I never believed that Nixon could fully resurrect himself. And the proof of that was in the obits.
BEN BRADLEEThere will always be leaks; in Washington, everywhere.
More Ben Bradlee Quotes
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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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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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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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Our best today; better tomorrow.
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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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As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
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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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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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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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I don’t want to disappoint too many people, but the number of interesting political, historical conversations we had, you could stick in your ear, it wasn’t that many. We talked about friends, family and of course girls.
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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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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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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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The first rough draft of history.
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It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.
BEN BRADLEE