37+ Ben Bradlee Quotes On Education, Good And Kennedy

Ben Bradlee was an American editor who served as the executive editor of The Washington Post from 1968 to 1991. He was known for his role in overseeing the paper's coverage of the Watergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Bradlee was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in November 2013. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Ben Bradlee on education, leadership, love.

Top 10 Ben Bradlee Quotes

1. 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.
2. It is my experience that most claims of national security are part of a campaign to avoid telling the truth.
3. You never monkey with the truth.
4. The Nixon administration really put a lot of pressure on CBS not to run the second broadcast.
5. Hire people smarter than you are and encourage them to bloom.
6. 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.
7. The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.
8. Our best today; better tomorrow.
9. I think he had a strange, passionate devotion to the truth and a horror at what he saw going on.
10. In the perfect world every source could be identified, but like the man said, "It's not a perfect world."

Ben Bradlee Short Quotes

• Those [Watergate] tapes are going to take me to my grave with a huge smile on my face.
• They cut about seven minutes from that broadcast, but it was still vital to the story's momentum.
• As a child, one looks for compliments. As an adult, one looks for evidence of effectiveness.
• We made only one real mistake. And even then we were right.
• We were right about the slush fund. But Sloan did not testify about it to the Grand Jury.
• There is nothing like daily journalism! Best damn job in the world!
• It took us about a day and a half to find out what had gone wrong.
• I give Cronkite a whole lot of credit.
• I must be out of it, but I don't know any good journalists who have excused Clinton's problems.
• There will always be leaks; in Washington, everywhere.

Ben Bradlee Quotes About Truth

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

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

It changes your life, the pursuit of truth. — 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

Ben Bradlee Famous Quotes And Sayings

Nothing'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 Bradlee

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. — Ben Bradlee

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. — 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

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 Bradlee

Generals who can write always make me nervous. — Ben Bradlee

I never believed that Nixon could fully resurrect himself. And the proof of that was in the obits. — Ben Bradlee

The really tough thing would have been to decide to take Woodward and Bernstein off the story. They were carrying the coal for us - in that their stories were right. — Ben Bradlee

There have been as many investigative reporters on this newspaper working on Clinton's many problems as I can remember there were working on Watergate. — Ben Bradlee

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 Bradlee

Maybe some of today's papers have too many 'feel-good' features, but there is a lot of good news out there. — 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

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 Bradlee

Life Lessons by Ben Bradlee

1. Ben Bradlee's work demonstrates the importance of standing up for truth and integrity in journalism, even in the face of adversity.
2. His commitment to investigative journalism and his willingness to challenge authority in pursuit of the truth serve as an example of how the press should operate.
3. His legacy is a reminder of the power of the press to hold those in power accountable and to inform the public of the truth.