Ben Bradlee Quotes & Sayings

“I think he had a strange, passionate devotion to the truth and a horror at what he saw going on.”

“You never monkey with the truth.”

“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.”

“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.”

“If an investigative reporter finds out that someone has been robbing the store, that may be 'gotcha' journalism, but it's also good journalism.”

“We made only one real mistake. And even then we were right.”

“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.”

“I must be out of it, but I don't know any good journalists who have excused Clinton's problems.”

“The champagne was flowing like the Potomac in flood.”

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