Ben Bradlee, top editor during Watergate coverage, dies at 93

Ben Bradlee, the raspy-voiced, hard-charging editor who invigorated The Washington Post and became famous for his role in toppling U.S. president Richard Nixon in the Watergate scandal, has died. Bradlee, 93, died at home Tuesday of natural causes, the Post reported. As managing editor first and later as executive editor, Bradlee engineered the Post’s reinvention, bringing in a cast of talented journalists and setting editorial standards that brought the paper new respect. Bradlee also took a stand for press freedom in 1971 by going forward with publication of the Pentagon Papers, a secret study of the Vietnam War broken by The New York Times. The ensuing legal battle went all the way to the Supreme Court, which upheld the right of newspapers to publish the leaked papers.

[Bradlee] set the ground rules - pushing, pushing, pushing, not so subtly asking everyone to take one more step, relentlessly pursuing the story in the face of persistent accusations against us and a concerted campaign of intimidation.

Washington Post publisher Katharine Graham in her memoir

In 2013, Bradlee received the Presidential Medal of Freedom from President Barack Obama, who saluted Bradlee for bringing an intensity and dedication to journalism that served as a reminder that “our freedom as a nation rests on our freedom of the press.” The low point in Bradlee’s career involved a 1981 Pulitzer for the Post that was rescinded after the Post itself revealed that reporter Janet Cooke had invented her story of an 8-year-old heroin user. Bradlee, whose offer to resign over the debacle was rejected, said it was a cross he would bear forever. Bradlee is survived by his wife and four children from three marriages

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