Former Washington Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, who died Tuesday at age 93, had a reputation for speaking truth to power. He also had a reputation for speaking truth to spin doctors, powerful or not.
Mary Hadar, former editor of The Post's Style section, held on to a reply that Bradlee sent more than two decades ago to a pestering flack. As Hadar recalls, someone was retiring from the circus — a lion tamer? — and the circus's press agent wrote to Bradlee to complain when the Style section wouldn't run a profile.
Here, in tribute to an iconic voice in journalism, is Bradlee's response:
(Letter written by former Washington Post editor Ben Bradlee on April 4, 1990. Courtesy of Mary Hadar.) Read also:
In this never-before-published 2012 interview, Sally Quinn talks with her husband, Ben Bradlee, about religion, God and what comes after death. (The Washington Post)
Legendary editor transformed The Washington Post
Ben Bradlee's career highlights
Lillian Cunningham is the editor and feature writer for The Washington Post's 'On Leadership' section.
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