What Ben Bradlee taught me about Washington journalism

I was hired as a junior editor at the Washington Post in September 1992, one year after Ben Bradlee retired. The man still prowled the newsroom, and, as one one attendee (I won't say mourner) at his R-rated funeral service in Washington yesterday said, "As an actor, he was straight out of Central Casting. He was obvious. But he had cast himself in a pre…