Top 60 Ari Melber Quotes

Like any good lawyer, I’m going to maintain a confidentiality of advice offered in confidence.

A precedent provides legal authority for an action precisely because it occurred before.

TV ads are great for broadcasting, but voter turnout is about narrow-casting. And not all messengers are created equal.

Companies like YouTube will continue to be tested on their commitment to the mission that made them such popular and profitable websites – providing an open platform to a wide range of ideas from around the world.

Republicans believe an obstructionist, do-nothing Congress will deny Obama momentum and keep their base energized.

The Dream Act and the DISCLOSE Act, to name two, had majorities in both chambers during Obama’s first term, but they were filibustered to death. They probably await a similar fate unless the filibuster is reformed.

If you believe in democracy, you accept, by definition, the existence and triumph of opposing ideas. The people who believe deeply in the Internet‘s force as a commons operate on that kind of premise.

Good lawyering is usually cerebral and impersonally. You can convince a judge with a mastery of facts, detail, and precedent – not a story from the gut about how you feel a certain way.

News may not be very profitable anymore, but it sure is popular.

Iowa has long been heralded as a bulwark against the money and media that dominate the modern presidential race. Its caucus requires voters in every precinct to actually gather in a room, at one time, and listen to neighbors pitch their chosen candidates, before they are allowed to vote.

Washington is deeply frustrating because so many of the positions that politicians hold are a product of ephemeral self-interest. They reverse themselves, for themselves, all the time.

Politics has certainly changed a lot in an era of micro-targeting, Super PACs, and Twitter.

When a government forcibly holds enough people indefinitely without trial, it evokes the kinds of raids, detention, and abuses of power associated with authoritarian states – or darker periods in American history.

It’s hard to be a national punch line unless lots of voters have soured on you.

‘House of Cards‘ is aiming for truth, not accuracy.

The modern GOP has perfected this cyclical deficit outrage ritual. Republicans run up the tab when they control the White House, then scream about deficits when Democrats win – insisting that ‘serious reform‘ means cutting only Democratic budget priorities.

While ‘Django Unchained’ presents a morally stark universe, where people do and say evil things with no remorse, it also luxuriates in the license that such evil provides.

That’s the problem with precedents. Even the extreme ones tend to get repeated.

I feel like I’m totally me, and I feel like the show reflects my intensity, my vibe, and my search for evidence and answers.

Navigating a battle between partisan, progressive organizing and decentralized petition drives is, at bottom, like trying to choose between the Democratic Party and democracy. The ideas are on different planes.

Honestly, anchoring the news on a nightly basis is the hardest job I’ve ever taken on.

It’s never a good sign when extremism becomes the norm.

Even George W. Bush, who as president pushed the boundaries of executive power, never proposed a statutory scheme to hold people indefinitely.

Large majorities of voters support taxing millionaires and protecting social security.

I remember buying The Fugees’ ‘The Score‘ my freshman year and feeling like this whole new world and this whole new conversation was opening up to me.

There’s a great deal of enthusiasm about quality, serious journalism. And some of it relates to personalities because it’s people who do the news. But I think it reflects a real desire for facts, real news and reporting.

When I get serious criticism – if I get serious criticism – it’s about how I’m thinking and engaging in a topic. I can’t think of an example of someone saying, ‘You’re too nice.’

If you would have said, in law school, would it be more likely that I would be working on a book or on a TV show, I would have said book.

The first rule of hip-hop is probably keep it real. And that can mean a lot of different things, but that’s certainly important in reporting and storytelling.

Corporations, like nations, do not have friends. They have interests.

Rick Ross has good beats, if some more questionable content.

My hope is to be a trusted utensil for viewers. Like, literally, ‘That thing works. I can rely on that thing.’

I think politics is always about dialogue. I think journalism ranges from dialogue to monologue, and there are times when different poles are necessary.

Obstruction takes time.

The first-in-the-nation Iowa caucus is crucial for every presidential campaign.

Of course, no one doubts McCain‘s personal tenacity, from braving torture to overcoming cancer. Yet plenty of nonpartisan observers doubt his credibility.

Obama’s openness is a welcome change from his predecessor, who went all the way to the Supreme Court to hide the RSVP list for a single policy meeting. And transparency is intrinsically good, since in a democracy, very little government activity is legitimately secret.

Confronting Republicans can definitely mobilize a disaffected Democratic base.

The president’s powers are always open to being questioned by the co-equal branches of government.

I was more interested in journalism and fact-finding than other things, so I didn’t plan to work 30 years as a lawyer.

Many candidates use a political autobiography to sell their candidacy.

I would love to get Chief Justice John Roberts for an interview. I think that would be fascinating, I think that Supreme Court nominees should do more interviews.

One of the great things about ‘The Cycle‘ is that we have a wide set of topics – news, culture, music, and sports – and every week, we have several authors of new books on, which often injects literature, history, technology, business, and science into our show as well.

In politics, your opponent can be far more important than your vision.

I started freelancing, writing op-eds and book reviews, one at a time. I then got the opportunity to write recurring freelance pieces for ‘The Nation’ magazine, focusing on how the Internet was changing politics.

Historically, the most favorably viewed figure in any administration is the first lady, regardless of her husband‘s popularity. That is largely because first ladies avoid the political fray and are ritualistically presented as a warm, human presence in the White House.

The ‘FISA Amendments Act’ would gut the oversight system established by the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978, which subjected domestic spying to review by a special intelligence court.

I don’t look at ratings when they come out in the afternoon before the show because I’m focused on that day‘s show, but I do see the overall numbers.

Iowa is especially critical for underdog and cash-strapped campaigns, because the caucus system relies on grassroots organizing, enabling candidates with time for retail politicking to beat better-funded rivals. So underdogs usually seize on the state.

Barack Obama was first elected after a period of profound failure by elite and government institutions, from finance to foreign policy to Hurricane Katrina, and his first term immediately and unapologetically enacted a flurry of government solutions.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid likes to reminisce about being an amateur boxer. But his Senate tenure has often looked like an endless rope-a-dope.

Progressive bloggers should not only write on behalf of the members of America’s underclass but also empower them to join the discussion.

Democracy functions better when donors push politicians to win campaigns based on their defining issues instead of using financial pressure for policy changes, favors, or special access.

I’ve worked in government. I’ve worked in competitive New York litigation, I’ve worked as a writer and reporte..

There’s a lot of hip-hop that’s oriented toward a progressive view of America because it’s oriented toward a civil rights progress and a critique of the power structure.

It always rankled me – in law school and the legal profession – when lawyers would speak to each other in their own exclusive language.

I think the challenge for anyone in a visible industry, whether it’s media, government, or political organizing, is to take serious criticism seriously and not to live in the shadows of the noise and the concern trolls.

Anyone with a cursory knowledge of American history knows that unchecked spying undermines democracy and public trust.

Why do Tea Party backers oppose abortion at higher rates than their traditional GOP cohort? Religion.

TV is still a ‘push’ medium – we are broadcasting into any home or business with basic cable, and depending on what’s happening in the world, we have a wider audience, from news junkies to very sporadic viewers. On TV, you want your reporting to be valuable to that entire audience and be relevant.