The Newspaperman: The Life and Times of Ben Bradlee

I find this kind of documentary, apparently made with Ben Bradlee’s input and blessing, conflicting.

On one hand, I was drawn to the film because Bradlee looms large over my interest in journalism. I was at the tail end of the Watergate “fans”–the young people who were drawn into journalism because of the romanticism portrayed in “All the President’s Men.” It’s not that the film (and the book) were wrong. The dogged pursuit of truth, holding the powerful accountable, believing in free speech–these are all things that resonate with me.

But what I do have an issue with is that men like Bradlee, who lived large and appeared to get whatever he wanted, leave trauma in their wake. His first two marriages ended when he decided to take up with someone new. If a relationship ends, then so be it. But he had kids, and those kinds of decisions leave a mark. Fom what I can tell, the life he pursued was built around him and him alone.

The film shows that toward the end he got the cliched wake-up call that powerful old white dudes seem to get in their final acts. But what if he’d had that wake-up call earlier? How might that have helped the people who were there with him in the beginning?

Putting a person on a pedestal because of their professional accomplishments is problematic. I’d prefer to understand–not worship, but understand–the whole person, and assess their total impact in all parts of their life.