Ben Bradlee
Ben Bradlee
Benjamin Crowninshield "Ben" Bradleewas executive editor of The Washington Post from 1968 to 1991. He became a national figure during the presidency of Richard Nixon, when he challenged the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon Papers and oversaw the publication of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's stories documenting the Watergate scandal. At his death he held the title of vice president at-large of the Post...
NationalityAmerican
ProfessionJournalist
Date of Birth26 August 1921
CityBoston, MA
CountryUnited States of America
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.
Generals who can write always make me nervous.
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.
In the perfect world every source could be identified, but like the man said, "It's not a perfect world."
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.
It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.
Those [Watergate] tapes are going to take me to my grave with a huge smile on my face..
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.
As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be 'gotcha' journalism, but it's also good journalism.
The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.
I never believed that Nixon could fully resurrect himself. And the proof of that was in the obits.
Sometimes I am convinced there is nothing wrong with this country that couldn't be cured by the magical implantation of ethical standards on us all - leaders and followers. Until that becomes doable, the Center for Public Integrity is just about the best thing we have going for us.
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.