years to see how it comes out.

The rising power of the United States in world affairs … requires, not a more compliant press, but a relentless barrage of facts and criticism.... Our job in this age, as I see it, is not to serve as cheerleaders for our side in the present world struggle but to help the largest possible number of people to see the realities of the changing and convulsive world in which American policy must operate.

Europe has a press that stresses opinions; America a press, radio, and television that emphasize news.

People are always dying in the Times who don't seem to die in other papers, and they die at greater length and maybe even with a little more grace.