Jim VandeHei: Why clear-eyed journalism matters

What they're saying: "I love this country," Jim added. "I'm a beneficiary of this country. Some dipsh*t from Wisconsin can come and start two companies, be up here, win an award."

• "There's something about freedom, capitalism, the animal spirits of democracy," VandeHei said, echoing themes from his book on life and leadership, "Just the Good Stuff."
• "But at the core of that is maybe transparency, maybe a free press, maybe the ability to do your job without worrying about going to jail, maybe the ability to sit in a war zone and tell people what's actually happening ... The work that we do matters."

The bottom line: VandeHei said being a great reporter "is really, really hard."

• "You have to get up every single day and say: I want to get to the closest approximation of the truth — without any fear, without any favoritism," he said. "You don't do that by popping off on Twitter. You don't do that by having an opinion. You do it by doing the hard work."

Go deeper: Watch a 1-min. clip ... Full speeches by Jim & Mike (beginning 2:19) ... Jim's memo on how to be a great reporter.