Ben:
I trust you saw The New York Times.
Kay:
Hmm.
Ben:
The study, the one they are working off of, that was commissioned by Robert McNamara.
Kay:
Yeah.
Ben:
And if he commissioned it, he might have a copy. I don’t need to tell you that finding a source, it’s like finding a needle in a haystack.
Kay:
I don’t need the metaphor.
Ben:
Well, I haven’t been a writer for a while so that old cliche, that was the best comparison I could come up with. I need a copy of that study, Kay.
Kay:
Give her the ball, Ben.
Ben:
Oh. Here you go.
Kay:
Thank you.
You know, Ben, as much as I do relish a good investigative assignment, Bob McNamara is an old friend. He’s going through a lot in his life right now.
I just think he’s probably said all he wants to say.
Ben:
Why, do you think ?
Kay:
“Why?”
Ben:
Why? Why is he talking to you?
Kay:
Well, I just told you, he’s my friend and….
Ben:
Is he talking to any other friends?
Kay:
I’m not sure I appreciate the implication of what you just said.
Ben:
McNamara is talking to you because you are the publisher of The Washington Post.
Kay:
That’s not true. No, that is not why.
Ben:
Because he wants you to bail him out. Because he wants you on his side.
Kay:
No, there’s no ulterior…. No! Ben, that’s not my role. You know that.
I wouldn’t presume to tell you how to write about him.
Just as I wouldn’t take it upon myself to tell him he should hand over a classified study, which would be a crime by the way, just so he can serve as your source.
Ben:
Our source, Katharine.
Kay:
No… Uh, no. I’m not. I’m not going to ask Bob for the study.
Ben:
All right.
I get it.
You have a relationship with Bob McNamara.
But don’t you think you have an obligation as well to the paper and to the public?
Kay:
Let me ask you something. Was that how you felt when you were palling around with Jack Kennedy?
Where your sense of duty then?
Ben I don’t recall you pushing him particularly hard on anything.
Ben:
I pushed Jack when I had to.
I never pulled any punches.
Kay:
Is that right?
‘Cause you used to dine at the White House once a week.
All the trips to Camp David.
Oh, and that drunken birthday cruise on the Sequoia you told me about.
Hard to believe you would have gotten all those invitations if you didn’t pull a few punches.