Claud Cockburn Quotes

United Kingdom, Journalist
April 12, 1904 – December, 15, 1981.

Francis Claud Cockburn (/ˈkoʊbərn/ KOH-bərn; 12 April 1904 – 15 December 1981) was a British journalist. His saying "believe nothing until it has been officially denied" is widely quoted in journalistic studies, although he did not claim credit for originating it.[4] He was the second cousin, once removed, of novelists Alec Waugh and Evelyn Waugh. He lived at Brook Lodge, Youghal, County Cork, Ireland.

If I wrote a book about England I should call it What About Wednesday Week? which is what English people say when they are making what they believe to be an urgent appointment.

Claud Cockburn
- People
- Believe
- Book
There is nothing quite so terrifying as a mad sheep.

Claud Cockburn
- Mad

Since becoming a journalist I had often heard the advice to 'believe nothing until it has been officially denied'.

Claud Cockburn
- Believe
- Advice
He Brendan Bracken had been upset by my observation that a wartime Minister of Information was compelled, in the national interest, to such continuous acts of duplicity that even his natural hair must grow to resemble a wig.

Claud Cockburn
- Hair
A devout and serious Christian, she was often bothered by what she read of socialists because she could not, instantly and absolutely, see where they were so wrong. To her horrified ear, they kept sounding as though they had ideas rather like Christ's.

Claud Cockburn
- She
- Christian
- Serious
A newspaper is always a weapon in somebody's hands.

Claud Cockburn
The hired journalist, I thought, ought to realize that he is partly in the entertainment business and partly in the advertising business – advertising either goods, or a cause, or a government. He just has to make up his mind whom he wants to entertain, and what he wants to advertise.

Claud Cockburn
- Up
- Mind
- Business