Remember The Life Of Katharine Graham

Following her death from a brain hemorrhage on July 17, Katharine Graham was memorialized on editorial pages for her defense of the first amendment when her Washington Post published the Pentagon papers in 1972, and investigated the Watergate scandal the following year. 

Those watershed stories catapulted the Post, it's then-executive editor Ben Bradlee, and reporters Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, to the forefront of American journalism. But it was novice publisher Graham's willingness to take a moral stand and back it up at the risk of financial ruin that transformed the Post from a second-class publication into an industry leader. "A heroine," trumpeted the Chicago Tribune, "...a great businesswoman - and a world-class journalist." 
"She performed brilliantly, transforming the (Washington) Post from a provincial daily into a national power and a sprawling media enterprise," proclaimed the Los Angeles Times. 

"She is a hero who will be missed," said the Philadelphia Inquirer, while the Dallas Morning News called her "a (newspaper) giant (who) was quite a lady." 
Many eulogies appeared in papers owned by giant chains which seem driven more by shareholder profits than journalism scoops. Which begs the question: would any newspaper today risk its own destruction by bucking the establishment? Would a current publisher face down threats from the White House to uphold freedom of the press and the people's right to know?

There will never be another Katharine Graham. To understand why, read "Personal History" (Knopf), the autobiography she published in 1997, when she was 80 years old. It traces her life from a childhood fraught with parental intimidation, through a marriage in which she considered herself a "doormat wife," to her final three decades in which she arguably became the most powerful woman in America.

A mentor to Microsoft's Bill Gates and AOL's Steve Case, confidante of presidents and royalty, a mother and a grandmother, Graham appeared to have it all. Which is why her greatest legacy may turn out to be her willingness to reveal her own feet of clay. If you haven't read "Personal History," buy it or borrow it from the library. It will make you feel better about yourself.

For anyone who's ever been insecure, considered themselves unworthy or lain awake worrying at 3 a.m., Graham's story proves it's not what happens to us that matters, it's how we cope with it.

Before her manic-depressive husband committed suicide in their bathroom in 1963, Graham molded herself into the person everybody else wanted her to be. Afterward, she knew firsthand that neither money nor social status could protect her from heartbreak.

Readers of "Personal History" will marvel at her willingness to be so clear-eyed and unsentimental -- so naked -- in revealing how she evolved from a timid, insecure housewife into a world-class player. It would have been easy to gloss over the humiliating parts, but Graham was a real journalist.

Her ethical code not only kept her honest, but it prevented her from committing sins of omission, too.
Ben Bradlee said his old boss had "the guts of a burglar," but it isn't just Graham's bravery in the newsroom we should remember; her decision to share with us her fears while being alone in the dark at 3 a.m. also is worthy of celebration.

When you've finished "Personal History," pass it on to your local newspaper editor and publisher. They need to read it, too.

© 2001 The Women Syndicate

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