You never monkey with the truth.
BEN BRADLEEThe first rough draft of history.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
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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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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.
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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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It changes your life, the pursuit of truth.
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Our best today; better tomorrow.
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The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.
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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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If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be ‘gotcha’ journalism, but it’s also good journalism.
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It changes your life, the pursuit of truth, if you know that you have tried to find the truth and gone past the first apparent truth towards the real truth. It’s very, it’s very exciting.
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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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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 a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
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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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There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!
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Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.
BEN BRADLEE