Watergate legend and former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee dies aged 93
Former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee, who oversaw the newspaper's coverage of the Watergate scandal that toppled president Richard Nixon, has died at the age of 93.
As executive editor from 1968 until 1991, Bradlee became one of the most important figures in Washington, as well as part of journalism history, while transforming the Post from a staid morning daily into one of the most dynamic and respected publications in the United States.
He died on Tuesday at his home in Washington of natural causes, the newspaper reported.
Bradlee's work in guiding young reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein as they traced a 1972 burglary at Democratic Party headquarters back to the Nixon White House has been celebrated from journalism schools to Hollywood.
The Post won a Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the scandal, which forced Nixon to quit under threat of impeachment in August 1974.
Bradlee gave Woodward and Bernstein the freedom to vigorously pursue the scandal and its cover-up, approving their use of the unidentified "Deep Throat" source.
The newspaper published about 400 articles about Watergate over 28 months.
Bradlee inspired generation of journalists
The Post's coverage - along with the book and movie about it, entitled All The President's Men - inspired a generation of investigative reporters.
"I think the great lesson of Watergate was probably the stick-tuitiveness of the Post," Bradlee once told the American Journalism Review.
"The fact that we hunkered down and backed the right horse.
"I think that was a wonderful lesson for publishers, too."
Bradlee was also in charge of the Post when it suffered a major embarrassment. In 1981, the newspaper returned a Pulitzer won by reporter Janet Cooke because her story about an eight-year-old drug addict was a fabrication.
In 2013, US president Barack Obama gave Bradlee the Presidential Medal of Freedom, which is the nation's highest civilian honour.
The president paid tribute to the newsman following his death.
"A true newspaperman, he transformed the Washington Post into one of the country's finest newspapers," Mr Obama said in a statement.
"With him at the helm, a growing army of reporters published the Pentagon Papers, exposed Watergate, and told stories that needed to be told - stories that helped us understand our world and one another a little bit better."
Reuters