Many people have their reputations as reporters and analysts because they are on television, batting around conventional wisdom. A lot of these people have never reported a story.

Woodward contrasts two kinds of media authority: credibility earned through original reporting versus visibility gained through punditry. He criticizes a television ecosystem that rewards quick takes and the recycling of “conventional wisdom,” allowing commentators to acquire the aura of investigative journalists without doing the labor of gathering facts, cultivating sources, and verifying claims. Implicitly, the quote defends reporting as a craft—grounded in evidence and accountability—while warning that analysis detached from firsthand work can harden into received narratives. Coming from a Watergate-era investigative reporter, it also reflects a professional ethic: journalism’s public value depends on reporting that discovers information, not merely opinion that amplifies it.