"Some in journalism consider themselves apart from and to some extent above the people they purport to serve"
About this Quote
The subtext is about class and culture as much as craft. “Apart from” suggests separation: geographic (coastal media vs. heartland audiences), educational (elite institutions), social (professional-managerial norms). “Above” escalates from distance to hierarchy. That shift matters because it reframes media mistrust not as mere partisan anger but as resentment toward perceived condescension. Hume is diagnosing a tone problem: the whiff of disdain that can creep into coverage choices, story framing, even the default assumption that the public must be instructed rather than listened to.
Contextually, Hume’s career sits inside the long argument over whether mainstream journalism is an umpire or a participant. In an era of collapsing trust, cable-news tribalism, and social media’s constant feedback loop, the quote functions as a warning: when journalists project superiority, they invite audiences to stop treating them as informants and start treating them as adversaries. It’s less about banning expertise than about refusing the posture of moral exemption that makes expertise intolerable.
Quote Details
| Topic | Ethics & Morality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite | Cite this Quote |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Hume, Brit. (n.d.). Some in journalism consider themselves apart from and to some extent above the people they purport to serve. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/some-in-journalism-consider-themselves-apart-from-45424/
Chicago Style
Hume, Brit. "Some in journalism consider themselves apart from and to some extent above the people they purport to serve." FixQuotes. Accessed February 3, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/some-in-journalism-consider-themselves-apart-from-45424/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"Some in journalism consider themselves apart from and to some extent above the people they purport to serve." FixQuotes, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/some-in-journalism-consider-themselves-apart-from-45424/. Accessed 3 Feb. 2026.
