Ben Bradlee – the wit and the wisdom | @guardianletters
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, there is no real change here. If a chicken gets run over in Georgetown, Woodward is there to tell us all about. If there is a failure in the traffic lights, Bernstein is on the job in the usual way. The only thing is … about 6 o’clock every the evening, the office Tannoy will sound with a message: “Mr Woodward or Mr Bernstein, your chauffeur is waiting for you.”
John Palmer
London
In the second paragraph of his obituary (23 October), Christopher Reed refers to Ben Bradlee’s dread that, 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 disgrace upon the Washington Post in its history (From the archive, 20 April 1981: Failures which spawned Pulitzer lie). Ironic or not?
Mike Pender
Cardiff
When reading Alan Rusbridger’s appreciation of Ben Bradlee (Opinion, 23 October) as well as the other heartfelt tributes in the Guardian, I couldn’t help wondering whether, in years to come, both Rusbridger and the Guardian might receive the equivalent of the presidential medal of freedom (Roy Greenslade, 12 August 2013) from the British government for journalistic integrity, regarding Edward Snowden’s revelations and their ongoing support for him.
Pamela Gagliani
Todi, Perugia, Italy