A lot of the stories are internal. They leak it to me wanting to get attention, wanting to get that headline. More times than not, I will not give it to them.
Some of the best news stories start in gossip. Monica Lewinsky certainly was gossip in the beginning. I had heard it months before I printed it.
There’s nothing more exciting than to watch a story break and grow, and to be the first one to present it to the world.
I do most of my business on that dirty Internet that you were just talking about, where I find there is a lot of freedom to report exactly what I want.
We have entered an era vibrating with the din of small voices. Every citizen can be a reporter, can take on the powers that be.
I was first to break the news about the death of Lady Diana. The CNN team couldn’t get into makeup fast enough.
I cover media people the way they cover politicians.
It seems to me we are losing our way in an effort to get the ratings.
I didn’t go to the right schools, didn’t come from a well-known family, nor was I even remotely connected to a powerful publishing dynasty.
With a modem, anyone can follow the world and report on the world-no middle man, no big brother. I guess this changes everything.
Because I have success, it doesn’t mean I’m part of the mainstream. I’m still an outsider.
I want one place I can go that is not going to be lewd, and I’m not sure there is anything left.
The first step in good reporting is good snooping.
There won’t be editors in the future with the Internet world, with citizen reporting. That doesn’t scare me.
The Internet feeds off the main press, and the main press feeds off the Internet. They’re working in tandem.
I’ve written thousands of stories, started hundreds of news cycles.
I follow my conscience – and this is upsetting to some people, but I maintain the conscience is going to be the only thing between us and communication in the future.
If the first lady is concerned about this Internet cycle, what would she have done during the heyday when there was 12, 13 editions of a paper in one day? What would she have done with that news cycle?
If technology has finally caught up with individual liberty, why would anyone who loves freedom want to rethink that?
I envision a future where there’ll be 300 million reporters, where anyone from anywhere can report for any reason. It’s freedom of participation absolutely realized.
Meet them once and you’re innocent; meet them twice and you’re not. So if you see me having drinks again with Harvey Weinstein then, okay, you’ve got me.