Benjamin C. Bradlee

Benjamin C. Bradlee

Benjamin C. Bradlee (born August 26, 1921) is the vice president of the Washington Post. As managing editor of the Post from 1965 to 1991, he challenged the federal government over the right to publish the Pentagon papers. He became famous for overseeing the publication of Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's stories documenting the Watergate Scandal. Bradlee is one of only four people who knows the true identity of Deep Throat.

Benjamin Bradlee was born in Boston, Massachusetts. He attended Harvard University, graduating in 1942. He served in the US Naval Reserve during World War II. He first worked for the Washington Post in 1948 as a reporter. He was a reporter in various assignments there until 1961, when he became a senior editor. He maintained that position until 1965 when he was promoted to managing editor.

His lowest professional moment came in 1981. Janet Cooke, a Washington Post reporter, won a Pulitzer Prize for a "Jimmy's World", a profile of an eight year old heroin addict. It turned out to be complete fiction. Ensuring accuracy was the editor's job, and he had failed miserably and publicly.

He published an autobiography in 1995, A Good Life: Newspapering and Other Adventures.