Katherine Graham had a very large round table in the dining room of her home in George-town. Presidents, high-ranking government officials and men and women of wealth and influence have all been guests at this table. The former US secretary of state, George Schultz, described the table as "the center of political life in Washington." Graham herself earned the title, "Wash-ington's first hostess," because of her frequent "round-table state dinners."
Across Washington, at her office in the Washington Post building, a series of photographs hung on the wall showing her with a number of former presidents. The well-known political journalist David Halberstam described the photos as, "a symbol of Washington's second most influential player [the Post] not wanting to have tense relations with the most influential player [the White House]."
A large round table and a line of photographs on the wall could perhaps be construed as evidence of remarkably good public and private relations with former presidents and influential figures. In fact, however, in the 38 years from the day she took over the Washington Post until her death last month, Graham always had a tense relationship involving both friendship and enmity with Washington's most influential players.
Although the grandfather of US journalism, Joseph Pulitzer, once stated that, "The owner of a newspaper has no friends,"
everyone knows this is sanctimonious hypocrisy which runs contrary to human nature. The Post is itself a case in point; when Graham's husband Philip was running the paper, he was not only the closest of friends with then president John F. Kennedy, but also one of Kennedy's trusted advisors. It had been at his suggestion that Lyndon Johnson had been selected as Kennedy's running mate.
Although Graham didn't become overly involved in politics like her husband, she did believe that while it wasn't appropriate for reporters to have private relations with important government officials, the head of a newspaper should form close contacts with members of both parties. She herself maintained friendly relations to varying degrees with former presidents from both parties.
Graham's relationship with Johnson was good to the point that he even dared flirt with her. Johnson's successor, Richard Nixon, originally had some ties with Graham, but the Post's relentless pursuit of the Watergate scandal gave her top billing on Nixon's list of most-hated enemies. This, however, did not stop her remaining friends with Henry Kissinger, who delivered a eulogy at Graham's funeral.
Jimmy Carter didn't like to socialize, and in his four years in the White House, he and Graham failed to strike up a friendship. Naturally, Carter didn't become one of Graham's guests of honor. Even though Ronald Reagan was a Republican, Graham's ties with him were substantial -- with Nancy Reagan even more so. Because George Bush was criticized in Graham's Newsweek magazine as a weakling, his relations with her were cold and somewhat hostile. Due to the large age-gap between Bill Clinton and Graham, relations between the two were polite, but distant. George W. Bush attended one of Graham's round-table dinners barely a month before her death.
Graham, however, was completely different from another newspaper owner, Rupert Murdoch. Murdoch uses his connections with influential politicians to influence his media businesses. When former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher permitted him to go ahead with mergers, his publications spared no effort in supporting her Conservative party. But after Tony Blair's long trips to Sydney to ask Murdoch for favors, and the subsequent scoops Blair gave him, Murdoch switched camps, warmly embracing the Labour Party.
According to the recollections of staff at the Post, however, their boss never allowed any piece of news to be influenced by her relations with political bigwigs. The renowned columnist Art Buchwald has said that while Graham was entertaining guests at her round table, her staff at the Post were busy "fixing" the very guests their boss was entertaining.
Washington's "number one power," the White House, is actually only a "temporary power center," while its "number two power," the Post, is an "eternal power center." It is precisely because successive presidents from both parties as well as other influential politicians understood this fact, that they -- despite regarding the Post as a thorn in their sides -- would frequently attend round-table dinners at the home of the paper's boss. It was because Graham understood this fact that she became one of the most influential newspaper people around -- and that her paper became one of the most influential.
The enlightening message given to the world by this highly respected newspaper mogul is this: although that round table was very large, it was never so big as to eclipse the editorial department at the Post. As we mourn the passing of Katherine Graham, Taiwan's politicians and media should take careful note of this round-table revelation.
Wang Chien-chuang is president of The Journalist magazine.
Translated by Ethan Harkness and Scudder Smith
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