He was deemed the legendary editor for the Washington Post. Ben Bradlee edited major stories, including reports of the notorious Watergate Scandal.
Born Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee, he was the executive editor for the Washington Post from 1968 to 1991.
Bradlee became a national public figure during the presidency of Richard Nixon. The Washington Post challenged the Federal Government over the rights to publish the Pentagon Papers leading up to Watergate.
Bradlee overlooked the work of journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they documented the Watergate Scandal in a series of papers, published via the Washington Post.
Previous to his work with the Washington Post, Bradlee was an active servicemen in World War II. Bradlee received his naval commission a short two hours after becoming naval certified. He worked as a communications officer.
Post World War II, Bradlee’s journalism career blossomed when he joined the journalism staff of the New Hampshire Sunday News in 1946. In 1948, Bradlee started as a reporter at the Washington Post.
In 1952, Bradlee joined the Office of U.S Information and Educational Exchange. In 1957, he worked as a reporter for Newsweek Magazine.
Bradlee befriended then senator John F. Kennedy in the 1950s after graduation from Harvard. Kennedy had graduated two years previous.
Under the strong leadership of Bradlee, the Washington Post challenged the Nixon Administration for more background information. The following year, Bradlee backed up Woodward and Bernstein’s story following a break in at the Democratic National Committee’s headquarters located in the Watergate Hotel. He believed that Woodward and Bernstein would find the information needed for the story.
Bradlee was an inspiration to many people in the world of journalism. According to a statement by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, “Ben was a true friend and genius leader in journalism. He forever altered our business. His one unbending principle was the quest for the truth and the necessity of that pursuit. He had the courage of an army. Ben had an intuitive understanding of the history of our profession, its formative impact on him and all of us. But he was utterly liberated from that. He was an original who charted his own course. We loved him deeply, and he will never be forgotten or replaced in our lives.”
Ben Bradlee was an icon in the world of editing and he will always be remembered as a journalistic hero.