Quotes By Jessica Savitch

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

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.

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

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

Being a novelty had its advantages.

How valuable NBC Magazine was in my career is questionable.

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

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

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

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.

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

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.

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.

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

It had not occurred to me that marriage requires the same effort as a career. And unlike a career, marriage requires a joint effort.

Walking into a room filled with people you don't know but who know you brings out your worst vulnerabilities.

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

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

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.

The latest wrinkle is on wrinkles. There is a widespread belief that women can't grow old in television news.

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

What is the value of sticking a microphone in a man's face right after he has learned of his wife's death?

News events are like Texas weather. If you don't like it, wait a minute.