Colorful, charismatic and courageous, Benjamin C. Bradlee may be the most influential newspaper editor of our time. Now vice president at-large of the Washington Post, Bradlee served as its managing editor and then executive editor for more than a quarter of a century. During his turbulent tenure, the Post not only reported the news,it was the news.
In 1971, Bradlee risked legal censure by the Nixon administration to publish the Pentagon Papers, a secret history of the Vietnam war. But it was the newspaper's subsequent historic investigation of the Watergate scandal by reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein that tested the editor's journalistic judgment. As one of his reporters wrote, "(Bradlee) set a tone of aggressive reporting, journalistic initiative and independence from the Washington establishment."
Under his stewardship, the Post emerged as a leading daily with a national voice and 23 Pulitzer Prizes. Bradlee is also the author of two books on John F. Kennedy--That Special Grace and Conversations with Kennedy.
