Ben Bradlee: Barack Obama leads tributes to ex-Washington Post editor

Barack Obama

“For Benjamin Bradlee, journalism was more than a profession – it was a public good vital to our democracy.

A true newspaperman, he transformed the Washington Post into one of the country’s finest newspapers, and 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.

The standard he set – a standard for honest, objective, meticulous reporting – encouraged so many others to enter the profession. And that standard is why, last year, I was proud to honor Ben with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

Today, we offer our thoughts and prayers to Ben’s family, and all who were fortunate to share in what truly was a good life.”

Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein

Washington Post reporters who broke the Watergate story

“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.”

Martin Baron

Washington Post editor

“Ben Bradlee has made an indelible mark on history and on our profession. His spirit has been an inspiration to generations of journalists, demonstrating what our profession can achieve when it is led with courage and an unwavering commitment to truth. As we mourn his passing, we remain guided by the high standards he set in building one of the world’s greatest newsrooms.”

Donald Graham

Chief executive officer of Graham Holdings. The Graham family were WaPo proprietors for 80 years before who selling the paper to Amazon founder Jeff Bezos in 2013 for $250m

“The story of the modern Washington Post starts the day Kay Graham made Ben Bradlee the editor of the paper. He was the best. He pushed as hard as an editor can push to print the story of the Pentagon Papers; he led the team that broke the Watergate story. And he did much more. His drive to make the paper better still breathes in every corner of today’s Post newsroom.”

Tina Brown

Former Vanity Fair and New Yorker editor, founder of Daily Beast and Tina Brown Media

Jill Abramson

Former New York Times executive editor

“Ben had total joie de journalism. It oozed from every pore. No one had more fun chasing a big story and no editor made the chase more fun.”

Read Abramson’s full tribute

David Remnick

New Yorker editor and former WaPo reporter

“Bradlee wasn’t Noam Chomsky. He was not an outsider or a leftist. He was a Cold War Democrat who probably voted for some Republicans. It helped that he had the good fortune that in a room full of schlubs that he looked like a grandee. He was funny and flashy, but not a stuffed shirt.

“In my experience, he was the most alive presence, not only in journalism but in any realm. He wasn’t the most powerful intellectual, or the most radical thinker or the most self-questioning but the most alive. And that was the most important part of why you wanted to please him and bring the story home.”

Read David Remnick’s full tribute here

Lionel Barber

Financial Times editor and former Stern fellow

“Everyone from the doorman to the proprietor called him Ben. He was dearly loved by all at the Washington Post. His enthusiasm was infectious, his personality irrepressible. He had charm, charisma and swagger. What made him a great editor? Courage, an ability to spot talent, a killer instinct for impact and the big story, and, crucially, a close relationship with Katherine Graham. Along with a generation of young British journalists and Laurence Stern fellows, I owe Ben and the Post an enormous debt of gratitude.”

Leonard Downie Jr

Former Washington Post executive editor

“When I was a young investigative reporter in the 1960s, working on a series of articles about the financial exploitation of black homeowners involving many of Washington’s then-numerous savings and loan associations, Ben made a rare appearance at my desk and asked what I was working on. With his characteristic short attention span, Ben interrupted my overly long answer to tell me that he had just met with the heads of those savings loans in his office and that they had threatened to pull all their advertising from The Post if he published the articles I was working on.

“I wasn’t able to breathe until he clapped my shoulder in his characteristic way and said, ‘Just get it right, kid.’ The Post published the series, and the savings and loans pulled all their ads for a year, but neither Ben nor anyone else told me that they did. I had only been at the paper for a few years, but I knew then that I’d want to spend my entire career there.”

Read more tributes by Washington Post staff here

Kevin Merida

Washington Post managing editor

David Axelrod

Former Obama advisor

Katie Couric

TV journalist and talkshow host

Howard Stringer

Former president of CBS and BBC board member

“When Hollywood made its Watergate movie, actor Jason Robards was selected to play the part of the great editor, Ben Bradlee. It was one of those rare occasions when the subject, remarkably, was even better looking and more charismatic than the actor who played him.

Ben, the editor, the supreme journalist managed the Watergate story with breathtaking skill and courage. His supervision of his reporters, Woodward and Bernstein, ensured that the coverage of Watergate changed the face of journalism forever because it was fair, credible and comprehensive. History has been unable to successfully challenge their reporting and that is Ben’s greatest legacy.”

Piers Morgan

Mail Online US editor-at-large

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