A classic Ben Bradlee letter to ‘flacks’

Former Washington Post executive editor Benjamin C. Bradlee, who died Tuesday at age 93, had a reputation for speaking truth to power. He also had a reputation for speaking truth to spin doctors, powerful or not.

Mary Hadar, former editor of The Post's Style section, held on to a reply that Bradlee sent more than two decades ago to a pestering flack. As Hadar recalls, someone was retiring from the circus — a lion tamer? — and the circus's press agent wrote to Bradlee to complain when the Style section wouldn't run a profile.

Here, in tribute to an iconic voice in journalism, is Bradlee's response:

Read also:

In this never-before-published 2012 interview, Sally Quinn talks with her husband, Ben Bradlee, about religion, God and what comes after death. (Video: The Washington Post)

Legendary editor transformed The Washington Post

Ben Bradlee's career highlights