The Post (2017)

Bob Odenkirk: Ben Bagdikian

Photos 

Quotes 

• Ben Bagdikian : I always wanted to be part of a small rebellion.

• Ben Bagdikian : They're going to lock you up, Dan.

  Daniel Ellsberg : Wouldn't you go to prison to stop this war?

  Ben Bagdikian : Theoretically, sure.

  Daniel Ellsberg : You are gonna publish these documents?

  Ben Bagdikian : Yeah.

  Daniel Ellsberg : Even with the injunction.

  Ben Bagdikian : Yes.

  Daniel Ellsberg : Well, then. It's not so theoretical then, is it?

• Roger Clark : What if we wait? What if we hold off on printing today. Instead we call the Attorney General and we tell them that we intend to print on Sunday. That way we give them and us time to figure out the legality of all of it, while the Court in New York decides the Times case.

  Ben Bradlee : Are you suggesting we alert the Attorney General to the fact that we have these documents, that we're going to print, in a few days?

  Roger Clark : Well, yes, that is the idea.

  Ben Bagdikian : Yeah, well, outside of landing the Hindenburg in a lightning storm, that's about the shittiest idea I've ever heard.

  Fritz Beebe : Oh boy!

• Daniel Ellsberg : But it didn't take him long to figure out, well, for us to figure out if the public ever saw these papers they would turn against the war. Covert ops, guaranteed debt, rigged elections? It's all in there. Ike, Kennedy, Johnson... they violated the Geneva Convention. They lied to Congress and they lied to the public. They knew we couldn't win and still sent boys to die.

  Ben Bagdikian : What about Nixon?

  Daniel Ellsberg : He's just carrying on like all the others, too afraid to be the one who loses the war on his watch.

• Eastern Air Stewardess : Must be precious cargo.

  Ben Bagdikian : Yeah. Just government secrets.

  Eastern Air Stewardess : [laughs]  Please fasten your seatbelt.

• Ben Bagdikian : There's a fella I overlapped with at RAND. He was a bit of a showboat; but, smart. And he worked for McNamara and he had opinions on the decision-making that went into Vietnam.

  Ben Bradlee : Okay.

  Ben Bagdikian : The word is, he doved. Pretty hard.

  Ben Bradlee : Would he have access to the study?

  Ben Bagdikian : I'm sure RAND had a copy.

• Ben Bagdikian : They're going to come after you, you know. I got to be honest, the bread crumbs weren't too hard to follow.

  Daniel Ellsberg : I know.

• Roger Clark : If you got the study from the same source, that would amount to collusion.

  Ben Bagdikian : Yeah, we could all be executed at dawn.

  Roger Clark : And we could be held in contempt of court - which means Mr. Bradlee and Mrs. Graham could go to jail. Mr. Bagdikian, how likely is it that your source and the Times source are the same person?