Leading up to Ben Bradlee's funeral, the lionized Washington Post editor who died last week at the age of 93, Fusion's Jorge Ramos penned an impassioned column Tuesday on Bradlee's legacy and the important role the press must play in questioning leadership around the globe.
"As journalists, we cannot swallow the official line without question," Ramos wrote. "We should challenge almost everything that dictators, presidents and officials say. This irreverent, rebellious side of reporting -- described lately by some commentators as “point-of-view” journalism -- insists that we demand results from our leaders, rather than cozy up to them in order to gain favor."
Ramos pointed to the Iraq War as an instance in which the media should have more doggedly questioned those in power.
"When journalists forget that our job is to question and annoy those in power, there can be huge consequences," he continued. "Remember that more than 120,000 Iraqi civilians and almost 4,500 American soldiers died in the Iraq War, an unnecessary conflict that was rooted in officials’ dishonesty about weapons of mass destruction. Those claims weren’t questioned by the majority of journalists."
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