"The meat-and-potatoes work of world journalism is performed by the wire service reporters"
About this Quote
The subtext is about invisibility and dependence. Most readers can’t name an AP or Reuters reporter, yet their sentences are the ones echoed verbatim through thousands of outlets, shaping what becomes “known” in a given news cycle. That anonymity can read as drudgery, but Greene flips it into a kind of professionalism: the work matters precisely because it’s repeatable, fast, and reliable. The phrase “performed” also does quiet work. It suggests a role, a discipline, a practiced craft under pressure - not a hobbyist’s hot take.
Contextually, this lands in an era when prestige often flows to punditry and personality, while budget cuts hollow out the reporting base. Wire services, built for speed and breadth, become a nervous system for the whole media body. Greene is reminding us that without those steady dispatches - incremental, unheroic, frequently dangerous - the high-minded talk about democracy and accountability has nothing to stand on.
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Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Greene, Bob. (2026, January 17). The meat-and-potatoes work of world journalism is performed by the wire service reporters. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-meat-and-potatoes-work-of-world-journalism-is-44339/
Chicago Style
Greene, Bob. "The meat-and-potatoes work of world journalism is performed by the wire service reporters." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-meat-and-potatoes-work-of-world-journalism-is-44339/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"The meat-and-potatoes work of world journalism is performed by the wire service reporters." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/the-meat-and-potatoes-work-of-world-journalism-is-44339/. Accessed 10 Feb. 2026.
