It’s very hard to stand up to the government which is saying that publication will threaten national security. People don’t seem to realize that reporters and editors know something about national security and care deeply about it.
BEN BRADLEESure, 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.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
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In the perfect world every source could be identified, but like the man said, “It’s not a perfect world.”
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I never believed that Nixon could fully resurrect himself. And the proof of that was in the obits.
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The biggest difference between Kennedy and Nixon, as far as the press is concerned, is simply this: Jack Kennedy really liked newspaper people and he really enjoyed sparring with journalists.
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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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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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It changes your life, the pursuit of truth.
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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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More likely to mean the security or the personal happiness of the guy who is telling you something.
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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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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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As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
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The Nixon administration really put a lot of pressure on CBS not to run the second broadcast.
BEN BRADLEE