The New York Times
All The News That's Fit to Print
"The frame of mind of people at my level of a newspaper is ‘is it a hot story and do we get it out?’ … The first instinct and the last instinct is to get it out because you cannot predict the consequences of publishing. … What are the consequences of not publishing? What happens when [others] find out that you had this story and you didn’t dare to publish it because you were scared of the institutional ramifications. That was the way this thing was finally framed inside the paper.”
-Max Frankel, Chief Washington Correspondent, The New York Times
Times reporter Neil Sheehan received top secret documents from a "source" which showed that the Vietnam War was built on lies. Editors and newsmen were anxious to publish a hot story. They felt it was their responsibility to inform the people. However, the paper's business people were cautious. Their staff attorney, thirty-seven year old James Goodale, concluded that First Amendment rights allowed publication. The Times publisher, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, asked for a second opinion. He consulted his long-time law firm. Its lawyer, Herbert Brownell Jr., the former United States Attorney General, stated that the documents could not be published. A struggle went on for months until Sheehan, Goodale and the newsroom prevailed.
"I realized the easiest way to deal with troublesome articles was merely to say they couldn't be published. Don't publish the Pentagon Papers, and everyone sleeps well at night. However, to me this seemed an inexcusable way to carry out my job My natural inclination was to publish. This won me a large following in the newsroom with reporters and editors. " James Goodale, chief counsel, The New York Times |