Sure, some journalists use anonymous sources just because they’re lazy, and I think editors ought to insist on more precise identification even if they remain anonymous.
BEN BRADLEEMore likely to mean the security or the personal happiness of the guy who is telling you something.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
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There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!
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The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.
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The Nixon administration really put a lot of pressure on CBS not to run the second broadcast.
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Those [Watergate] tapes are going to take me to my grave with a huge smile on my face.
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It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.
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You never monkey with the truth.
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To hell with news! I’m no longer interested in news. I’m interested in causes. We don’t print the truth. We don’t pretend to print the truth. We print what people tell us. It’s up to the public to decide what’s true.
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As long as a journalist tells the truth, in conscience and fairness, it is not his job to worry about consequences. The truth is never as dangerous as a lie in the long run. I truly believe the truth sets men free.
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More likely to mean the security or the personal happiness of the guy who is telling you something.
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Nothing’s riding on this, except the First Amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys f-k up again, I’m gonna get mad.
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Maybe some of today’s papers have too many ‘feel-good’ features, but there is a lot of good news out there.
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I think he had a strange, passionate devotion to the truth and a horror at what he saw going on.
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So, here you are, especially in the Pentagon. Some guy tells you something. He says that’s a national security matter. Well, you’re supposed to tremble and get scared and it never, almost never means the security of the national government.
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I do worry about how newspapers respond to falling circulation figures. I’m not sure that the answer is for newspapers to try to cater to whatever seems to be the fad of the day.
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Everybody who talks to a newspaper has a motive. That’s just a given. And good reporters always, repeat always, probe to find out what that motive is.
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