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 BRADLEEIt’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 BRADLEEThe first rough draft of history.
BEN BRADLEEIt changes your life, the pursuit of truth.
BEN BRADLEEThe 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.
BEN BRADLEEOur best today; better tomorrow.
BEN BRADLEEThere is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!
BEN BRADLEEThose [Watergate] tapes are going to take me to my grave with a huge smile on my face.
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.
BEN BRADLEEI never believed that Nixon could fully resurrect himself. And the proof of that was in the obits.
BEN BRADLEEIf an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be ‘gotcha’ journalism, but it’s also good journalism.
BEN BRADLEESo, 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 BRADLEEI 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.
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.
BEN BRADLEEI think he had a strange, passionate devotion to the truth and a horror at what he saw going on.
BEN BRADLEEIt is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.
BEN BRADLEEIt 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