Katharine Graham

Katharine Graham in 1975

Katharine Meyer Graham (June 16, 1917 – July 17, 2001) was an American publisher. She led her family's newspaper, The Washington Post, for more than two decades, overseeing its most famous period, the Watergate coverage that eventually led to the resignation of President Richard Nixon. Her memoir, Personal History, won the Pulitzer Prize in 1998.

Quotes

• Bromidic though it may sound, some questions don't have answers, which is a terribly difficult lesson to learn.
  • Quoted by Jane Howard in The Power That Didn't Corrupt, Ms. magazine (October 1974)

• 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.
  • Speech given in 1988 at CIA headquarters, Langley, Virginia. Cited in Encyclopedia of American Journalism, Stephen L. Vaughn, New York: Routledge, 2008, p. 201.