Benjamin Crowninshield Bradlee Jr. (born August 7, 1948) is an American journalist and writer. He was a reporter and editor at ''

The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...

'' for 25 years, including a period when he supervised the Pulitzer Prize–winning investigation into sexual abuse by priests in the Boston archdiocese, and is the author of a comprehensive biography of

Ted Williams Theodore Samuel Williams (August 30, 1918 – July 5, 2002) was an American professional baseball player and manager. He played his entire 19-year Major League Baseball (MLB) career, primarily as a left fielder, for the Boston Red Sox from 1 ...

. His book, ''The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America'', about

Luzerne County, Pennsylvania Luzerne County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water. It is Northeastern Pennsylvania's second-largest county by total area. As of ...

, and the

2016 United States presidential election The 2016 United States presidential election was the 58th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 2016. The Republican ticket of businessman Donald Trump and Indiana governor Mike Pence defeated the Democratic ticket ...

was released on October 2, 2018.

Life and career

Bradlee was born in

Manchester, New Hampshire Manchester is a city in Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, United States. It is the most populous city in New Hampshire. At the 2020 census, the city had a population of 115,644. Manchester is, along with Nashua, one of two seats of New Ha ...

, to Ben Bradlee, Sr (1921–2014), the future editor of ''

The Washington Post ''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large nati ...

'', and his first wife Jean Saltonstall (1921–2011). His parents, who both came from

Boston Brahmin The Boston Brahmins or Boston elite are members of Boston's traditional upper class. They are often associated with Harvard University; Anglicanism; and traditional Anglo-American customs and clothing. Descendants of the earliest English coloni ...

families, divorced when he was seven. After spending five years in Paris, from the ages of two to seven while his father worked for ''

Newsweek ''Newsweek'' is an American weekly online news magazine co-owned 50 percent each by Dev Pragad, its president and CEO, and Johnathan Davis, who has no operational role at ''Newsweek''. Founded as a weekly print magazine in 1933, it was widely ...

'', Bradlee grew up in

Cambridge, Massachusetts Cambridge ( ) is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States. As part of the Boston metropolitan area, the cities population of the 2020 U.S. census was 118,403, making it the fourth most populous city in the state, behind Boston ...

. As a teenager, he was given a taste of journalism as a copy boy at ''The Boston Globe''. He graduated from

Colby College Colby College is a private liberal arts college in Waterville, Maine. It was founded in 1813 as the Maine Literary and Theological Institution, then renamed Waterville College after the city where it resides. The donations of Christian philant ...

and then served in the

Peace Corps The Peace Corps is an independent agency and program of the United States government that trains and deploys volunteers to provide international development assistance. It was established in March 1961 by an executive order of President John F ...

in Afghanistan from 1970 to 1972. Bradlee worked for several years at the Riverside '' Press-Enterprise'' in California but then spent most of his career at ''The Boston Globe'', where he was successively State House reporter,

investigative reporter Investigative journalism is a form of journalism in which reporters deeply investigate a single topic of interest, such as serious crimes, political corruption, or corporate wrongdoing. An investigative journalist may spend months or years rese ...

, national correspondent,

political editor The political editor of a newspaper or broadcaster is the senior political reporter who covers politics and related matters for the newspaper or station. They may have a large team of political correspondents working under them. In publishing, beca ...

, and metropolitan editor. In 1993, he was promoted to Assistant Managing Editor responsible for investigations and projects. In that role, he edited the ''Globe's'' reporting of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Boston's repeated cover-ups of sexual abuse of children by priests, a painstaking investigation that began in 2001 and continued for two years. The paper's investigation was awarded the 2003 Pulitzer Prize for Public Service. In the 2015 film ''Spotlight'', which dramatizes that investigation, Bradlee is portrayed by

John Slattery John M. Slattery Jr. (born August 13, 1962) is an American actor and director widely known for his role as Roger Sterling Jr. in the AMC drama series ''Mad Men'' (2007–15), for which he was nominated four times for the Primetime Emmy Award fo ...

. Bradlee made a cameo appearance as a journalist with a notepad during and after the scene depicting the Archbishop Bernard Law's response on television to the

9/11 attacks The September 11 attacks, commonly known as 9/11, were four coordinated suicide terrorist attacks carried out by al-Qaeda against the United States on Tuesday, September 11, 2001. That morning, nineteen terrorists hijacked four commerci ...

. He left the ''Globe'' in 2004 to work on a biography of Boston Red Sox icon

, which ultimately took ten years of in-depth research to finish. ''The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams'' was released in 2013. It received favorable reviews, highlighting the author's research into Williams' concealed Mexican–American identity and troubled family relationships (which culminated in the disputed

cryonic Cryonics (from el, κρύος ''kryos'' meaning 'cold') is the low-temperature freezing (usually at ) and storage of human remains, with the speculative hope that resurrection may be possible in the future. Cryonics is regarded with skepticis ...

preservation of Williams' head and torso). The book, which was a ''New York Times'' best-seller, has been optioned for a TV miniseries. Bradlee's first book ''The Ambush Murders'', an account of the brutal killings of two California policemen, was the basis for a television movie which aired on CBS in 1982. A later book on

Oliver North Oliver Laurence North (born October 7, 1943) is an American political commentator, television host, military historian, author, and retired United States Marine Corps lieutenant colonel. A veteran of the Vietnam War, North was a National Secu ...

and the

Iran–Contra affair The Iran–Contra affair ( fa, ماجرای ایران-کنترا, es, Caso Irán–Contra), often referred to as the Iran–Contra scandal, the McFarlane affair (in Iran), or simply Iran–Contra, was a political scandal in the United States ...

was made into a miniseries by CBS in 1989. In 2016, Bradlee was appointed by Boston Mayor

Marty Walsh Martin Joseph Walsh (born April 10, 1967) is an American politician and former union official. He has been the 29th United States Secretary of Labor since March 23, 2021. A Democrat, he previously served as the 54th mayor of Boston from 2014, ...

to the

Boston Public Library The Boston Public Library is a municipal public library system in Boston, Massachusetts, United States, founded in 1848. The Boston Public Library is also the Library for the Commonwealth (formerly ''library of last recourse'') of the Commonwea ...

's Board of Trustees.

Personal life

Bradlee has been married three times: to broadcast journalist

Martha Raddatz Martha Raddatz (; born February 14, 1953) is an American reporter with ABC News. She is the network's Chief Global Affairs Correspondent reporting for ABC's '' World News Tonight with David Muir'', ''Nightline'', and other network broadcasts. In a ...

, to Janice Saragoni for 25 years, ending in 2015, and to Cynthia Hickman since February 2018. He has three children.

In popular culture

* Bradlee was portrayed by actor

in ''

Spotlight Spotlight or spot light may refer to: Lighting * Spot lights, automotive auxiliary lamps * Spotlight (theatre lighting) * Spotlight, a searchlight * Stage lighting instrument, stage lighting instruments, of several types Art, entertainment, an ...

'', a 2015 historical drama about Boston's Catholic Church sex abuse scandals. ''Spotlight'' won the Academy Award for Best Picture at the

88th Academy Awards The 88th Academy Awards ceremony, presented by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS), honored the best films of 2015 and took place on February 28, 2016, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles, 5:30 p.m. PST. Dur ...

in February 2016.

Books

* ''The Forgotten: How the People of One Pennsylvania County Elected Donald Trump and Changed America'',

Little, Brown and Company Little, Brown and Company is an American publishing company founded in 1837 by Charles Coffin Little and James Brown in Boston. For close to two centuries it has published fiction and nonfiction by American authors. Early lists featured Emily ...

, 2018, * ''The Kid: The Immortal Life of Ted Williams'',

, 2013, * ''Betrayal: The Crisis in the Catholic Church'', The Investigative Staff of ''The Boston Globe'' (Editor),

, 2002, * ''Guts and Glory: The Rise and Fall of Oliver North'', Donald I. Fine, 1988, * ''Prophet of Blood: The Untold Story of Ervil Lebaron and the Lambs of God'', with

Dale Van Atta Dale Van Atta (born 1951) is a speaker, novelist, and journalist. He was a personal friend of and co-author with fellow journalist Jack Anderson and borrowed money to help him when he was in financial trouble. In 2008 his book ''With Honor'' ...

Putnam Publishing Group G. P. Putnam's Sons is an American book publisher based in New York City, New York. Since 1996, it has been an imprint of the Penguin Group. History The company began as Wiley & Putnam with the 1838 partnership between George Palmer Putnam and J ...

, 1981, * ''The Ambush Murders: The True Account of the Killing of Two California Policemen'',

Dodd, Mead Dodd, Mead and Company was one of the pioneer publishing houses of the United States, based in New York City. Under several names, the firm operated from 1839 until 1990. History Origins In 1839, Moses Woodruff Dodd (1813–1899) and John S. Ta ...

, 1979,

References

External links

Official website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bradlee, Ben Jr. 1948 births Living people 20th-century American biographers 20th-century American journalists 20th-century American male writers 20th-century American newspaper people 21st-century American biographers 21st-century American journalists 21st-century American male writers 21st-century American newspaper people American expatriates in Afghanistan American expatriates in France American male biographers American male journalists American newspaper journalists The Boston Globe people Colby College alumni Crowninshield family Peace Corps volunteers Writers from Cambridge, Massachusetts