All language subtitles for Becoming.Katharine.Graham.2025.1080p.AMZN.WEB-DL.H264-PTerWEB

♪♪

[Bradley] These presses
normally turn out

a half million copies

of Washington's
only morning newspaper.

But night before last,

according to officials
of The Washington Post,

the press men set fires,
slashed plates,

removed parts and
destroyed equipment just hours

after their contract expired

and The Post was forced
to shut down.

A spokesman for the company

that makes the printing
and folding machines

said he'd seen damage like this

in other countries
due to political unrest,

but never before
in the United States.

[crowd chanting indistinctly]

[Katharine] We were stunned

by having the presses
so badly damaged,

electrical wiring
had been ripped out.

Essential operating
parts removed

and newsprint rolls slashed.

[chanting "Boycott The Post!"]

[Katharine] The tensions for all
of us were indescribable,

and the strain on me was the
worst I have ever experienced.

The uncertainties,
the complications,

the violence against
the people who were working

were all overwhelming.

♪♪

I didn't really see
how we were going to manage.

I felt desperate
and secretly wondered

if I might have blown the
whole thing and lost the paper.

[Jennings] She is one
of the most powerful women

in the country.

She led an important
American newspaper

through very important times.

[Brokaw] A woman born
to great wealth and privilege,

a woman who then struggled
to find her own identity

when she went through
a wrenching personal tragedy.

[Walters] From homemaker to
the head of a publishing empire.

[Brokaw] The woman is
Katharine Graham,

publisher
of The Washington Post,

the grand dame
of American journalism.

[Male reporter]
Much has been made of Katharine Graham's social ties

to the movers and shakers
of the world

that have included everyone
from LBJ to Warren Buffett.

[Warren] I've had a number
of heroes in life,

and Kay Graham was
definitely a hero of mine.

[Warren] She was an accidental
publisher of what became

the most important paper
in the United States

at a crucial time
in the history of the country.

[Walters] Your life in many ways
is like two separate lives.

How would you describe
each life in a nutshell?

Doormat wife.

Working woman.

[Rose] Now she has written a
very candid account of her life.

[Brokaw] Her autobiography is
a stunningly candid account,

including the affairs,
a mental illness,

and the suicide of her husband,
Phil Graham.

I really don't suppose

that I meant to just tell
everything to everybody.

But once I sat down
to write my story,

I just tend to be frank
and open.

I told it the best I could.

♪♪

[Newsreel announcer] The
newspaper page is made up

within a heavy metal frame
called a chase.

Type and pictures are now
in the spaces allotted to them

in dummies
worked out well in advance.

[Katharine] In June of 1933,

my father bought
The Washington Post

at a public auction
for $825,000.

None of us
could have known then

what a transforming event
this would be in all our lives.

[Warren] Eugene Meyer
was a huge figure

in Wall Street, in Washington.

He started in Wall Street
with a very small sum

and went on to become
Chairman of the Fed.

They were the first out
of the World Bank.

He was a remarkable man.

[Katharine] From my first visit
to the paper in June of 1933,

The Post was constantly part
of my life.

I found myself deeply involved
with the struggle

to improve the paper.

I read The Post daily,

commented, encouraged,
and even criticized.

When I left for college
a year after the purchase,

my parents and I
corresponded constantly

about what was happening.

You graduated
from the University of Chicago

and had your stint out
at the San Francisco News.

That sounds like a great summer
you spent out there,

and indeed you were covering

as a young
labor reporter trainee.

I mean, the San Francisco
waterfront is a great site.

[Katharine] I covered
a longshoreman's labor dispute.

It was a lockout,

and I got to know
the negotiator for the unions

and the head
of the Warehouse Men's Union.

Although it isn't correct
these days,

I socialized with them at night

and we went up
and down the waterfront,

drinking what is known
as boilermakers.

And they were whiskey --
whiskey and beer mixed.

And you could get
a third one free

if you paid 25 cents
for the first two.

You know, there was always
a piano player in every bar,

and it was a really
wonderfully romantic moment.

I had a great time.

[Lamb] Then you returned
to Washington.

Well, my father
came out and said,

"I thought
you were coming home.

And aren't you coming
to work on The Post?"

What did he mean?

And what did I think?

I'm sure that
he wasn't talking to my sisters

or even my brother in this way.

I'm equally sure that neither
one of us saw me as a manager.

Looking back,

I can only assume that I
wanted to be a journalist

and that he had a newspaper.

And so I came
and went to work

on the editorial page
of The Post,

as the editor of the letters
to the editor.

And I wrote
occasional editorials,

the kind that tell you
not to walk on the grass.

[laughter]

♪♪

I grew up in the days
when women --

you were mentally kind of cast
is not as bright as men

and not as capable of learning.

The assumption at the time
was that men would go on

and have careers, and
women would maybe have a job,

but then get married
and have children.

[Katharine] You were expected to
have a family, run the houses,

and if you had spare time,
do good works.

My father and I were
growing closer

while my mother
and I were growing apart.

Though he lacked the gift
of intimacy,

in many ways, his supportive
love still came through to me.

He was the present parent,
oddly enough.

My mother was
very sort of self-absorbed.

She said, "I was a dutiful
but hardly a loving mother."

She thought that it was her duty

to have us well brought up,

the right nurses and
governesses,

the right schools.

But she didn't have to be there,

and nor did she have to
particularly have

a physical affection for us.

♪♪

My mother's effect on us
was often contradictory.

She set impossibly high
standards for us,

creating tremendous pressures

and undermining our ability
to accomplish

whatever modest aims
we may have set for ourselves.

If I said I loved
The Three Musketeers,

she responded
by saying I couldn't really

appreciate it unless I'd read
the original three volumes

in French as she had.

[Murrow] This has been
the Washington home

of Mr. and Mrs. Meyer
for 26 years.

It's about 2 miles
from the White House.

Good evening, Mrs. Meyer.

Good evening, Edward.

[Katharine]
My mother was very strong.

She was extraordinary.
She was brilliant.

She wrote very well.

And then she became very
interested in the latter part

of her life, in social and
welfare and education issues.

You're one
of the busiest people I know.

What's the latest project,
Mrs. Meyer?

Oh, uh, next week,

many of us are trying to get
the White House conference

on education to decide
that we need federal aid

for school construction,
Edward.

But that's going
to be a battle.

Ah, I know it is.

Where is Mr. Meyer?

I'll bet he's in the library
as usual, isn't he?

Yes. He's waiting
in the library for us.

[Katharine]
And she especially, I guess,

propagated these myths
about what Meyer girls

were supposed to be.

And that we were supposed
to be funny and eccentric

and, you know, popular

and all these things
that I knew I wasn't.

Mr. Meyer, I've heard
it said that all of Congress

has The Washington Post
for breakfast,

making it the most
influential newspaper in town.

Well, my satisfaction
as a newspaper man

is that the purpose
I had in buying it

seems to be in process
of being fulfilled

under the management
of my son-in-law

as publisher of the paper.

[Katharine] We were married
when I was not yet 23

and he was almost 25.

Everybody who knew him
really was captivated by him.

He was so entertaining.
He was so interesting.

And really, people sometimes
met him for 10 minutes

and succumbed to his charm.

[Don] Phil Graham was
just a magnificent man.

He was deeply sympathetic
with whoever he was talking to,

had a quick, emotional
understanding of his audience.

My father was fantastic.
He was charming.

He was funny.
He was tremendously charismatic.

All my friends loved him.

He really lit up a room.

"Incandescent" is just
the right word.

[Katharine]
My father loved Phil.

It was very,
very wonderful relationship.

And so he persuaded Phil
to come to The Post.

He wanted to make sure that,
um, he had a successor in place.

And so my father named Phil
publisher.

He became publisher
when he was not quite 31.

[Don] My grandfather,
Eugene Meyer,

asked my dad to become
publisher of The Post

and said if he wouldn't do that,

he thought he would
have to sell the paper

because his one son
didn't want to run The Post

and he didn't think about
his daughters.

[Katharine] I owned one third
and he owned two thirds

of the controlling shares.

My father had arranged this
because he said to me

that no man should work for
his wife.

Phil had run it very, very well
and made the paper much better.

Newsweek was for sale
and Phil had bought it.

He was tall, he was handsome,
he was charismatic,

and he was just a wonderful
publisher of the paper.

[Katharine] Phil and I
had a very happy time.

I grew up considerably in those
years, mostly thanks to him.

But always it was he
who decided, and I responded.

Yet, though I was thoroughly
fascinated and charmed by Phil,

I was also slightly resentful
when I thought about it

and feeling such
complete dependence

on another individual,
I seemed, perversely,

to enjoy the role
of doormat wife.

[Weymouth]
He mingled with everybody,

all the senators,
all the congressmen.

They came over to our house.
It was fun.

In those days,
Washington was much more casual.

People would come over
to the house.

There was no Secret Service
hovering around.

So even as kids, it was fun.

[Katharine] I feel very
privileged to have known

Presidents Kennedy and Johnson
before they were president.

Kennedy.
He was really charming.

He teased.
He was interested in you.

He concentrated on whoever
it was he was talking to.

And it was the first time

we had known a president
who was our age.

Of course, Phil was related
to them somewhat differently

because he got involved
in politics with them.

In 1957,
he had become involved

with the then majority leader,

Lyndon Johnson, in passing
the 1957 civil rights law.

He had become involved

in the desegregation
of the Little Rock school,

and he wanted to prevent
Eisenhower sending

the troops in there.

And when it failed,

I think it threw him
into his first depression.

He was subject
to manic-depressive illness

before lithium was being used.

So he essentially suffered
from untreated manic depression.

I thought
that Phil literally created me.

I mean, I'd grown so under him.

My interests were better.
I was sure of myself.

But there was just this subtle
thing that at the same time

he was building me up,
in a way,

he too, was undermining
my self-confidence.

If I went on too long about a
story, he'd sort of look at me.

And it was that kind of thing
that really made me think,

"Gee, I must be boring."

And I guess led to my silence.

Then you found out
he was having an affair?

Yes.
That was the last year.

In 1963.

Yes.

He was on the phone with this
young woman, and I had no idea.

I guess I must have been dense,

but anyway, I didn't.

And I went in and said,
"Is this true?"

And he said, "Yes,"

and he said everything
that was the matter with him

was my fault
and that he wanted a divorce.

[Remnick] He'd become so erratic
that, at one point,

I believe President Kennedy
had to send a government plane

out west to retrieve
Phil Graham,

who was misbehaving in some way,
to bring him back to Washington.

[Katharine] I'd been married
to Phil Graham for 23 years.

I was trying to keep
the children's lives as normal

as possible and
the outside world unsuspecting.

As a result of all this,

I came close
to the breaking point myself.

He said he was going to go off
with this young woman,

and he was going to take
the paper with him.

But I cared so much
about the paper and the company

that I couldn't deal with that.

And I was going to dig
in at that point

and that I was going to fight.

Phil Graham comes home

after being
in an institution.

He'd only been there
six weeks,

but he -- he seemed very,
very much better.

And he got a day off from the --
from the mental hospital.

And he said
he wanted to go to our farm.

And I thought --
I was worried about it,

but the -- the doctors all
had a fight about

whether he --
he should go or not,

but he was very manipulative
and he got them to let him go.

And he deceived me into thinking
he was better than he was.

And he went down there
and he killed himself.

And you found him?

Yes.

[Don] She was taking a nap,

and my dad took out a shotgun
and went in

and -- and shot himself.

And it was awful for all four
of us, each in our own way.

I was 18,

I was between my first
and second years in college.

And, uh, there's an awful lot
of people in the --

in the world who live with
the suicide in the family

and -- and, uh,
it -- you think about it

for the rest of your life.

♪♪

When my dad died,
she had to decide,

"Am I going to sell
the company?"

Which I think most people
would have expected her to do.

"Or will I somehow try
to run it myself?"

Although no woman was running
a business of that size,

I think, in the United States.

[Harris]
She decided to run it herself,

and it's prospered.

I wondered how
this decision to return tycoon

had affected her
as the mother of four children.

Uh, I think that it's the
problems of any working mother.

Uh, there's always a tear
between home and -- and job.

Um, the boys were
very understanding

and -- and very good about this,

and it seems to me
they've survived quite well.

And so have I.

I was determined
to keep the paper.

I viewed it as
a sort of holding place

until my son grew up.

Katharine Graham
suddenly becomes the publisher.

Her entire board are White men.

Just a giant circle
of White men,

all of whom
have a kind of condescending,

wary attitude toward her.

She just had nobody
on her side,

and everybody that
was talking to her had an angle.

[Weymouth] She had no idea
how to write a speech,

and she was tremendously nervous
about it.

She was rehearsing over
and over and over again.

She said, "There are going to be
a lot of rumors around

about this company being
for sale,

and I want to assure you all
that it is not for sale

and no part of it is for sale.

This is a family company

and there's another generation
coming along."

[Katharine] It was really hard

because I didn't know anything
about being in business.

I didn't know anything
about management.

I didn't know anything about
complicated editorial issues.

I didn't know
how to use a secretary.

[Don] She was...beyond...
unsure of herself.

She was as self-doubting as
any human being has ever been.

[Weymouth]
It was daunting to her,

and she would rehearse
her Christmas speeches

in our bedrooms like, you know,

"Welcome
to the Christmas party.

You know, I'm so happy
that you're here."

I remained totally silent
for about a year,

and it took a great deal
of courage the first time

I asked a question
at an editorial lunch.

I was so scared.

♪♪

At a little past one,
Kay Graham came for me

and we went down to the park

right off
of Constitution Avenue

to open the art fair,

which is being sponsored
by The Washington Post.

Kay made a really excellent
little speech,

shaking all the while,

surprising that a woman of
her poise and accomplishments

should be really frightened.

How well Kay Graham
is taking over

after the tragic death
of Phil.

I think she's pushed herself
into being a really live part

of a business empire,
and in doing so,

as having
a more interesting life.

She is an appealing woman.

But unfortunately, when you
know and like somebody,

it makes it all the more
painful

when that paper takes
you apart unfairly.

[Man] I think
we're gonna have to work

on Mrs. Graham.

[Pres. Johnson]
Mrs. Graham, she claims

she's the best friend I got,
and they murder me every day.

Johnson, to my mind, was
tough and bullied and bargained,

but he was terribly able.

[Warren] With Johnson, he knew
how to press her buttons,

but The Post really was
independent.

[Pres. Johnson] Hello.
[Katharine] Hello, Mr. President.

Hello, my sweetheart.
How are you?

Well, I'm fine. Are you?

You know, only one thing
I dislike about this job

is that I'm married

and I can't ever
get to see you.

I just hear
that sweet voice,

and, uh, that's always
on the telephone.

And I'd like to break out
of here and be

like one of these young animals
down on my ranch.

Jump a fence.

[ Laughing ]

That's gonna set me
up for the month.

[Warren] He would clearly try
and romance her,

but she was very, very smart

and she read people well.

[Pres. Johnson]
When Phil was here,

he'd sit down and write
in longhand in 30 minutes

what we're going to do, and if
you just go up to heaven,

get him, bring him back where
he can sit in

and advise with me awhile.

[Katharine] You can be friends
with people in the government,

but they remember and you
remember, the paper comes first.

Has that choice
that you made in 1963

to go into the business
and run it

had any effect on you
personally,

on your personality?

Oh, very much.
It's extraordinary how, to me,

how what you do all day
alters what you are.

Uh, in a sense,
this is what women's liberation,

which a lot of people
laugh about,

are talking about a lot
over here,

but I think they've got
a very important point,

which is changes of attitudes
toward women working.

[Steinem]
When I first met Kay,

I was surprised
by how shy she was.

People might have been surprised
that she and I were friends

because she came from
a very powerful family.

I had come from a kind of
a working-class neighborhood

in Toledo,
but I think a lot of us

who were her friends
came to understand

that Kay was a way
more universal person,

but it always seemed to me
she suffered from the idea

that women supported men
who acted,

but women did not act
on their own,

and that that was an idea
of her own mother

in addition to the world.

[Katharine] There are situations

when you're on an equal basis
with men

in a committee meeting
or something like that, uh,

in which you feel they don't
have much regard for your view.

I've also become aware
in the last two or three years

that a lot of men really
don't like working for a woman.

Almost no man knew anyone

who worked for a woman
as their boss.

And if men had any insecurities,
this situation brought them out.

[Katharine] For 10 years,

I learned about management
at The Post,

and I went up to Newsweek,

and I just kept trying
to learn the issues from the men

who were running things.

And of course,
they were all men.

[Don] She thought
The Post needs to be better,

and she wanted someone at a
different phase of their career,

somebody who was full of energy,

somebody who wanted to be
there all the time,

somebody who would get
the place moving.

And Ben Bradlee was

the Washington
bureau chief at Newsweek.

My mother told me

that she was thinking of making
him the editor of The Post.

I knew what a crucial choice
this was

for The Post and for her.

[Katharine] I asked him,
"What are your interests?"

And Ben -- Ben said, "Well,
now that you asked me,

he said, "I'd give my left one

to be managing editor
of The Post."

Within days
she was telling me,

"I know this guy's
gonna be great."

She was very quick
to figure out who he was,

and he was very quick
to figure out who she was.

[Katharine] We had a very,
very small staff,

and we built up both the size
and the quality of the staff

under Ben Bradlee.

[Bernstein] I think that
Ben's recognition

of what Katharine had been
through with Phil Graham

was profound,

and he probably got as good
or better look

at her transition
into being a publisher

and a world figure.

[Katharine] I'm the president
of The Washington Post Company,

which has three divisions.

It owns
The Washington Post paper,

it has a television division
with four television stations

and two radio stations,
and it owns Newsweek magazine.

[Povich] In November of '66,
I started at Newsweek.

If you were coming into Newsweek
as a woman,

you were actually
first put on the mail desk

where you delivered mail
to all of the writers.

And then you were moved
up to researcher,

which is essentially
a fact checker.

[Steinem] That was a hard
and fast rule.

Even on Newsweek,
even though it was owned by Kay.

[Quarles]
Today, most women

are still
at the same tedious jobs,

and they earn only half
of what men earn.

[Povich] It's illegal
to segregate jobs by gender.

The 1964 Civil Rights
Act outlawed that.

This was 1969, and that's
when we began to organize.

And so I, as a young reporter
in the Life and Leisure section,

started covering stories
about the women's movement.

Newsweek decided
it was going to do a cover story

on the women's movement,

and that really galvanized
the women

to actually file
our complaint with the EEOC

and to publicly announce
it the day

that Newsweek appeared
on its stands

with a cover story
called "Women in Revolt."

And we wanted to let
Katharine Graham know

that we were filing this suit.

We felt that since she was
the woman owner of Newsweek,

that we should give
her a heads-up

that we were filing this suit.

She should not find it
out on the news.

I'm sure it was hard on Kay,

because, after all,
she was the owner.

And yet her heart and sympathies

were probably with the women
who were striking against her.

They told her that the women
had filed this complaint,

and she said, "Which side am
I supposed to be on?"

You know, she already had
a sense of being a woman herself

in a profession where
she was not taken seriously.

She was not respected,

and yet her company
was also being sued essentially

for the same kind
of discrimination.

[Steinem] In the end,
women became able

not just to research,
but also to write.

[Katharine] The women's movement
occurred in the late '60s.

I'd gone to work in '63,

and so I essentially
experienced it

while I was at the top
of a company.

You know, she had to go
through her own transition.

She was also a person
of her generation,

which is previous
to our generation.

And so I think that this period
was one of transition for her.

I have to confess
that I suppose

due to the totally private life
I led, uh,

and led with three very strong
individuals in the form

of both my parents
and then my husband,

who was a very brilliant
and very...

predominant figure,

that there really weren't room
for any more predominance.

Put it that way.

[Steinem] One of our first
meetings came about

because she wanted the editorial
board of The Washington Post

to support the Equal
Rights Amendment editorially,

and they were not doing so.

She felt she couldn't order
them to.

So she asked me to come
address an editorial meeting.

I'm not sure I convinced them.

And of course, we still don't
have the Equal Rights Amendment.

[Women]
Equal pay for equal work.

[Male reporter] These women
want equal job opportunities,

equal pay with men
for the same jobs.

This is where they're at.

A lot of women working,
nearly 30 million of them,

but very few
in executive positions.

[Steinem] It was part
of the women's movement

to help overcome
the assigned inferior role

that society has given
groups of people.

And Kay, you know,
had this doubly in a way,

because she had it not only from
society but from her own family.

[Katharine] The worst handicap
women work under

is the self-inflicted one

that if you've grown up
thinking of yourself

as a second-class citizen,

that you tend always
to put yourself down.

♪♪

However slow I was to learn,

I finally became increasingly
aware and involved.

Most important to me was not
the central message

of the movement
that women were equal,

but that women had a right

to choose which
lifestyle suited them.

We all had a right
to a frame of reference.

Other than that, we were
put on earth to catch a man,

hold him and please him.

[Remnick] She changed.

She did gain a greater sense
of who she was

and what she had accomplished.

[Osberg] She didn't want
a label of being a feminist,

but she was on the forefront
of everything.

I can see how
the women's movement

brought her into herself.

I mean,
it's what she lived through.

Only she was way ahead of
her time in trying to do it.

[Chanting "Stop the war
in Vietnam"]

♪♪

[Steinem] The country was
going through a major sea change

because it was engaged
in a war in Vietnam,

which was not supported
by the majority of Americans.

The Nixon administration was
very clearly on the wrong side,

and that made a very thorny set

of reporting circumstances for
Kay and The Washington Post.

[Don] A reporter on The Times
had received a copy

of what is now called
the Pentagon Papers

from Daniel Ellsberg,

a historian who
had been working in the Pentagon

undertaking a history
of how the United States

got into the war in Vietnam.

[Secretary] General Haig, sir.
Ready.

The Justice Department
went to court in New York today

and got a temporary order
restraining The Times

from publishing the next
and last two installments.

[Don] The federal government
had never gotten

a newspaper to stop
printing a story.

Ellsberg called an editor
on The Washington Post,

whom he knew, eager to see
the rest of the story printed.

[Kaiser] It comes at this
absolutely critical moment,

because Katharine Graham
is taking

The Washington Post public
at precisely this moment.

Everybody's terrified

that Nixon is going to
somehow screw this up.

So Kay had to make
this decision on

whether to print
the Pentagon Papers.

The government had made
it stand clear that, "No,

you shouldn't print it.

It's classified.
It's top secret."

Kay received a message saying,

"We want you to know that
a company convicted of a felony,

for example,
violating the Espionage Act,

cannot own television stations."

The message really threatened
us with criminal prosecution.

And it went on to point out
that papers with, um, criminal,

um, decisions against them

obviously could
not own television stations.

[Weymouth] Our TV stations
provided the revenue

to prop up
The Washington Post,

which was not a money earner
in those days.

And so the businessmen
were saying, you know,

"Think twice about this."

She knew
that her lawyers were saying,

"Do not print these stories.

It's going to put the paper
in grave danger."

And Kay came
to the understanding

that she would have to make
the decision.

[Katharine]
The editors were all on the phone pleading to go ahead.

And I thought
that we could risk it,

although it was
really dangerous.

She trusted Ben,

and ultimately she preferred
his judgment,

which was that it was crucial
to the future of The Post

to get the story in the paper
that day.

No delay. Right then.

[Katharine] And so I said,
"Let's go. Let's publish."

And I hung up
because I was so freaked out

by having had to make
that decision so fast.

[Don] And off they went,

and they printed the story
in the paper the next day.

Well, this morning
The Washington Post moved

into the breach
and began publishing

other parts
of those same Pentagon Papers.

Here in Washington,

the Justice Department
went to court

to try to stop The Post
from continuing to publish them.

We didn't publish
those papers for two weeks

while we were going through
the courts.

The Supreme Court said no
to the government

and yes to the newspaper,

voting 6-3
to let The New York Times

and The Washington Post print
the rest of the Pentagon Papers.

We are extremely gratified,

not only
from the point of newspapers,

which is not the least
of our concerns,

but gratified from
the point of view of the public

and the public's right to know,

which is what
we were concerned with.

♪♪

[Cohen] Publishing
the Pentagon Papers meant

that this was
a dangerous newspaper now.

Dangerous if you were
a lying politician.

Dangerous
if you were a corrupt person.

This put us in the same
situation as The New York Times.

And people began
to say The New York Times

and The Washington Post
for the first time.

Two major-league papers.
Yes.

It forged a confidence
in the paper

that we had amongst ourselves,

a great sense that we had in
Katharine Graham somewhat,

who would be on the ramparts
with us under any conditions.

[Warren]
The right person controlled

The Washington Post Company
at that time.

There were very few people who
would have behaved as she did.

[Katharine] It prepared us
for Watergate,

for the tough decisions

and the difficulties
with the government

that we would have to make
in the Watergate reporting.

♪♪

It was sort of a farce.

Five men discovered
in the Watergate

with surgical gloves on,
breaking into something.

You couldn't tell why or what.

[Woodward] The judge asked
the lead burglar, James McCord,

"Where did you work?"

And McCord said, "CIA."

And in the front row,
I kind of blurted out,

hopefully under my breath,
"Holy shit."

Mr. McCoy's been released
on bail.

[Female reporter]
Why weren't the others?

[Woodward] James McCord had been
head of security for the CIA

and was head of security for
the Nixon reelection committee.

The next day,
Woodward and I were told

to come in to the office
and continue work on the story.

[Don] They're finding little
bits of additional information

and sometimes big bits
of additional information

that are driving the story in
a very uncomfortable direction.

[Katharine] In no time,
it became our story.

And of course,

the administration's
reactions to it grew,

and they became very intense.

[Pres. Nixon] Alright.

♪♪

[Katharine] We ran these stories
and nobody picked them up.

They go out on the wire
and nobody would run them.

Other papers didn't believe us.

[whistle blows]

Usually somebody does
a big story, it goes everywhere.

And, um,
it wasn't going everywhere.

It really was The Washington
Post versus Richard Nixon.

The Nixon people wanted it
to be seen

as a Washington Post story.

As long as it was
a Washington Post story,

it was containable.

[Weymouth] No one's picking up
the story,

and so she was really worried.

And she's like,
"If it's such a great story,

where is everybody
on this great story?"

[Cohen] We all had doubts.

Katharine did,
and it was being mocked.

[Katharine] People who were
essentially friends said,

you know, "Are you sure you
know what you're doing?

Are you crazy?"

[Hoagland] I was dealing
with ambassadors,

with American diplomats.

There was a general sense

Washington Post is giving
the president a hard time.

"Why are you guys doing that?"

[Katharine]
Readers, too, were writing me,

accusing The Post
of ulterior motives,

bad journalism,
lack of patriotism.

As an anonymous White House
aide told Time magazine,

"To screw The Washington Post."

[Warren]
At The Washington Post,

they had editorial lunches.

Clare Boothe Luce was invited.

Henry Luce started
Time magazine.

Her husband had died in 1967.

Henry Luce,
who everybody called Harry,

probably had more influence
on the American public

than anybody except the
president of the United States.

And Clare was a very, very
strong personality.

And she became a very, very,
very staunch Republican.

So anyway, Clare starts really
attacking the newsroom.

And at one point, Clare says,

"Last night in a dream I had,
Harry came to me.

And Harry said to me that what
The Washington Post is doing

is going to destroy democracy.

And at that point,
Kay Graham, who was

sitting across
and never said anything,

immediately replied

in that incredibly
upper-class diction of hers,

"Well, Clare,
that is really strange.

Because last night,
Phil came to me in a dream

and he said Harry
was full of shit."

[laughs]

[Katharine] I really hate fights
and I hate this kind of scene,

but when cornered,
then I can fight.

She learned
how to intimidate the hell

out of everybody she met.

[Katharine]
I obviously grew on the job.

You have to.

I was very anxious,

but I also didn't think we had
any choice except to proceed.

♪♪

[Bernstein]
There is an incrementalism

to the coverage of the story.

We found out about
the secret fund,

and we found out
that John N. Mitchell,

former Attorney General
of the United States,

and Nixon's
former law partner

and manager of his campaign,

that he was among those
who controlled that fund.

There has been no indication
or no proof

that any funds have
been siphoned off of any

of the committees in connection
with the Watergate bugging.

[Bernstein] So I had a phone
number for Mitchell,

and I called him
and he answered the phone

and I told him
why I was calling.

There was a story
in the next day's paper.

I started to read it to him

and I got as far
as John N. Mitchell,

while Attorney General
of the United States,

controlled a secret fund.

And Mitchell said,
"Jesus Christ, all that crap

you're putting in the paper.

If you print that,
Katie Graham is going to get

her tit caught
in a big, fat wringer."

And I literally felt a chill,
literally.

He hung up the phone.

♪♪

[Katharine]
Ben told Carl to use it all

except the specific reference
to my tit.

There was a concentration on me

as the personification
of the paper,

because I was a woman
in this job,

and therefore this was
all my doing.

I mean,
that was a loud message.

It's easier
to go after the women.

You know, it's just easier.

I mean, she was
the perfect target, too --

a woman in a man's world.

I think it was hard
for men to accept the fact

that women could be more than,

you know,
the secretary in the office.

I'm sure Nixon looked at her
as, you know,

she came
into the job by accident

and was unprepared.

[Katharine] So I think he was
a real Jekyll-Hyde character,

because he had all these things

that we keep seeing
coming out on the tapes

and this really low-level side
to him.

In October, the tempo
of the whole story picked up.

I think for the first time,
we're starting to see

the general outlines
of the whole conspiracy

and the subsequent cover-up.

Watergate required decision
making on all kinds of levels,

and that required great
collaboration

between Ben and Katharine.

In terms of the pressure

that the publisher was under,
it was enormous.

I made a lot of speeches
defending us during Watergate.

The suggestion has been
made that out of some personal

and let me add, non-existent,
hatred for the president,

I personally ordered a campaign

against the Nixon
administration.

I was trying to explain

that we weren't
after the administration.

It wasn't our intention
to do them in.

This is not a charge
we can afford to take lightly,

because it goes
straight to the central issue

of fairness and objectivity,

as distinct from bias
in the reporting of news.

[Secretary]
Mr. President, Mr. Colson.

We knew that Watergate
was a big bore

to most American people,
and Nixon won in a landslide.

[Katharine]
President Nixon was re-elected

with 61% of the vote,

evidence of how little impact
Watergate had had.

Nixon immediately turned
to vengeance

and to strengthening
his hold on power.

Unfairness is often
in the eyes of the beholder,

especially when he feels some
particular interest of his own

has been adversely affected

by what others would term
a neutral news report.

We are in business, after all,
of describing people

and their activities
and their causes and conflicts.

And it is a simple fact
that people do not like

to be described by others.

The first job of journalism,

and this is essential,
is to put pressure on power,

pressure on power,
investigative pressure,

reporting pressure,

intellectual pressure on the
ideas being put out by power.

And if a newspaper or a site
that's serious isn't doing that,

they're not doing anything.

[Katharine] The performance
of the reporters and editors

on the Watergate story
speaks for itself,

and in our judgment, it speaks
well for American journalism.

For what it really
comes down to,

is nothing less than the state
of the First Amendment,

our freedom to gather the news
and to publish it,

and your freedom to read it.

♪♪

[Pres. Nixon] No reporter
from The Washington Post

is ever to be
in the White House.

Is that clear?
[Ziegler] Absolutely.

No reporter
from The Washington Post

is ever to be
in the White House again.

And no photographer
either.

No photographer.
Is that clear? Yes, sir.

None ever to be in.
Now, that is a total order.

And if necessary,
I'll fire you.

You understand?
I do understand.

Okay.

[Katharine]
They were really after us.

They were trying to get even,

and they wanted to do as much
damage as they could do to us.

The Nixon administration
was accused today

of raising the most serious
challenge to a free press

in modern history.

Two Florida television
stations owned

by The Washington Post Company,

whose newspaper is often
critical of the administration,

now are facing
license renewal fights.

If people perceive
your television licenses,

which are very valuable,
as being in danger,

um, your stock falls.

And it did.

The idea that we could lose
our television licenses

made the stock dive,

and so the company was
worth half what it had been

before Watergate started.

[Warren] It really got dumped.

It went from about 38
to, like, 21.

It was cheap at 38,
in relation to the real value,

but it got dumped

and it got dumped
by big institutional holders.

So in a very short
period of time,

we were able to buy
a significant amount

of the "B" shares,
which had limited voting power.

They did not represent a threat

to the Graham family
for control.

[Katharine] He bought into the
company and I didn't know him.

I looked him up
and I checked him out,

and I was really scared
of his buying in

and worried
that he wasn't benevolent.

[Warren]
She was trying to size me up

and everybody around her
told her,

"Watch out for this guy."

[Don] Warren Buffett was
not famous in 1973.

There hadn't been much written
about him,

and I didn't know what
to make of this.

Nobody had ever done
such a thing,

but my mother had often
a great ability

to recognize
highly talented people.

[Katharine] A lot of people
said, "Stiff-arm him.

He's buying too much stock.

He means you no good."

My native instinct,

and I think I learned it
from Phil, actually,

was, "Let's take a look,
let's see what he's like."

And so I asked to meet him.

[Susie] She was coming out
to California.

We were out there
at our house in Laguna Beach.

My dad bought a bathing suit
and actually pretended

like he went to the beach,
which he didn't really do,

but he wanted to act
like he was Mr. California

because she was coming
and it was this big deal.

It was like the Queen was
arriving, according to my dad.

I said, "Mrs. Graham,
you control this company

lock, stock and barrel,

but you're still worried
about me."

So I said, "What you're
doing is you're looking at me

and you're seeing fangs,
and I'm telling you,

these are baby teeth, but they
always look like fangs to you.

And there's nothing I can do
except take them out.

I'm going to just take
them all out."

And I said,
"I'll sign an agreement

that I'll never buy
another share of stock

of Washington Post
unless you give me the okay.

You know,
I want you happy with me.

I don't want you nervous
about me."

[Katharine] He thinks very
creatively about business.

And I thought, "Whoa,
this guy's really terrific."

And he taught me so much
about business.

I felt very lucky
when I realized

that he had just arrived
on our doorstep unexpectedly.

[Don]
She was beyond lucky.

Thank God our stock got so cheap

that it attracted Warren's
attention in 1973,

but it was the greatest thing.

In business,

it was the greatest thing that
ever happened to Kay Graham.

[Katharine] So I got to know him
better and better.

And finally I invited him
on the board.

I saw things
you wouldn't think you would see

in corporate America,
I'll put it that way.

She was getting a lot of baloney
from executives

that were excusing
poor performance,

telling her that if she
understood more about business

they were doing
the right things.

Everybody worked on her.

They wanted to be close to her
and direct her

as much as they could, and they
wanted to play on her fears.

He built up her self-confidence

and he told her,
"You can do this.

You're smart.
You're doing great."

And she needed to hear that.

He's always been
very strongly pro-woman.

You know, he had two sisters,
and they're as smart as he is.

And they didn't have
the same opportunities.

That's how it was
when they were younger.

You know, you were just expected
to be the housewife

or maybe a teacher
or a nurse or a secretary.

I think my dad learned
a lot from my mother.

I grew up in a house

where that wasn't the message
I got

as the only girl
in the household.

But, you know, I'm sure
Mrs. Graham got that message,

and -- and I know that
my dad would say his sisters

got the same message.

So he was very helpful to her
in that sense.

I think she learned
just a ton from him.

[Osberg] I believe from her
point of view,

he literally changed her life.

She didn't know numbers.
She didn't know finance.

He was her guide and her coach.

He used to come
to board meetings

with about 20 annual reports,

and he would take me
through these annual reports.

I mean, it was
like going to business school

with Warren Buffett.

[Warren]
I became her best friend.

♪♪

There was some justification
for being worried about what

Nixon might do about
TV stations.

She always felt that
The Post was more vulnerable

to financial troubles
than it was.

[Pres. Nixon] Hello.
[Secretary] Mr. President, Mr. Colson.

♪♪

[Katharine] I lay awake
many nights worrying.

The very existence
of The Post was at stake.

[Don] There were threats.

Henry Kissinger, for one,
told her to be very careful.

Ben Bradlee,
your editor in chief,

has said that you have
the guts of a burglar,

which he meant
as a high compliment.

Weren't you frightened?

When Ben said guts
of the burglar,

it's a kind
of nice expression,

meaning that the management
of the paper

was going to back
the editorial people up.

And the answer to
where we scared is yes.

We had a great deal
at stake.

You'd see them
in the newsroom together,

and there was
an immense closeness.

Not only
did they work well together

and with some efficiency
and common purpose,

but she stood behind him
and not only with her money,

but with her institution
and support.

Bradlee understood
Katharine Graham.

He gave her confidence
and she gave him permission.

She made it a point
to take home the research

into all the illegalities
of the Nixon administration,

to take home the papers,
to safeguard them every night,

so that the research
couldn't be seized

by any Nixonian outside forces.

[Bernstein] I got a call from
the guard at the desk

saying he had a subpoena
for our notes.

Bradlee said,
"Hold on a minute.

Just let me get back to you."

And he called Katharine
and he said, "Okay,

they're not your notes.

Katherine says they're
her notes.

And if anybody
is going to go to jail

for withholding their notes
and not turning it over,

it's going to be her."

[Milloy] You needed nerve.

You need to be
able to withstand stuff.

Kay Graham set the standard,
a high bar, for having nerve.

♪♪

[Male reporter] The Watergate
scandal broke wide open today.

The two closest
men to the president,

H.R. Haldeman,
his chief of staff,

and John Ehrlichman, his chief
domestic adviser, have resigned.

The president's
White House legal counsel,

John Dean, has been fired.

[Man] Eventually it's
going to come out.

There's just too damn
many people involved.

[Pres. Nixon] The whole goddamn
story is going to come out.

The whole story
is going to come out.

The Senate tonight voted 77
to nothing

to establish a select committee
to investigate

alleged political espionage in
last year's election campaign.

That includes
the Watergate bugging case.

[Ervin] The committee
will come to order.

John Dean,
Nixon's White House counsel,

turned against Nixon and
gave days of detailed testimony

about Nixon's involvement.

[Dean] I'm convinced
that the Senate decided

to set up a special
select committee

to investigate it.
It's because of The Post.

At one point
in the conversation,

I recall the president
telling me to keep a good list

of the press people
giving us trouble

because we'll make
life difficult for them

after the election.

[Susie]
Every day in front of the TV

with my dad watching
the Watergate hearings.

That's what I remember.
I mean, it was fascinating.

[Utley]
There was a surprise witness at the Watergate hearings today,

and he made
a dramatic disclosure.

[Man] Are you aware
of the installation

of any listening devices in the
Oval Office of the president?

♪♪

I was aware of
listening devices.

Yes, sir.

[Warren] Nixon was a very smart
guy in some ways,

and he was, you know,
about as paranoid

as you could be,
but he self-destructed.

The Senate
Watergate Committee learned

of the existence
of tape recordings

of President Nixon's
conversations.

The committee immediately
asked for those tapes.

And today it got its reply --
a formal, official "no."

Things were getting worse
and worse and worse.

And you saw that
the presidency was coming apart.

The Supreme Court
has just ruled

on the tape controversy
and here is Carl Stern,

who has that ruling.

It is a unanimous
decision, Doug.

8 to 0.

Justice Rehnquist took
no part in the decision

ordering the president
of the United States

to turn over the tapes.

[Katharine] We were essentially
saved by the tapes.

You know,
if the tapes hadn't come out,

I don't know where we'd all be.

[Mudd] The president
himself admitted

he has lost his
impeachment fight in the House.

[Chancellor] It looks as
though President Nixon

Is going to resign tonight.

♪♪

[Katharine] I was on vacation
on Martha's Vineyard,

and I got on a plane and went
right back to the paper

because I thought
I wanted to be there.

[applause]

[Woodward]
The day Nixon resigned...

Fascinating moment.

His farewell to the staff,

his friends in the East Room
of the White House.

Uh, it was a psychiatric hour
on live television.

I remember my old man.

I think that...
they would've called him

sort of a...

a sort of little man,
common man.

My mother was a saint.

She will have no books
written about her.

♪♪

But she was a saint.

Now, however,
we look to the future.

Always remember,
others may hate you,

but those who hate you
don't win unless you hate them.

And then you destroy
yourself.

He got it.

Hate was the piston
that drove him.

Nixon used the presidency

as an instrument
of personal revenge.

And that was the poison -- hate.

[Katharine] Nixon hated The Post
and us personally

through his dying day.

When he left in the helicopter,

the first time I heard
the words "President Ford,"

I just couldn't believe it.

And I really did feel relieved.

♪♪

[Male reporter] No other paper
kept after the Watergate story

the way
The Washington Post did.

It could not have happened

unless Mrs. Graham
had wanted it.

[Katharine]
People have occasionally said

that we brought
down a president,

and I want to emphasize
that did not happen.

[Warren] She backed Ben Bradlee
at a time

when politicians
were opposing her,

other news organizations
were not picking up on it.

The Washington Post
was out there all by itself.

And that piece of journalism
changed the world.

[Katharine] I didn't take
any personal pleasure in this.

We were pleased at having
our reporting vindicated,

but I don't think that anybody
wanted to bring him down

or thought that President
of the United States

having to resign
because he would be impeached

was a great event
for the country.

We didn't.

♪♪

[Man] For her relentless pursuit
of the truth

and for her courage
in using the media

to uphold the principle
of the people's right to know,

Katharine Graham.

[applause]

I'm proud to accept this award

for everyone at The Post
who contributed

to our Watergate coverage,
especially.

My husband, Philip Graham,

once described the job
of the press

as providing a first
rough draft of history

that will never
be fully completed,

about a world we can
never completely understand.

For its
investigative reporting

of the Watergate scandal,

The Washington Post
today won the Pulitzer Prize

for Distinguished
Public Service.

That's not surprising news,

since The Post did
better work on that story

than any other institution
in American journalism.

The press in this country,

under a constitutional
democracy,

is set up to be the critic
of the government.

And it's very important

that they do that
with a lot of responsibility.

We were proud of the part
we had played.

The pressures on us
up to that point, however,

when nothing to those
that followed.

Just as I thought
things had calmed down,

we went through
a very violent pressmen strike.

[Reasoner] Publication
of The Washington Post

has been suspended
because of a strike by the men

who run the paper's
printing presses.

[Katharine]
There was mass picketing.

There were fire trucks.
Smoke. Television cameras.

Lights.

And it was just
an unbelievable scene.

They all saw me coming,

and I had to walk
through the mass picket line...

...which was a little scary.

[Warren] She was terrified.

But she was more afraid
during the strike

that the whole place
would come crashing down

and that what
her father had bought in 1933

that she would be responsible
for destroying.

[Katharine]
The only way I can describe

the extent of my anxiety

is to say that I felt as
if I were pregnant with a rock.

Yet, despite my inner turmoil,

I had to appear calm
and determined

and to come across
as optimistic in order

to convey that attitude
to others.

We announced that there
would be no paper the next day

and had no guess as to

when we would be
able to resume publication.

This is
not an isolated instance here

The Post has created.

This follows a chain of activity

within the newspaper field
in this country.

This is not the first place

where we've been forced
out on the street on strike.

She was not anti-labor.
I mean, you know,

there are plenty of newspaper
publishers in the country

it was a matter of religion
to break unions

and all that sort of thing.

Kay did not feel that way
in the least.

I mean, she was working
on the West Coast.

I mean, she -- she knew
the labor leaders out there,

and she -- she was
in no way doctrinaire

about being anti-union.

[Katharine] I cared a great deal
about the company

and about The Post, which
that struggle for its existence

had been part of my whole life.

The strikers plainly thought,

"If you hit Katharine Graham
hard enough, she'll give up.

She'll give us what we want."

[Katharine] Someone had
previously been in touch

with several small,
non-union suburban papers

about printing parts of the
paper in the event of a strike.

Meanwhile, Roger Parkinson set
to work trying to find a way

to get the pages
from our building

to the outside small plants
for printing.

The Washington Post,
its presses

crippled in a violent strike
by press operators,

said today that nonetheless,

tomorrow morning's editions
will come out.

The Post said out-of-town
presses will be used.

[Katharine] Having been in a
Green Beret unit in Vietnam,

Roger thought of helicopters

and had the wit to look
under "H" in the Yellow Pages,

where he found a company

willing
to contract for the flights.

The parking lot was dismissed
as being too close

to the picketers.

The roof was chosen
as being safer.

John Waits of production ran up
the stairs to the roof

with the film,
handing it to Roger,

who in turn
handed it over to the pilot.

We all cheered
as the helicopter took off.

I was on the roof
watching an amazement.

♪♪

And in my great excitement,
realizing that this would work,

I hugged everyone in sight.

♪♪

[Mudd] The Post today
put out a limited edition,

using the facilities
of at least six newspapers

within a 150-mile radius
of Washington.

One of the purposes
of a newspaper

is to be the conscience
of the community.

They monitor the government.
They monitor industry.

They monitor
the entire community.

The problem we have
with The Washington Post is

since they're everybody else's
conscience,

they've set themselves up where
no one can look at what they do.

This is not a strike for money,
it's a strike for dignity.

They can take their final offer
and shove it.

We are not going back.

[cheers and applause]

[Katharine] After the
overwhelming turn-down

of our final offer
by the union,

it was a question of when,
not if, to announce

that we would start
hiring replacement workers.

[Male reporter] For years,
The Washington Post

has been viewed as a bastion

of liberalism
among American newspapers.

But now The Post is finding
itself accused of union busting

by some of its liberal backers.

I think she did way more than
many other publishers

would have to try
to settle this,

but she wasn't going to hire
back the people who had,

uh, assaulted somebody,

the press room superintendent,
and set fire to the building.

[chanting "Boycott The Post!"]

[Don] In that march,

one of the leaders
of the Press Men's Union

carried a sign that said,
"Phil shot the wrong Graham,"

meaning he should
have shot my mother.

Indescribable.

I mean, I knew the guy
who was carrying that sign,

and so did she.

And in that same march,

the burning of an effigy
of Katharine Graham,

knowing that she was
in the building watching.

♪♪

It -- It certainly made it easy
to understand, uh,

what was at stake.

♪♪

[Warren] She empathized
enormously with the families

of the strikers and everything.

But with Kay, the newspaper
totally came first.

I mean, that was a sacred trust.

[Remnick]
There's something profound here about the Graham family

and The Washington Post.
Their bond with it is deep.

And think what you will
about the strike,

it's very complicated.

And you can easily be critical
of the ownership of the paper

in this -- in this
really ugly labor dispute.

But Katharine Graham was
terrified of losing the paper,

and she could have.

[Katharine] By January 6th,

we had hired 107 people
as permanent replacements

for the pressroom.

With the pressmen refusing
The Post's final contract offer

and with non-union workers
inside the plant

doing the pressmen's work,

this already bitter strike is
expected to become even more so.

Tonight in Washington,
the world premiere

of All the President's Men.

[Male reporter]
Instead of searchlights,

there were pickets
outside marching within view

of the Watergate a block away.

The protesters are pressmen
on strike

against The Washington Post.

[Male reporter 2]
There was one celebrity moment

in the finest tradition
of a Hollywood opening,

when the stars came through.

Robert Redford and
Dustin Hoffman,

trailed
by their real-life counterparts,

The Washington Post's
Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein,

who wanted to see how Hollywood
would show them at work.

I've never been
to a Hollywood premiere either.

As one reviewer noted,
All The President's Men

is the most eagerly awaited
motion picture since Jaws.

[Don] Robert Redford
plays Woodward

and Dustin Hoffman plays
Carl Bernstein.

And there is
no Katharine Graham character

in that movie.

And what's odd about that

was that the menace of Watergate

wasn't to Ben Bradlee,

wasn't to Bob Woodward
and Carl Bernstein.

It was, uniquely, to Kay Graham.

[Man] You tell your
publisher, tell Katie Graham

she's gonna get her tit
caught in a big wringer

if that's published.

All the President's Men
was important as a movie

in many ways,
because it helped to expose

what the Nixon administration
had been doing.

But Kay actually had been
the one person

who was the most key
to this process

and had the most courage
and took the most punishment.

[Weymouth] I thought it was very
unfair that she got left out.

One of the actors came and broke
the news to her that,

"Gee, you know,
you took all the risks,

but you're not going to be
in the movie."

But she didn't take it too well.
Secretly. Privately.

[Katharine]
By the 1st of June,

the strike was essentially
over.

In many ways,
the strike broke my heart.

It was certainly the toughest
work situation I'd ever faced.

My mother rarely did things
tactfully or in a low-key way.

She loved and thrived
on strident confrontations.

Perhaps for that reason,

I always ran the other way
when it came to a showdown.

♪♪

Left alone, no matter at what
age or under what circumstance,

you have to remake your life.

On January 10, 1979,

I turned over the title of
publisher of The Post to Don.

While I had always known Don
would one day become publisher,

what I hadn't foreseen is
that it would be so hard

for me to give it up.

Publisher of The Post
is a title

I knew I would miss.

In configuring a new way
of life,

I tried to understand what

I needed to retain
from my old one.

♪♪

Reorganizing my working life
was a necessity,

as was finding
a new kind of balance.

[Steinem] Of all the ways

that Kay modeled what
journalism should be,

the most intimate
was writing her own book.

[Russert] She has now written
a remarkable book,

Personal History, by Katharine
Graham, and she's here tonight.

It is an amazing book

because you hear your voice
throughout it.

It was like an audio cassette
for me to read.

I could hear Kay Graham.

[Warren] She spent five years
writing her book

and she wanted it accurate.

And she sent me the galleys, and
I just called her up and I said,

"You know, you wrote the book
I hoped you'd write."

I wanted to tell the story
of the development of the paper

and the company, and I wanted
to tell a story of people,

three people
who were very important to me,

my parents and Phil Graham.

But you knew in reliving it,
pain would occur.

Well, I knew that there were
tough sides to the story,

as there are in anybody's story.

[Susie]
I was staying at her house,

and she had told me that she
was reading for books on tape,

and that she'd gotten to the
part where Phil shot himself,

and she said, "I've read it and
reread it 100 times in my head

as we've been working
on the book."

But she said, "I had never read
it out loud till today,"

and she said, "I couldn't get
the words out of my mouth

for the first few times.

It was so hard."

♪♪

[Katharine] On August 3rd,
we drove to the farm.

After a short while,

Phil got up saying he wanted to
lie down in a separate bedroom

he sometimes used.

Only a few minutes later,

there was the
ear-splitting noise

of a gun going off indoors.

I bolted out of my room

and ran around
in a frenzy looking for him.

When I opened the door
to a downstairs bathroom,

I found him.

It was so profoundly shocking
and traumatizing.

He was so obviously dead

and the wounds so ghastly
to look at that

that I just ran
into the next room

and buried my head
in my hands,

trying to absorb
that this had really happened.

♪♪

Most of our life together
was wonderful,

and he was wonderful,

and I didn't want
the bad part at the end

to overshadow the very,
very good part.

One of the reasons
I wrote this book was to say

how great he was, and my parents
were each in their own way.

I thought there were
three people

who deserved to be remembered
and to be written about.

This was The Washington Post
10 years ago today.

The people who put it together
were reporters, not historians.

They put down the news
of the day --

the important things,
the routine things,

and even the trivia.

But 10 years has turned this
issue into a history book.

[Murrow] Mrs. Meyer, tell me,
do you have anything

to do with
running the paper?

Running the paper?
Yes.

Certainly not.
I'd be shot at sunrise

if I interfered
with The Post.

Mrs. Meyer’s a contributor to
the paper, she doesn’t run it.

[laughter]

[Katharine] My father was so shy
at expressing emotion,

but he somehow conveyed
his belief in me

without ever articulating it.

And that was the single most
sustaining thing in my life.

That was what saved me.

[Putney]
There were times when,

as a young woman,
you needed support

and you found your mother
to be competitive?

Well, she would tend to diminish
whatever you, uh...

[laughter]

And it was
a little bit difficult.

It made you a little bit
unsure of yourself.

That's true.

But never mind.
I got over it.

I mean, I always think that
there's a statute of limitation

on how long you can blame
your parents for everything.

[laughter and applause]

I guess I may have come
to that conclusion as a parent.

[laughter]

For people
who know Kay's story,

she is a touchstone
for progress, for revolution,

for the future,

because she was so devoted
to principle,

even when it was most difficult
for her as a shy person

to put herself
into the leadership.

You know what
my husband said about the news?

He called it the first
rough draft of history.

That's good, isn't it?

That's the story of many,
many, many women,

not just of her generation,

but of women now
who emerge into leadership roles

and still suffer the same kinds
of crippling curbs

on their ability
to step forward,

to be aggressive, to be --
to take risks, to lead.

[Remnick] When it came
to the Pentagon Papers,

when it came to Watergate,

she did the right thing.

She did the right thing.

And that's the thing
you knew most vividly.

It was not just Watergate
and the Pentagon Papers,

but she did a great job
running the company.

She absolutely proved

that a woman can run
a major corporation,

and that was a great thing
to prove.

[Katharine]
By the late 1980s,

The Washington Post Company was
clearly a success.

The stock had skyrocketed
beyond my wildest dreams,

reaching $300 per share.

Amazing to me
since we had started at $6.50.

It's really hard
to imagine the time

when there were really
no women in the room.

I mean,
it was unbelievable in her day.

Impossible.

You know, so I think
she really broke the ceiling.

[Katharine] Looking back on it,
of course,

I realized that much of
how I was treated

was a factor
of my being a woman.

Because people are
simply not used to a woman

as the chief executive officer
of a company.

[Povich] She might have
appreciated the women's movement

for what it did for women

and the consciousness
she may have gained personally,

but she wasn't a feminist.

She was a strong business leader
with a moral compass.

[Katharine] I don't see myself
as being a model,

but I think I helped
younger women.

I hung in for 30 years,

and therefore they saw a woman
who was the head of a company,

and they knew
that that could happen.

And I think that to that extent,

I played the role model to them,

and that gave me
great pleasure and satisfaction

when I realized that
I mattered to younger women.

♪♪

♪♪