Ben Bradlee, celebrated editor who guided The Washington Post during Watergate scandal, dies

WASHINGTON - The hard-charging editor who guided The Washington Post through its coverage of the Watergate scandal, Ben Bradlee, has died. He was 93.

The Washington Post reports that Bradlee died at his home Tuesday of natural causes.

As managing editor first and later as executive editor, the raspy-voiced Bradlee engineered the transformation of the Post from a sleepy hometown paper into a great national one. He brought in a cast of talented journalists and set editorial standards that brought the paper new respect.

Bradlee got an early break as a journalist thanks to his friendship with one president, John F. Kennedy, and became famous for his role in toppling another, Richard Nixon, helping guide Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein's Pulitzer Prize-winning coverage of the Watergate scandal.