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 BRADLEEThe history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
-
-
There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!
BEN BRADLEE -
The first rough draft of history.
BEN BRADLEE -
More likely to mean the security or the personal happiness of the guy who is telling you something.
BEN BRADLEE -
National security is a really big problem for journalists, because no journalist worth his salt wants to endanger the national security, but the law talks about anyone who endangers the security of the United States is going to go to jail.
BEN BRADLEE -
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.
BEN BRADLEE -
The Nixon administration really put a lot of pressure on CBS not to run the second broadcast.
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.
BEN BRADLEE -
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.
BEN BRADLEE -
The history of American politics is littered with bodies of people who took so pure a position that they had no clout at all.
BEN BRADLEE -
There will always be leaks; in Washington, everywhere.
BEN BRADLEE -
Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.
BEN BRADLEE -
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.
BEN BRADLEE -
It changes your life, the pursuit of truth.
BEN BRADLEE -
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.
BEN BRADLEE -
As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
BEN BRADLEE