Benjamin C. Bradlee, who has died at 93, was a far more thoughtful editor than he appeared to be.
Sure, the Harvard graduate and friend of John F. Kennedy was well caricatured by the virtuoso stage and screen actor Jason Robards in the 1976 film "All the President's Men." A joke then making the rounds in The Washington Post newsroom was that the flamboyant Robards, known as one of the great stage scene-stealers of all time, had in fact underplayed the newspaper editor, who as everyone in the media world knew was the very definition of macho flamboyance and gung-ho decisiveness.
Bradlee's most famous success as the storied editor of the U.S. capital's most politically influential media force was the Watergate Scandal that ended with the 1974 resignation of Richard M. Nixon as 37th U.S. president. But in the Post editor's mind the gold dust of Pulitzer recognition and worldwide amazement hid a potential dark side.