On Point/WBUR (12/21/17)
With guest host Tom Gjelten.
The new film “The Post,” with Tom Hanks and Meryl Streep, puts the Pentagon Papers back on the front page. The massive leak of government documents helped shed light on the Vietnam War, and the lies the government was telling about it.
Among others, we’re talking to Leslie Gelb, a former Department of Defense official who will tell us exactly how leaker Daniel Ellsberg got away with the documents.
We’re digging in and consider its impact on journalism, now.
Clips From This Show:
- Key Pentagon Papers Figure Dispels ‘Baloney’ Myths — But He’ll Still See ‘The Post’
- Journalist Sally Quinn On ‘The Post’ And Its Portrayal Of Husband Ben Bradlee And The Pentagon Papers Episode — ‘Fabulous’
Guests:
- Alissa Wilkinson, film critic at Vox. (@alissamarie)
- Leslie Gelb, director of policy planning at the Department of Defense from 1967 to 1969, where he directed the project that produced the Pentagon Papers.
- Nicholas Lemann, professor of journalism at Columbia Journalism School and staff writer at the New Yorker.
- Sally Quinn, Washington Post columnist and moderator of “On Faith.” (@sallyquinndc)