Robert Scheer Journalist Quotations

I was able to do something that people can't do these days, which is to have quality time with the guys who were trying to be president and a number of them who got the job.

I talked to Reagan for about six hours all told. and Reagan was willing to go along with it. He didn't look at his watch, and he didn't allow his campaign aides to cut it off.

Well, what happened is that I had been the subject of vicious attacks by Bill O'Reilly and Rush Limbaugh.

The decision came from the publisher. It certainly was cleared by Chicago. And then they come out with these fine sounding words about relation to readers and their obligation. It has nothing to do with that.

What they are interested in at the L.A. Times is profits, and then when it's convenient to them, they wave the flag of free press.

What Clinton severed with his welfare reform was the obligation of the federal government to step in when the states failed and to monitor these programs.

Sometimes Bill O'Reilly would sometimes go after me every day, and this went on for the last couple of years, and I'm still standing.

I've been with the paper for almost 30 years.

And the big issue here, I think, is that the publisher took over the editorial pages, a guy named Jeff Johnson. He's an accountant from Chicago, doesn't know anything about what newspapers are supposed to be about, and he made a decision to get rid of the column.

All they are proving is their ability to manipulate, to think superficially, and to exploit national security issues rather than deal with them.

For example, I spent a lot of time with Reagan, both before he ran for governor and when he was running for president. As a print reporter without the cameras, I was able to really test the quality of their minds and their knowledge base.

For instance, Clinton who was unquestionably the smartest of the bunch I talked to - both the ones who made it and didn't. He had a great interest in policy.

Even with the best of intentions, even when they're very smart and knowledgeable - as opposed to George W., who is neither - it doesn't seem to matter.

That means presenting the issues in certain ways that will appeal to those people and then becoming a prisoner of your own language and thought process. That has always happened - it's just been intensified.

They know I have a strong - not only that I have a strong relation to readers, but so did Ramirez, the cartoonist. You know, it's just gibberish.

They know that the column resonates in the community. They know that people like it, and yet they don't have room for one column once week that consistently got it right.