Katharine Graham and the Legacy of the Washington Post
Video Recordings of Summer 2025 Lecture Series Now Available for Purchase.
Inheriting a Legacy
Lecturer: Rebecca Rolfes | Lecture recorded on July 16, 2025 | $10
Shy, self-conscious, quiet, Katharine Graham became the first female publisher of the twentieth century when she took over the Washington Post in 1963. She would transform the paper, define the media’s importance in a national political crisis, and change the role of women and minorities in journalism.
Speaking Truth to Power
Lecturer: Ann Woolner | Lecture recorded on July 23, 2025 | $10
The Washington Post is the must-read daily for Washington’s political class. Publishing the Pentagon Papers and uncovering the Watergate conspiracy, the paper faced legal, professional, and personal threats - even it own potential demise - to uphold the role of a free press in a democracy
Breaking the Union, the Color Barrier, and the Glass Ceiling
Lecturer: Wanda Lloyd | Lecture recorded on July 30, 2025 | $10
A major strike by the Post's pressmen's union gave Katharine Graham the opportunity to diversify the paper. In hiring replacement workers, many of them or people of color, she made the Post more inclusive and a better reflection of the city it covered.
One Paper, Two Missions
Lecturer: Susan Catron | Lecture recorded on August 6, 2025 | $10
Graham wrote in her biography, Personal History, "The editorial page and editorial views are so completely separate from the news columns that they sometimes are not even in touch, and certainly don't influence each other." How does a newspaper balance news objectivity and editorial opinion?
Media and the Law
Lecturer: Ann Woolner | Lecture recorded on August 13, 2025 | $10
The Supreme Court ruled in 1964 (New York Times v Sullivan) that proving defamation in the media requires evidence of "actual malice". That ruling, if challenged and overturned, would cripple a publication's ability to hold leaders and powerful figures to account.
A Free Press in a Digital Age
Lecturer: Rebecca Rolfes | Lecture recorded on August 20, 2025 | $10
In 2013, Graham's son sold the Washington Post C. to Jeff Bezos for $250 million, 200,000 subscribers cancelled. While Bezos asserted more control over the editorial page, the Post's news coverage remained balanced. Can the press remain independent in an age of misinformation and disinformation powered by digital access?.