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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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Session:         Page of 755

Q:

Going back to your life a little bit, you obviously were a man who was trusted by many different leaders in the White House, and also trusted with a great deal of confidential information through your activities with RAND and probably other government associated activities. “Why?” is a hard question to ask someone about their own life, but why you out of everyone else in the world of media? How would you describe your own loyalties to government and the role of government in relation to media?

Stanton:

If I were reliving my life, [laughs] a lot of things I would have done differently. But if I had a second shot at serving on some of the--take RAND, for example. If I had it to do over again I would not serve on the RAND board, not because I have any question about the value of RAND in the whole scheme of things, but I got information that I had to keep a lock on, and it made it very difficult not to refer to it or to make judgments based on it when--I was holding back, perhaps, on things that I felt I shouldn't permit to be done, simply because I had information that told me what was going on. Now, if they came by that information on theirown--

Q:

Are you talking about particular broadcasts of CBS?

Stanton:

Just general, general. You can get too close to the source and have your hands tied as a result of it because--”off the record” is a dangerous thing for the journalist. It's interesting to have the background and to know what's going on, but if it's off the record and you come by it in the normal course of your work, well what do you do? So you're better off not to have had the exposure.





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