Bradlee on Murdoch: 'He Does Not Want to Fail'

Legendary newspaperman Ben Bradlee has nice things to say about Rupert Murdoch, but a rather pungent way of saying them.

Asked what he thinks about News Corp. taking over The Wall Street Journal, the editor who steered the Washington Post through Watergate says, "I don't worry about it. I think [Rupert] Murdoch is a better journalist than the rest of you do... [H]e's smart, and he's not going to fill it up with pussy stories. And he's going to get good reporters. I think he does not want to fail on this."

(Not everyone's as sanguine. Political reporter John Harwood is leaving the Journal to join The New York Times, though he says it's because Murdoch's launch of Fox Business complicates his relationship with CNBC.)

Bradlee offers plenty of other salty observations in this Q&A with Radar. A few choice excerpts:

On why the '60s media never reported on JFK's affairs:

[Bradlee's second wife] Toni Bradlee and I saw a lot of the Kennedys--we saw them almost all the time as a foursome. And fucking around doesn't come up a lot [with the wives present]. So I really didn't know much. But I remember having to leave the White House once at 9:30 after dinner. And I said, what the hell? He's not going to bed. I knew goddamn well he wasn't going to bed!

On the '08 presidential candidates:

Romney seems to me--he's not Joe McCarthy, he's not some real nothing. He's a serious person.

I don't think Hillary is a completely sympathetic person. But she is hard-working, she is monolithically devoted to policy--she's a wonk. I'm not terribly impressed with the people around her, though. Some of them I'm actively unimpressed with. You know, you can say about [Bill] Clinton, he had a hell of a good team.

On the difference between Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein:

Did you know who Bob Woodward was before Watergate started? Yeah, I did know who he was. He made the best impression on me of anyone who came up at that time for us to hire. And we didn't have a spot for him. So we really conned him into working for some goddamn weekly in Montgomery County. And we said come back in a year. And 365 days later, of course, just like Woodward, he showed up. And meanwhile, he'd been dropping stories out there on us. And he worked hard--he worked so hard. Jesus.

And what did you know Carl Bernstein as?
A faineant. A guy who does nothing.

But also a bit of a debrouillard [someone who can adapt to any situation].
Yes he was. And he was playing the guitar. Smoking a lot of dope. His talent as a writer was quite obvious. He was a good writer. You couldn't get him out of the office.

He had no other life?
He had no other life. Well, he liked to fuck, I think. But he didn't have much taste at first.