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New York Times

After we published the Papers at the Washington Post, the Supreme Court decision in our favor has underpinned American freedom of the press.

Editor’s Note: Leonard Downie Jr. was a reporter and editor for 44 years at the Washington Post and now teaches journalism at the Cronkite School. During his 17 years as executive editor, the Post won 25 Pulitzer prizes. Mr.

It was a story so disturbing that we all still remember it. But what if it wasn’t true?

In the paper’s morning edition for March 27, 1964, The New York Times ran one of the most indelible leads in its 155-year history.

FOR SEVENTY YEARS HE HAS DEFINED HOW WE SEE THE WORLD OF THEATER

  They are not a particularly remarkable pair of eyes: chocolate brown, droopy-lidded, shaded by thick salt-and-pepper brows.
During less hectic days back in 1961, two editors at the New York Times got to wondering how that unawed newspaper might have handled some of the more momentous events since time began.

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