If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be ‘gotcha’ journalism, but it’s also good journalism.
BEN BRADLEENothing’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.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
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Generals who can write always make me nervous.
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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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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.
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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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There will always be leaks; in Washington, everywhere.
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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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It changes your life, the pursuit of truth.
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Those [Watergate] tapes are going to take me to my grave with a huge smile on my face.
BEN BRADLEE -
Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.
BEN BRADLEE -
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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The first rough draft of history.
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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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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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The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.
BEN BRADLEE