Ben Bradlee, legendary Washington Post executive editor, dead at 93

Journalism lost a giant today. Former Washington Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee has died. He was 93. Bradlee stood up to the U.S. government, pursued the story which brought down a president, and shaped a generation of journalists.

"I just do not believe the first version of events in this city," he once said. "I don't believe it."

As Executive Editor of the Washington Post, Ben Bradlee brought skepticism to the paper's daily reporting.

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"People don't tell the truth," says Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of The Washington Post. And Bradlee knows a thing or two about lies, hav...

"People don't tell the truth. They don't tell the truth a hundred different ways," he said on "60 Minutes" in 1995. "And it's become so easy to lie."

Bradlee was born August 26, 1921 in Boston, Massachusetts, a member of the well-heeled Crowninshield family. He attended college at Harvard University, and he married his first wife, Jean Saltonstall, while he was there.

He joined the Navy shortly after graduating. As part of the Office of Naval Intelligence, Bradlee served as a communications officer in the Pacific during World War II.

In 1951, Bradlee became a press attach at the U.S. Embassy in Paris. After several years, he made the jump to Newsweek, remaining in Paris as a European correspondent for the magazine. There he became friendly with a neighbor, Sen. John F. Kennedy.

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Ben Bradlee, legendary Washington Post executive editor, dead at 93