I had fun pretending to be a sportscaster. People always think that was a down thing for me. I had the best job in sports broadcasting for two years.

Broadcasters or politicians or writers who think that they are respecting Struggle Street the battlers by dumbing things down into one-line sound bites are not respecting them they are treating them with contempt. It's our job above all in politics to tackle the big issues and to explain them.

I wish to assure you that there can never be any return to the state of armed conflict which existed before our commitment to peace and the democratic process of election under the Lancaster House agreement.

That test should not be about ratings. What should weigh is the knowledge that a public broadcaster delivers programmes that matter.

Television of course actually started in Britain in 1936 and it was a monopoly and there was only one broadcaster and it operated on a license which is not the same as a government grant.

The number one lobby that opposes campaign finance reform in the United States is the National Association of Broadcasters.

In the Europe which was created by the Second World War divided into two blocks each in need of a revolution that would end the abuses and injustices of capitalism and the privileges of a bureaucratic caste collective faith does not exist.

If education does not create a need for the best in life then we are stuck in an undemocratic rigid caste society.

And I now think that Stratocasters and Telecasters are way cool.

The herd instinct among forecasters makes sheep look like independent thinkers.

The world is a crazy beautiful ugly complicated place and it keeps moving on from crisis to strangeness to beauty to weirdness to tragedy. The caravan keeps moving on and the job of the longform writer or filmmaker or radio broadcaster is to stop - is to pause - and when the caravan goes away that's when this stuff comes.