Matt McKenna:

The fact that every new piece of culture or entertainment is at risk for being consumed by the ever-growing vortex of editorial hackery goes to show that our country's sources for news and opinion are nothing more than venues for the meaningless cacophony of harping sycophants and the ceaseless din of compulsively braying automatons spraying opinions into the air like a broken lawn sprinkler system.

Ta-Nehisi Coates:

What I remember ... is the fear -- the fear of offending, of asking impolite questions, of intruding. But you could not work for City Paper without learning how to walk the streets of DC, approach people you did not previously know and barrage them with intimate questions. This is an essential skill for any journalist -- but it also one of the hardest things to do.

An exchange:

David Sanger: There's a lot we miss every day. I go to work every day convinced that I've got a handle on fully 3% of what's going on, okay?
Stewart Baker: [laughing] The key is [that] you can persuade us it's the most important 3%.
David Sanger: [laughing] That's right. [laughing] That's right.

David Carr:

Perhaps Brian Williams sensed that he was king of an entropic kingdom imprisoned by incontinence and cholesterol ads. As the ever more manic news cycle whirred around his evening newscast, it would be hard not to feel a little beside the point. Everyone is in on the joke. It's all knowing winks and fake attacks on confected news read by people who are somewhat bored by what they do. It just seems less funny now.

William Deresiewicz:

Excellence isn't usually what gets you up the greasy pole. What gets you up is a talent for maneuvering.

James Rosen:

Dick Cheney embodies the maxim of the late nuclear theorist Herman Kahn, who famously said there are two types of people in the world: those who care what The New York Times says about them and those who do not.