Fearlessness can be its own form of power.

When people in power can operate in the dark, inevitably they abuse that power. So, you need outside forces to bring light and transparency to what they're doing. And, one of the ways you do that is through journalism, and through guaranteeing a free press. That is its purpose, to provide a check on those who wield power.

It is hard to imagine having a government more secretive than the United States. Virtually everything that government does, of any significance, is conducted behind an extreme wall of secrecy. The very few leaks that we’ve had over the last decade are basically the only ways that we’ve had to learn what our government is doing.

It's common to go from 'crashing the gate' to guarding it.

Many of the most important stories in the history of modern journalism have come from sources who have taken information without authorization.

The bottom layer of the right-wing noise machine.

It's so much easier to debate people when you can pretend that they hold moronic position that they don't actually believe.