30-10-2014, 06:36 AM
A Sacramento radio station interviewed me about Bradlee this week.
I said that Bradlee was anything but a crusader. He was actually involved in three huge cover ups in his career.
The first was the fact he did not at all investigate the true circumstances of JFK's death.
The second was, he deliberately covered up who his alleged friend, JFK, really was.
Third, he fostered one of the cleverest, most successful camouflages of a political crime ever, that is, what we have come to know as Watergate.
Concerning the first, I have a hard time believing he never thought there were any questions about Kennedy's assassination. In fact, that is too kind. See, Bradlee was there as editor for the HSCA hearings. Tony Summers called him up and told him about the whole Veciana/Bishop story. Bradlee put a young British intern, David Leigh on the story with specific instructions to knock it down. Leigh came back and said he could not do so, it looked genuine. So Bradlee spiked it. What Leigh and Summers did not know is that David Phillips called Bradlee right after Summers did and told his pal to do what he could to negate the story. Good ole Ben did a favor for good ole Dave.
Later, in his book, Conversations with Kennedy, Bradlee did everything he could possibly do to camouflage who JFK actually was and what his relationship with him was. In that book, Bradlee tries to insinuate that somehow he is awed by the wealth and stature of the Kennedy clan, he talks about how Kennedy changed his shirts twice a day, while he could never do such a thing.
What absolute BS. Bradlee actually came from a family that was higher in social stature and just as wealthy as the Kennedys. He went to very expensive private schools where the classes were things like Horseback Riding and French Literature. The truth is Bradlee was Boston Brahmin all the way, which JFK was not at all, since he was nouveau riche and Irish Catholic. Further, Bradlee betrays his true agenda in the book when he writes that Kennedy's forte was not foreign policy. Which is nothing but a boldfaced lie. Kennedy was the most visionary and progressive president in foreign policy since Roosevelt. When Teddy Kennedy made it known he did not like the book, Bradlee said, well tough luck. It was some easy work for 400K.
But probably the worst aspect of his career was the image of a crusading liberal that he somehow got during the Watergate Scandal. What Bradlee did there was to help provide a cover story, similar to what the Warren Commission did for the JFK case. But really it was even worse. Because his cover story gave the illusion that he system really worked because two journalists under him worked their tails off, and he helped guide them through a morass so that the truth could finally be told. Then, that unsuspecting sucker, Bob Redford, made it all the worse by doing a movie about this fairy tale.
Bradlee's cover story was so clever, so ingenious, that unlike with the WC, which took about three years for anyone to really unmask,it took ten years for anyone to really look under the cover story with Watergate. That is until Jim Hougan's brilliant and revolutionary Secret Agenda was published. In that book, Hougan not only shows the true nature of the crime, and the key to it--McCord retaping the door--but he also showed that Woodward lied about his whole association with Deep Throat.
Ben Bradlee had three opportunities to do the right thing as a journalist and editor. Unlike Gary Webb, he passed them all up. That benefited him. It hurt the country and the rest of us. Considering what happened to Gary, he may have made the right choice after all.
I said that Bradlee was anything but a crusader. He was actually involved in three huge cover ups in his career.
The first was the fact he did not at all investigate the true circumstances of JFK's death.
The second was, he deliberately covered up who his alleged friend, JFK, really was.
Third, he fostered one of the cleverest, most successful camouflages of a political crime ever, that is, what we have come to know as Watergate.
Concerning the first, I have a hard time believing he never thought there were any questions about Kennedy's assassination. In fact, that is too kind. See, Bradlee was there as editor for the HSCA hearings. Tony Summers called him up and told him about the whole Veciana/Bishop story. Bradlee put a young British intern, David Leigh on the story with specific instructions to knock it down. Leigh came back and said he could not do so, it looked genuine. So Bradlee spiked it. What Leigh and Summers did not know is that David Phillips called Bradlee right after Summers did and told his pal to do what he could to negate the story. Good ole Ben did a favor for good ole Dave.
Later, in his book, Conversations with Kennedy, Bradlee did everything he could possibly do to camouflage who JFK actually was and what his relationship with him was. In that book, Bradlee tries to insinuate that somehow he is awed by the wealth and stature of the Kennedy clan, he talks about how Kennedy changed his shirts twice a day, while he could never do such a thing.
What absolute BS. Bradlee actually came from a family that was higher in social stature and just as wealthy as the Kennedys. He went to very expensive private schools where the classes were things like Horseback Riding and French Literature. The truth is Bradlee was Boston Brahmin all the way, which JFK was not at all, since he was nouveau riche and Irish Catholic. Further, Bradlee betrays his true agenda in the book when he writes that Kennedy's forte was not foreign policy. Which is nothing but a boldfaced lie. Kennedy was the most visionary and progressive president in foreign policy since Roosevelt. When Teddy Kennedy made it known he did not like the book, Bradlee said, well tough luck. It was some easy work for 400K.
But probably the worst aspect of his career was the image of a crusading liberal that he somehow got during the Watergate Scandal. What Bradlee did there was to help provide a cover story, similar to what the Warren Commission did for the JFK case. But really it was even worse. Because his cover story gave the illusion that he system really worked because two journalists under him worked their tails off, and he helped guide them through a morass so that the truth could finally be told. Then, that unsuspecting sucker, Bob Redford, made it all the worse by doing a movie about this fairy tale.
Bradlee's cover story was so clever, so ingenious, that unlike with the WC, which took about three years for anyone to really unmask,it took ten years for anyone to really look under the cover story with Watergate. That is until Jim Hougan's brilliant and revolutionary Secret Agenda was published. In that book, Hougan not only shows the true nature of the crime, and the key to it--McCord retaping the door--but he also showed that Woodward lied about his whole association with Deep Throat.
Ben Bradlee had three opportunities to do the right thing as a journalist and editor. Unlike Gary Webb, he passed them all up. That benefited him. It hurt the country and the rest of us. Considering what happened to Gary, he may have made the right choice after all.