Would You Sell Out D-Day . . . for a Pulitzer?

Would you sell out the American soldier for a Pulitzer Prize? No? Ben Bradlee would.

My friend Gary Bauer tells this story:

A number of years ago at the National Press Club I had the opportunity to ask Ben Bradlee, then executive editor of The Washington Post, what he would have done if he found out ahead of time about the D-Day invasion to liberate Europe.

Would the Post have printed the story?

Bradlee’s answer took a while, but the bottom line was . . .

“yes.”

I think this story is important for what it tells us about American media culture. Ben Bradlee is the godfather. And he set the bar for the Linda Foley’s — and the Newsweek editors — who have followed him.

Update: Tim Schmoyer’s Sysiphean Musings has a must read at Patriotic Journalism. He writes, “Let’s face it, calling a journalist patriotic is an insult, a casting out term among the tribe, in the same vein as “true believer”. See more on the “tribe” — his excellent word — at “And the Left Wonders Why the Country Thinks They Are Anti-Military?

Thanks to Greyhawk for Open Post at Mudville Gazette. . .

Learn what the commo officer said on a Pont du Hoc progress report at Daisy Cutter

Eric’s Grumbles Before the Grave honors the Greatest Generation without politics

other links to:

TMH Bacon Bits

RightWingNutHouse

Update: Jackson’s Junction has more choice words on journalists.

Update: Media Slander has letter to The Newspaper Guild