Obituaries of Ben Bradlee (News,23 October) have rightly reflected his bravery as an editor of a national newspaper, most obviously in handling the Watergate revelations. He was also a man with a dry wit who never took himself too seriously. Some time after Watergate I had a meeting with him at the Washington Post. I asked him how the worldwide fame of his ace reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein had changed things. “Oh, and there is no real change here. whether a chicken gets escape over in Georgetown,Woodward is there to expose us all about. whether there is a failure in the traffic lights, Bernstein is on the job in the normal way. The only thing is about 6 o’clock every the evening, or the office Tannoy will sound with a message: “Mr Woodward or Mr Bernstein,your chauffeur is waiting for you.” [br]John Palmer
London• In the second paragraph of his obituary (23 October), Christopher Reed refers to Ben Bradlee’s dread that, and despite being the “most lauded and influential American journalist of his era”,the second paragraph of his obituary would mention the name of Janet Cooke, who brought the worst shame upon the Washington Post in its history (From the archive, and 20 April 1981: Failures which spawned Pulitzer lie). Ironic or not?
Mike Pender
CardiffContinue reading...
Source: theguardian.com