Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American newspaper publisher. She led her family's newspaper,The Washington Post, from 1963 to 1991. Graham presided over the paper as it reported on theWatergate scandal, which eventually led to the resignation of PresidentRichard Nixon. She was one of the first 20th-century female publishers of a major American newspaper and the first woman elected to the board of the Associated Press.
Her father was ofAlsatian Jewish descent, and her mother was aLutheran whose parents were German immigrants.[6][7][8][9] Along with her four siblings, Katharine was baptized as aLutheran but attended anEpiscopal church.[10] Her siblings includedFlorence, Eugene III (Bill), Ruth and Elizabeth (Biss) Meyer.[11]
Meyer's parents owned several homes across the country, but primarily lived between amansion inWashington, D.C., and alarge estate (later owned byDonald Trump) inWestchester County, New York.[12] Meyer often did not see much of her parents during her childhood, as both traveled and socialized extensively; she was raised in part by nannies, governesses and tutors.[11] Katharine endured a strained relationship with her mother. In her memoir, Katharine reports that Agnes could be negative and condescending towards her, which had a negative impact on Meyer's self-confidence.[11]
As a child, Meyer attended aMontessori school until the fourth grade when she enrolled atThe Potomac School.[11] She attended high school atThe Madeira School (to which her father donated land for its new Virginia campus),[15] thenVassar College before transferring to theUniversity of Chicago. In Chicago, she made friends with a group that would discuss politics and ideas, and developed an interest in liberal ideas, against the growing fascism in Germany and Italy and sympathetic to the American labor movement.[16]
After graduation, Meyer worked for a short period at aSan Francisco newspaper where, among other things, she helped cover a major strike by wharf workers. Meyer began working for thePost in 1938.
Philip Graham became publisher of thePost in 1946, when Eugene Meyer handed over the newspaper to his son-in-law.[19] Katharine recounts in her autobiography,Personal History, how she did not feel slighted by the fact her father gave thePost to Philip rather than her: "Far from troubling me that my father thought of my husband and not me, it pleased me. In fact, it never crossed my mind that he might have viewed me as someone to take on an important job at the paper."[11] Her father, Eugene Meyer, went on to become the head of the World Bank, but left that position only six months later. He was Chairman of theWashington Post Company until his death in 1959, when Philip Graham took that position and the company expanded with the purchases of television stations andNewsweek magazine.[20]
In her 1997 autobiography, Graham comments several times about how close her husband was to politicians of his day (he was instrumental, for example, in getting Johnson to be theDemocratic vice-presidential nominee in1960), and how such personal closeness with politicians later became unacceptable in journalism. She tried to push lawyerEdward Bennett Williams into the role of Washington, D.C.'s, first commissioner mayor in 1967. The position went toHoward University-educated lawyerWalter Washington.[23][24]
Katharine Graham was also known for a long-time friendship withWarren Buffett, whoseBerkshire Hathaway owned a substantial stake in thePost.[25]
Philip Graham dealt with alcoholism and mental illness throughout his marriage to Katharine. He had mood swings and often belittled her.[26] On Christmas Eve in 1962, Katharine learned her husband was having an affair with Robin Webb, an Australianstringer forNewsweek. Philip declared that he would divorce Katharine for Robin, and he made motions to divide the couple's assets.[27]
Graham with a Dutch news official and U.S. ambassador to the Netherlands, 1975
Katharine Graham assumed the reins of the company and of thePost after Philip Graham's suicide. She held the title of president and wasde factopublisher of the paper from September 1963.[33] She formally held the title of publisher from 1969 to 1979, and that of chairwoman of the board from 1973 to 1991. She became the first femaleFortune 500 CEO in 1972, as CEO of the Washington Post Company.[34][35] As the only woman to be in such a high position at a publishing company, she had no female role models and had difficulty being taken seriously by many of her male colleagues and employees. Graham outlined in her memoir her lack of confidence and distrust in her own knowledge. The convergence of the women's movement with Graham's control of thePost brought about changes in Graham's attitude and also led her to promotegender equality within her company.
Graham hiredBenjamin Bradlee as editor, and cultivatedWarren Buffett for his financial advice; he became a major shareholder and something of aneminence grise in the company. Her son Donald was publisher from 1979 until 2000.
Graham presided over thePost at a crucial time in its history. ThePost played an integral role in unveiling theWatergate conspiracy which ultimately led to the resignation of PresidentRichard Nixon.
Graham and editor Bradlee first experienced challenges when they published the content of thePentagon Papers. WhenPost reportersBob Woodward andCarl Bernstein brought the Watergate story to Bradlee, Graham supported their investigative reporting and Bradlee ran stories about Watergate when few other news outlets were reporting on the matter.
In conjunction with the Watergate scandal, Graham was the subject of one of the best-known threats in American journalistic history. It occurred in 1972, when Nixon'sattorney general,John Mitchell, warned reporter Carl Bernstein about a forthcoming article: "Katie Graham's gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that's published."[36] ThePost published the quote, although Bradlee cut the wordsher tit.[37][36] Graham later observed that it was "especially strange of [Mitchell] to call me Katie, which no one has ever called me."[36] (Graham's nickname was "Kay".[38])
Views regarding the relationship between the press and intelligence agencies
On November 16, 1988, Graham gave a speech titled "Secrecy and the Press" to a packed auditorium atCIA headquarters as part of that agency's Office of Training and Education's Guest Speaker series.[39][40][41] In discussing the potential for press disclosures to affect national security, Graham said: "We live in a dirty and dangerous world. There are some things the general public does not need to know, and shouldn't. I believe democracy flourishes when the government can take legitimate steps to keep its secrets and when the press can decide whether to print what it knows."[42]
A dormitory in the Max Palevsky Residential Commons at theUniversity of Chicago is named after Graham. Every year on March 2 they celebrate "Graham Day", in her honor.[43]
Nora Ephron of theNew York Times, who was at one point married to Carl Bernstein, raved about Graham's autobiography. She found it an amazing story of how Graham was able to succeed in a male-dominated industry. "Am I making clear how extraordinary this book is?" Ephron said. "She manages to rewrite the story of her life in such a way that no one will ever be able to boil it down to a sentence."[44]
In 1974, Graham became the first woman elected to the board of directors at theAssociated Press.[45][46]
In 1975, Graham received theS. Roger Horchow Award for Greatest Public Service by a Private Citizen, an award given out annually byJefferson Awards.[47]
In 1979, theSupersisters trading card set was produced and distributed; one of the cards featured Graham's name and picture.[48]
In 1979, Deborah Davis published an unauthorized biography of Graham entitledKatharine the Great.
In 1997, she received theFreedom medal for her commitment to freedom of speech and expression.[51]
In 1997, Graham published her memoirs,Personal History. The book was praised for its honest portrayal of Philip Graham'smental illness and received rave reviews for her depiction of her life, as well as a glimpse into how the roles of women have changed over the course of Graham's life.
On January 30, 1998, television station WCPX-TV in Orlando changed its callsign toWKMG-TV in honor of longtime Washington Post publisher, Katharine M. Graham.
^Baugess, James S.; DeBolt, Abbe Allen (2012).Encyclopedia of the Sixties: A Decade of Culture and Counterculture Volume 1. Santa Barbara: Greenwood. p. 259.ISBN978-0-31332-945-6.
^Smith, J. Y. & Epstein, Noel (July 18, 2001)."Katharine Graham Dies at 84." Washpostco.com, Washington Post Company website. Retrieved April 18, 2012.
^Bernstein, Carl; Woodward, Bob (September 29, 1972)."Mitchell Controlled Secret GOP Fund".The Washington Post. p. A01. RetrievedFebruary 9, 2019.All that crap, you're putting it in the paper? It's all been denied. Jesus. Katie Graham (Katharine Graham, publisher ofThe Washington Post) is gonna get caught in a big fat wringer if that's published. Good Christ. That's the most sickening thing I've ever heard.
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Booknotes interview with Graham onPersonal History, February 16, 1997,C-SPAN
