Question: What inspires you?
Robert Menendez: I’m inspired by a couple of things. I’m inspired by people I see – whether it’s in my home state of New Jersey and people I’ve met across the country – who do remarkable things against overwhelming odds . . . ordinary people who are called upon to do extraordinary things. And if they can do that considering maybe their station in life and the challenges they face, and yet they do extraordinary things for people who are . . . who might be considered ordinary people, then from my privileged position of being a United States Senator, I have every obligation in the world to do that and much more. So I’m inspired by the stories of people I meet at home and across the country. And I’m inspired by people I meet across the world as a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and the great challenges they face in the own countries in promoting democracy and promoting human rights. And I’m also inspired by the fact that . . . My view is that one is obligated to . . . It’s a personal philosophy. One is obligated to make this world better than how they inherited it. And so that’s what drives me every day – the inspiration that I take from people, and the view that I have as a personal philosophy as to why I seek to be a United States Senator in the first place.
Discuss
Meredith W on March 13, 2008, 5:28 PM
I wish more journalists understood that their job is to sort out good information from bad rather than just presenting it all. Of course, in the sorting, there are judgment calls to be made about what's good and what's bad, and that process should include some rules that can be communicated to news consumers. I'm not sure if there was a point in time when citizens could ever trust journalistic standards and integrity, but we know that, right now, we can't really. Like we do in government, we need more transparency in the news. I think it's coming but very slowly and reticently.
Meredith W on March 13, 2008, 9:28 PM
I wish more journalists understood that their job is to sort out good information from bad rather than just presenting it all. Of course, in the sorting, there are judgment calls to be made about what’s good and what’s bad, and that process should include some rules that can be communicated to news consumers. I’m not sure if there was a point in time when citizens could ever trust journalistic standards and integrity, but we know that, right now, we can’t really. Like we do in government, we need more transparency in the news. I think it’s coming but very slowly and reticently.
Richard Sambrook on April 4, 2008, 10:56 AM
For me the key thing is "objectivity" meaning based on fact or evidence, as opposed to impartia lity, an absence of bias. If journalism is evidence led, with the information supporting a journalists view laid out for the public to agree or disagree with its fine. An opinion in the absence of any supporting material is – for me – worthless.
Richard Sambrook on April 4, 2008, 2:56 PM
For me the key thing is “objectivity” meaning based on fact or evidence, as opposed to impartia lity, an absence of bias. If journalism is evidence led, with the information supporting a journalists view laid out for the public to agree or disagree with its fine. An opinion in the absence of any supporting material is – for me – worthless.
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