With the raspy PLAIN SPEAKING HE MADE FAMOUS IN HIS OWN NEWSROOM AND THAT ALL THE PRESIDENT'S MEN BROUGHT TO LIFE ON THE SCREEN, Ben Bradlee took the Wilson Hall podium on James Madison Day to tell some painful truths about American society.

"Lying, it seems to me, has reached epidemic proportions today in our culture," Bradlee said. "And we all have become immunized to it."

Bradlee was the keynote speaker for JMU's annual March celebration, which this year focused on the freedom of the press clause of the First Amendment.

As Father of the Constitution and the primary author of its Bill of Rights, James Madison himself was a strong supporter of freedom of the press, said JMU President Linwood H. Rose at the campus wide convocation, which also included music, readings and recognitions.

"All U.S. presidents have lied," said Bradlee, who, as managing editor of The Washington Post, made his legendary reputation revealing them. His publication of the Pentagon Papers in 1971 and the relentless coverage of Watergate helped lead to the resignation of Richard Nixon in 1974.

But before Lyndon Johnson put forth a rosy public prognosis for a Vietnam War the administration privately thought was not winnable, "the lies seemed less momentous and less habitual to me," Bradlee said. If the truth had been told then, Bradlee asserted, "the country might never have lost faith in its leaders. That was the beginning of the big sea change in this country."

Then followed the Pentagon Papers and Watergate, the so-called third-rate burglary and cover-up that brought down the Nixon administration and sent 42 people to jail, including the attorney general of the United States. Subsequent presidents continued the tradition. "They were all great stories, historical turning points that had to be covered by the press," said Bradlee. "They all involved lying by the elected and self-appointed leaders of our society.

"If we cannot trust our presidents, who can we trust?" Bradlee asked. "If our leaders lie routinely, who should we follow? Or worse, why should we follow?"

As Woodward and Bernstein's boss and one of the trio who knows the identity of Deep Throat, Bradlee authorized the publication of more than 400 Watergate stories. In that endeavor, his newsroom was often alone and under fire. Often, as the press does its job, it "alienates those who don't want to believe the lie," Bradlee said.

"The best journalists today are the best lie detectors. Not just the relentless skeptics who sort of automatically disbelieve everything, but the reporters who instinctively are alert to the possibility that their sources don't know what they are talking about, who are leaving out vital details that would tend to discredit their stories or they are deliberately lying.

"Where lies the truth?" Bradlee posited. "That's the question that pulled some of us into this [newspaper] business, as it pulled Diogenes through the streets of Athens looking for an honest man."

Bradlee said he believes Walter Lippman's assertion that truth will emerge in a democracy. "It takes forever sometimes, at least it seems that way," Bradlee said. "It does emerge, and any relaxation by the press will be extremely costly to this democracy."

-- Pam Brock

Listen to Bradlee's speech: www.jmu.edu/jmuweb/audio_archives.shtml