Documenting the courage of Katharine Graham [View all]

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Opinion
Eugene Robinson

A new film shows how, again and again, she empowered The Post to do journalism that changed the world.

https://wapo.st/41iktEW

"Imagine this scenario: A dangerously unhinged president, enraged that a prominent newspaper is about to reveal secrets he wants to keep, leverages the vast power of the White House to threaten the paper’s owner with utter financial ruin if the information is published. In-house lawyers strongly advise the owner to back down, warning that the newspaper’s survival is at stake. But it is clear that the public has the right to know what the president is trying to hide. What should the owner do? What would you do?

Again and again, Katharine Graham defied President Richard M. Nixon’s wrath and empowered The Post to publish journalism that changed the world. The courage and integrity of this remarkable woman, whom I was privileged to know, is at the heart of a new documentary — “Becoming Katharine Graham: The Only Woman in the Room” — that premiered Sunday night at the Kennedy Center.

... An important piece of context is that Nixon seethed with contempt for the news media, which he believed had always belittled him and treated him unfairly. “Never forget: The press is the enemy,” he once told Henry Kissinger, his national security adviser. In that conversation, he repeated the phrase four times for good measure.

.... Meanwhile, The Post obtained copies of some of the Pentagon documents. Graham’s privately owned company was in the process of going public; executives warned her that publishing revelations from the secret papers could tank the stock price — and also put the broadcasting licenses of The Post’s profitable television stations at risk. Ultimately, the decision was Graham’s alone... "