A contrast of life and drama

Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee and Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the top-secret study on the Vietnam War, urged newspapers to keep acting as muckrakers at a discussion panel last night.

The panel, which took place at Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center, marked the first time the two had met. The panel took place before a play that dramatizes the debates behind publishing the Pentagon Papers premiered on the same stage.

"Newspapers... should ask why did we miss this," Ellsberg said, referring to the Papers. "I think that lesson is needed every year, it's needed right now."

The discussion drew an audience of 253, mostly made up of people who lived through Bradlee's and Ellsberg's heyday, with only a smattering of students.

Ellsberg was a high-ranking military analyst who leaked a copy of a 7,000-page review about the failures of the Vietnam war to the The New York Times and later to The Washington Post, risking felony charges on grounds of national security.

The discussion turned to present-day issues when an audience member commented on the lack of U.S. newspaper coverage on whistleblower Sibel Edmonds and her claim that the country has sold illicit weapons to Turkey. Bradlee suggested that newspapers have been asked to hold that information.

"You've got to have a hell of a good reason not to publish the truth," Bradlee said. Bradlee painted a picture of his editors and reporters who busily weeded through thousands of pages of the leaked documents in his home with the goal of publishing the next day.

"That was one long day," he said. "We had 4,000 pages to read."

The play, a docudrama by the L.A. Theatre Works, brings to life the debates within The Post's staff about whether to publish the papers. Other scenes show the subsequent court hearing The Post faced on the charges of releasing national secrets.

"It's nice to see it acted even though I lived through it," said Hamill.

The first half of the show shows the heated discussion between the editors and the lawyers on the repercussions of printing the Pentagon Papers, which could have cost the Post a fortune in legal fees. After publisher Katharine Graham gives the editors go-ahead, the Post staff finds themselves tried in court for leaking national secrets.

With the First Amendment on their side, as well as evidence that most of what they published was already public knowledge, the Post wins the case, putting the government to shame for unnecessarily hiding information under the stamp of national security.

The play is based on transcripts from the trial, as well as interviews from people who were actually involved in the debates.

"It's nice to see it acted even though I lived through it," said Ginny Hamill, a former editor at the Post.

Also in the audience were Post reporters Murray Marder and George Wilson, who both covered the released Pentagon Papers and are portrayed in the production.

In response to seeing himself played out on stage, Wilson said "I'd give it an A+... though there were some poetic license there, but that's to be expected."

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