Ben Bradlee, the legendary Washington Post editor whose funeral was held Wednesday, has been widely praised for his work building up the Washington Post and bringing down Richard Nixon. His guidance of the paper’s Watergate coverage thrilled a generation, and maybe two generations, of aspiring journalists.

But the many extravagant tributes to Bradlee have paid less attention to his relationship with an earlier president, John F. Kennedy. It’s not that their friendship was a secret; indeed, Bradlee wrote a book about it. It’s just an embarrassment, and when it came time to evaluate Bradlee’s life, the sycophancy of his association with JFK did not fit the image, carefully tended by colleagues and friends, of the journalist as a courageous puncturer of inflated reputations.