JIM LEHRER: Ben Bradlee is one of America's most famous newspaper editors and he believes the practice of journalism is more than a job.

BEN BRADLEE: I don't mean to sound arrogant, but we're in a holy profession.

JIM LEHRER: A holy profession?

BEN BRADLEE: Yeah and the pursuit of truth is a holy pursuit.

JIM LEHRER: Bradlee of the Post, as he calls himself, the Washington Post. There for 30 years, he confronted and lived through many a memorable journalistic moment, some very high, some not so high. From all, he has stories to tell and lessons to share.

JIM LEHRER: I'm Jim Lehrer. Ben Bradlee and I are personal friends. We've talked often about our mutual line of work, the difficult nooks and crannies of being a journalist as well as the sweeping issues and the glories. For this hour, we did our talking on camera, at his home in Washington, D. C.. Ben, most evidence, anecdotal, surveys, whatever, journalists and journalism are not held in very high esteem right now. What's happened; what's going on?

BEN BRADLEE: I wonder how much that that's changed. I can't remember--we had a brief, little period, it seems to me, after Watergate where we edged up to about 50 percent in the, in the respect area, right along with the congressmen and the lawyers. So, we've never been very high.

JIM LEHRER: Why not? What is the--

BEN BRADLEE: Because we're bearers of bad news, I think as much as anything else. My old editor used to say, Bradlee, there's 400 planes land safely everyday at National Airport and you don't cover one of them. But one of them missed--

JIM LEHRER: You got it?

BEN BRADLEE: --you got it.

JIM LEHRER: Well, do you think that most Americans understand what our, what our job is? What is it that we do that they should understand?

BEN BRADLEE: We're trying to tell you everyday what really went on in the last 24 hours, that's all, not what they said happened and not what you think should happen, but what did happen. Readers should expect a honest, straightforward account of what the hell went on yesterday, what's important. What is important.

JIM LEHRER: When they use the word true, hey, hey, I want to know the truth, we're not in the truth business, are we?

BEN BRADLEE: Well, we want to come real close. We're not in any other kind of business. I mean, we're, we're trying to get it right, I mean, and people accept that now.

The Use of Anonymous Sources
JIM LEHRER: Seeking the truth often involves the use of anonymous sources. The most famous example was at the heart of the Watergate scandal, Ben Bradlee's most famous moment in the public sun. As Executive Editor of the Post, he was the ultimate supervisor of reporters, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein.

Their stories were first about a 1972 political burglary at Democratic Party headquarters, at the Watergate Office Building, in Washington, D.C. Then the wiretapping and coverup at the highest levels of the presidency, the end result was the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Woodward, Bernstein and Bradlee became household names after the movie "All the President's Men." Dustin Hoffman played Bernstein. Robert Redford portrayed Woodward and Jason Robards won an Oscar for playing Ben Bradlee.

JASON ROBARDS (Playing Ben Bradlee): You guys are about to run a story that says the former attorney general, the highest ranking law enforcement officer in this country is a crook. Just be sure you are right.

JIM LEHRER: Along the way, the reporters were aided by 'Deep Throat,' a well placed source who insisted on complete anonymity. He helped point the reporters in the right direction.

HAL HOLBROOKE (Portraying 'Deep Throat'): Where are you?

ROBERT REDFORD (Portraying Bob Woodward): The story is dry.

HAL HOLBROOKE (Portraying 'Deep Throat'): Tell me what you know and I will confirm. I will keep you in the right direction if I can, but that is all. Just follow the money.

JIM LEHRER: Much of the credit or blame, depending on how you want to see this, for the proliferation of the use of anonymous sources is laid right at your feet yours and the Washington Post and Woodward and Bernstein as a result of 'Deep Throat' and Watergate.

BEN BRADLEE: Yeah.

JIM LEHRER: Guilty as charged?

BEN BRADLEE: Often, yeah. But I mean, take Watergate, not that I want to dwell on--

JIM LEHRER: Yeah.

BEN BRADLEE: --it at all. But if you are, if you have a high official telling you that there is monkey business going on at the highest level, you've got to listen to him and as you listen, to try to find out what it is and how you can get a piece of it, You've got to play by their rules, to begin with.

JIM LEHRER: But the rules that the source sets?

BEN BRADLEE: Yeah. Now, you don't have to--that's just to get him to talk.

JIM LEHRER: Yeah, yeah.

BEN BRADLEE: Now, once he talks, if, if--you know, I tell, I used to tell young reporters if a guy says it's off the record and you've admitted that you'll accept it that way, I bet you that 80 percent of the time, if you ask him why the hell can't I put that on the record, it doesn't-- he'll say, okay, go ahead and run it. So, it's sort of an instinctive, instinctive demand put up by news sources just to say, well, I don't want to say this publicly.

I don't want to say this on the record. But I think it's been abused by the press. No question it's been abused about as often as the press gets abused by the source. And don't think it's--that's unfairly--

JIM LEHRER: Explain that relationship.

BEN BRADLEE: Well, I mean, the, the--people don't talk to reporters because they love them. They talk to them because they want to talk to them. And you can't make a guy talk. I mean, without the power of subpoena and a grand jury, you can't make them talk.

So, when they talk to you, they want to talk to you. They're trying to get over their message. You understand that and you know what they're trying to do if you're a good reporter. And a good reporter must know that. Why the hell is he talking to me?

JIM LEHRER: Explain from your perspective why it's so important for a reporter, once he or she says to a source, this is--I will protect you; I will protect your identity, why it's so important to keep it.

BEN BRADLEE: Because if it gets out that you can--did not keep your word, there's a perfectly good reason for someone never to talk to you again. The principle is that, if you give your word, you keep it. And that may not seem much to a reader right now, but it's, it's, it's the, it's the framework for your reputation.

JIM LEHRER: And that trumps all other interests?

BEN BRADLEE: No, no, if you, if you gave your word to somebody and you then see that guy commit a murder, I don't think you got any obligation or any desire to keep it quiet. If you give your word to someone that you will not talk, you won't talk, unless there is an overpowering, legal question involved that would be against the best interests of the people.

JIM LEHRER: You're saying that the reporter and his or her editors or producers or whatever they are should make that decision, not the courts, not the law enforcement people?

BEN BRADLEE: After real close examination and scrutiny, yes. I mean, the reporters and editors are in business to tell the truth. They're not in the, in the business of giving people free passage.

JIM LEHRER: But do you agree that, that the success of the use of anonymous source, in the case of 'Deep Throat' and Watergate, kind of glamorized this to a point that [unintelligible] causes all of these people now that--

BEN BRADLEE: Well, I can't help them, but that was an interesting time. And as, as a matter of fact, in Watergate, the amount of specific information that 'Deep Throat' gave to Woodward and Bernstein, specific information--on Thursday, at 4:30, so-and-so said so-and-so, you can put in your hat.

I mean, there isn't very much of it. But what was so vital in, in that case was to have your reporter be told, don't waste your time on that. That's not going to get you anywhere, but look at this.