How is the world ruled and led to war? Diplomats lie to journalists and believe these lies when they see them in print.

A petty reason perhaps why novelists more and more try to keep a distance from journalists is that novelists are trying to write the truth and journalists are trying to write fiction.

The truth is I don't have any problem with journalists - I count some of them as friends - also some of my heroes are journalists I'm a big fan of Robert Fisk - great people or crazy people who are prepared to stand up for what's right.

A lot of journalism wants to have what they call objectivity without them having a commitment to pursuing the truth but that doesn't work. Objectivity requires belief in and a commitment toward pursuing the truth - having an object outside of our personal point of view.

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.

I think there ought to be a club in which preachers and journalists could come together and have the sentimentalism of the one matched with the cynicism of the other. That ought to bring them pretty close to the truth.

If I'd written all the truth I knew for the past ten years about 600 people - including me - would be rotting in prison cells from Rio to Seattle today. Absolute truth is a very rare and dangerous commodity in the context of professional journalism.

If you are a reliable honest journalist sources will open up and trust you and share good information.

Any journalist worth his or her salt wouldn't trust me.

We have to compete in a universe of 200 networks so we have to carve out our own niche and to me that niche is just basic shoe-leather journalism with some good journalists at the helm you can trust as presenters.