Graham was the fourth of five children. She grew up in a wealthy household, with many luxuries, but was not close to her parents. They even neglected to tell her that her father was purchasing the Washington Post , so learning of its acquisition was a surprise. Graham attended Vassar before transferring to the University of Chicago, where she received her undergraduate degree in She next went to San Francisco and worked as a reporter.
After returning to Washington, D. Following an intense romance, the two married on June 5, They had four children together: daughter Elizabeth nicknamed Lally in and sons Don, Bill and Stephen, born in , and , respectively.
As was typical for the time, Graham took care of their home and family while Phil focused on his career. When her father needed a successor at the Washington Post Graham's brother wasn't interested , he turned to Phil, who became the paper's publisher in Graham accepted this as natural, and even went along when her father wanted Phil to have a larger share of stock than his wife.
Phil went through a severe depression in By the s he was showing symptoms of manic depression; he would sometimes drink heavily and make impulsive purchases. He also disparaged Graham and made jokes at her expense. In December , Graham learned Phil was having an affair when she accidentally heard her husband and his mistress on the phone together.
Phil demanded a divorce and control of the Post , but put aside this request after entering a facility for treatment. In August , having been granted a weekend pass, Phil came to the couple's farm. There, he was able to access a gun and kill himself. She'd never planned for such a job, but her husband had recently committed suicide. Taking charge of the business meant Graham could eventually pass it along to her children. Her new role wasn't an easy one for Graham, as she felt ill-prepared and nervous, so much so that she found herself working on how best to say, "Merry Christmas" before an office holiday party.
Though she lacked training, the Post had been a part of Graham's life since her father bought the paper at a bankruptcy auction in She'd also worked for the publication in different capacities, including stints in the editorial and circulation departments. Graham eventually started to hire people herself instead of relying on holdovers from her husband's time as publisher. One such hire was Ben Bradlee, who became the Post 's managing editor in Bradlee's selection was unusual, as he came from Newsweek instead of the Post newsroom, but it ended up being a wonderful choice, as he worked to improve the quality of the paper.
Graham considered Bradlee a partner; though they had disagreements, theirs was a fruitful relationship that saw the Post become one of the country's best newspapers. Graham became the Washington Post 's publisher in On June 17, , she made the difficult decision to have the Post publish the classified Pentagon Papers.
Excerpts from these documents, which delved into the history of U. Graham took this step after the New York Times , the first newspaper to land a set of the Papers, had been barred from further publication by court order. Her legal team feared that publishing might imperil her company — if the Justice Department pursued criminal sanctions, it could put an in-progress stock offering and television licenses at risk. Yet Graham also knew that the newsroom, after struggling to obtain the documents, would resent any delay in publication, and she feared losing talented people.
Graham was vindicated by a Supreme Court ruling, issued on June 30, , which supported freedom of the press and stated that the information in the Pentagon Papers didn't place government security at risk. Her actions helped elevate the national profile of the Post. The decision to publish is dramatized in a film, The Post.
They would uncover a tale of corruption and complicity that would link back to Richard Nixon 's White House, but unearthing the scope of the scandal took time, during which the Nixon administration did its best to minimize the story and disparage the Post.
Between December 29, , and January 2, , challenges were made to the license renewals of Post Company television stations in Florida. And attorneys pointed out that the Post could be accused of violating the court order that had been issued against the Times , so their paper's legal jeopardy was potentially even higher than what the Times had initially faced. As the debate went on between editorial and legal, on June 17, Graham was hosting a party for a departing employee.
In the middle of a heartfelt toast, she had to stop and take a phone call for an emergency consultation about whether or not to publish. Smaller papers, like the Boston Globe , were also getting ready to publish, and no one wanted the Post to be embarrassed by being left behind. In her memoir, Personal History , Graham described her belief that the way Beebe had responded gave her an opening to ignore his advice.
Like the Times , the Post refused to stop publication, so the government proceeded to court. Publication was enjoined around 1 a. As the case wound its way through the court system, the government argued that national security and diplomatic relations had been put at risk by publication though reporters were able to show that much of the information the government objected to was already public.
At one point the Justice Department asked that the Post defendants not attend hearings due to security concerns, a request the judge refused to allow. Secrecy was maintained, however, with some proceedings held in rooms with blacked-out windows. On June 30, the Supreme Court issued a decision that supported the papers' right to publish, a victory for freedom of the press. Publishing the Pentagon Papers not only increased the Washington Post 's national standing, but it also let the newsroom know that their publisher believed in freedom of the press enough to put everything at stake.
This commitment would come in handy when reporters at the paper began looking into a break-in at the Watergate office complex, the beginning of an investigation that would bring down Richard Nixon's presidency ironically, this break-in was conducted by a group of "plumbers" that Nixon had wanted to prevent leaks like the Pentagon Papers.
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