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NY Times

Legendary Journalist Dies at 96 — He Played a Key Role in Publishing the Pentagon Papers

Mar 14, 2016  •  Post A Comment

A journalist who became known as a voice of conscience for his profession has died. The New York Times reports that Ben H. Bagdikian died Friday at his home in Berkeley, Calif. He was 96.

Bagdikian was dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley, for many years. Over the span of a five-decade career, he served as a national and foreign correspondent for newspapers and magazines, authoring eight books. He was known as a strong advocate for integrity and public service in journalism.

“He was The Washington Post’s conduit for the Pentagon Papers, the secret Defense Department study of decades of American duplicity in Indochina that was disclosed by the military analyst Daniel Ellsberg and published by The Post and The New York Times in 1971 in defiance of the Nixon administration’s attempts at suppression as the nation debated its deepening involvement in the war in Vietnam,” The Times notes.

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