Walter Pincus

Right now we are hearing from Walter Pincus of the Washington Post. He came to the paper in 1966 after serving in the Army Counterintelligence Corps and doing a stint at the Washington Star. He currently does national reporting on the intelligence community. Below are a few of his memorable quotes.

On newspapers:
“The internet has swallowed up all the advertising, but it hasn’t swallowed up the audience.”

“Newspapers today don’t let people become experts. You can’t just send someone to the White House or the Pentagon and have them report. They need to know what is important to the readers; they need to be an expert.”

Editing versus reporting:
“The reason I stayed a reporter and never became an editor…British newspapers let you write if you’re an editor. With American newspapers, if you’re an editor you’re a bureaucrat. You don’t know what’s really going on unless you’re writing.”