Ben Bagdikian was a journalist and media critic best known for challenging the standards of journalistic integrity and public service.

Bagdikian served as the dean of the Graduate School of Journalism at the University of California, Berkeley; he was the author of eight books; and he was a reporter and editor for The Washington Post.

He is perhaps best known for his work as The Post’s conduit for the Pentagon Papers, a top-secret history of the Vietnam War, as well as his book The Media Monopoly, which shed a light on how fewer media conglomerations are owning more and more of the media with each new merger.

In 1950, Bagdikian received a Peabody Award for broadcast commentary.

He died March 11, 2016, in Berkeley, California. He was 96.