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Benjamin Bradlee
1921-2004
Legendary Editor of The Washington Post
"The role of the press in a free society is to find out the truth and print it."
-- Benjamin Bradlee, 1990
Benjamin Bradlee, the editor who led The Washington Post through some of the most momentous stories of the 20th century, has died. He was 93.
During his 23 years at the helm of the Post, Bradlee oversaw the newspaper's history-making coverage of Watergate, the scandal that led to President Richard M. Nixon's resignation in 1974. The Post was awarded the Pulitzer Prize gold medal for public service, journalism's highest honor, for its Watergate coverage.
Under Bradlee, the Post joined The New York Times in 1971 in publishing stories based on the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret report revealing that the government had lied about progress in the Vietnam War. The battle over publication resulted in a major First Amendment victory in the US Supreme Court.
In 2013, Bradlee received the President Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor. |