Quotes By Jessica Savitch

One reason I left local news was that I was tired of the constant musical chairs among news directors.

News reporting is a cycle: No matter how much you work at sending a message, it's only successful if it's received.

Anyone who writes an autobiographical work at the age of 34 is, at best, presumptuous. It occurred to me that it was time to set the record straight.

Many senators have developed a canny sense of what will play best for the audience.

I worked half my life to be an overnight success, and still it took me by surprise.

Being a novelty had its advantages.

No matter how many goals you have achieved, you must set your sights on a higher one.

How valuable NBC Magazine was in my career is questionable.

Television news is a delicate balance of serving public good and private gain.

Although I was entirely relaxed on camera, if I had to stand up and say something to an assembled group of people, I was rendered all but inarticulate.

I have had a lifelong phobia of snakes.

Women didn't want to watch other women on television because they were jealous of their husbands' diverted attention.

In interviews I gave early on in my career, I was quoted as saying it was possible to have it all: a dynamic job, marriage, and children. In some respects, I was a social adolescent.

Shootouts are not gunfights of honor, they're gang wars and racial riots.

To get it first is important - but more important is to get it right.

My goal was to be a network correspondent by the time I was 30.

When I first anchored in 1970, I had never seen a woman anchor a news show.

Newscasters cannot call attention to themselves by being too attractive or too unattractive.

Our free enterprise system of disseminating information is collectively referred to as The Media. But there is no collective.

For every two minutes of glamour, there are eight hours of hard work.

A press card does not provide you with an invisible shield. You're flesh and blood.

You can easily die racing to cover a bank robbery as you can in a war zone.

The most important event I covered was the Panama Canal debate, which dragged on for months.

By far my most perilous assignment was covering a tank car explosion.

The better the coverage, the more discriminating the viewer.

Texas was defined by its larger-than-life characters, particularly politicians.

Men still control the news, both on and off camera.

Every time I am in danger of believing the glamour of my own press, some incident inevitably brings me back to earth.

A fact of modern life is that it takes women longer to get ready than men.