Washington Post Magazine

''The Washington Post'' (also known as the ''Post'' and, informally, ''WaPo'') is an American daily newspaper published in Washington, D.C. It is the most widely circulated newspaper within the Washington metropolitan area and has a large national audience. Daily broadsheet editions are printed for D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

The ''Post'' was founded in 1877. In its early years, it went through several owners and struggled both financially and editorially. Financier Eugene Meyer purchased it out of bankruptcy in 1933 and revived its health and reputation, work continued by his successors Katharine and Phil Graham (Meyer's daughter and son-in-law), who bought out several rival publications. The ''Post'' 1971 printing of the Pentagon Papers helped spur opposition to the Vietnam War. Subsequently, in the best-known episode in the newspaper's history, reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein led the American press's investigation into what became known as the Watergate scandal, which resulted in the 1974 resignation of President Richard Nixon. The advent of the internet expanded the ''Post'' national and international reach. In October 2013, the Graham family sold the newspaper to Nash Holdings, a holding company owned by Jeff Bezos, for $250 million.

the newspaper had won the Pulitzer Prize 65 times for its work, the second-most of any publication (after ''The New York Times''). It is considered a newspaper of record in the U.S. ''Post'' journalists have also received 18 Nieman Fellowships and 368 White House News Photographers Association awards. The paper is well known for its political reporting and is one of the few remaining American newspapers to operate foreign bureaus.

Overview

''The Washington Post'' is regarded as one of the leading daily American newspapers along with ''The New York Times'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', and ''The Wall Street Journal''. The ''Post'' has distinguished itself through its political reporting on the workings of the White House, Congress, and other aspects of the U.S. government. It is considered a newspaper of record in the U.S.

Unlike ''The New York Times'' and ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The Washington Post'' does not print an edition for distribution away from the East Coast. In 2009, the newspaper ceased publication of its ''National Weekly Edition'' (a combination of stories from the week's print editions), due to shrinking circulation. The majority of its newsprint readership is in the District of Columbia and its suburbs in Maryland and Northern Virginia.

The newspaper is one of a few U.S. newspapers with foreign bureaus, which are located in Baghdad, Beijing, Beirut, Berlin, Brussels, Cairo, Dakar, Hong Kong, Islamabad, Istanbul, Jerusalem, London, Mexico City, Moscow, Nairobi, New Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Rome, Tokyo and Toronto. In November 2009, it announced the closure of its U.S. regional bureaus—Chicago, Los Angeles and New York—as part of an increased focus on "political stories and local news coverage in Washington." The newspaper has local bureaus in Maryland ( Annapolis, Montgomery County, Prince George's County, and Southern Maryland) and Virginia (Alexandria, Fairfax, Loudoun County, Richmond, and Prince William County).

, its average weekday circulation was 474,767, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations, making it the seventh largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind ''USA Today'', ''The Wall Street Journal'', ''The New York Times'', the ''Los Angeles Times'', the '' Daily News'', and the ''New York Post''. Although its circulation (like almost all newspapers) has been slipping, it has one of the highest market penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily.

For many decades, the ''Post'' had its main office at 1150 15th Street NW. This real estate remained with Graham Holdings when the newspaper was sold to Jeff Bezos' Nash Holdings in 2013. Graham Holdings sold 1150 15th Street (along with 1515 L Street, 1523 L Street, and land beneath 1100 15th Street) for in November 2013. ''The Washington Post'' continued to lease space at 1150 L Street NW. In May 2014, ''The Washington Post'' leased the west tower of One Franklin Square, a high-rise building at 1301 K Street NW in Washington, D.C. The newspaper moved into its new offices on December 14, 2015.

Mary Jordan was the founding editor, head of content, and moderator for ''Washington Post Live'',

The Post's editorial events business, which organizes political debates, conferences and news events for the media company, including "The 40th Anniversary of Watergate" in June 2012 that featured key Watergate figures including former White House counsel John Dean, ''Washington Post'' editor Ben Bradlee, and reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, which was held at the Watergate hotel. Regular hosts include Frances Stead Sellers Lois Romano was formerly the editor of ''Washington Post Live''.

The ''Post'' has its own exclusive zip code, 20071.

Publishing service

Arc XP is a department of ''The Washington Post'', which provides a publishing system and software for news organizations such as the ''Chicago Tribune'' and the ''Los Angeles Times''.

History

Founding and early period

The newspaper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins (18381912), and in 1880 it added a Sunday edition, becoming the city's first newspaper to publish seven days a week.

In April 1878, about four months into publication, ''The Washington Post'' purchased ''The Washington Union'', a competing newspaper which was founded by John Lynch in late 1877. The ''Union'' had only been in operation about six months at the time of the acquisition. The combined newspaper was published from the Globe Building as ''The Washington Post and Union'' beginning on April 15, 1878, with a circulation of 13,000. The ''Post and Union'' name was used about two weeks until April 29, 1878, returning to the original masthead the following day.

In 1889, Hutchins sold the newspaper to Frank Hatton, a former Postmaster General, and Beriah Wilkins, a former Democratic congressman from Ohio. To promote the newspaper, the new owners requested the leader of the United States Marine Band, John Philip Sousa, to compose a march for the newspaper's essay contest awards ceremony. Sousa composed "The Washington Post". It became the standard music to accompany the two-step, a late 19th-century dance craze, and remains one of Sousa's best-known works.

In 1893, the newspaper moved to a building at 14th and E streets NW, where it would remain until 1950. This building combined all functions of the newspaper into one headquarters – newsroom, advertising, typesetting, and printing – that ran 24 hours per day.

In 1898, during the Spanish–American War, the ''Post'' printed Clifford K. Berryman's classic illustration '' Remember the Maine'', which became the battle-cry for American sailors during the War. In 1902, Berryman published another famous cartoon in the ''Post'' – ''Drawing the Line in Mississippi''. This cartoon depicts President Theodore Roosevelt showing compassion for a small bear cub and inspired New York store owner Morris Michtom to create the teddy bear.

Wilkins acquired Hatton's share of the newspaper in 1894 at Hatton's death. After Wilkins' death in 1903, his sons John and Robert ran the ''Post'' for two years before selling it in 1905 to John Roll McLean, owner of the ''Cincinnati Enquirer''. During the Woodrow Wilson, Wilson presidency, the ''Post'' was credited with the "most famous newspaper typo" in D.C. history according to ''Reason (magazine), Reason'' magazine; the ''Post'' intended to report that President Wilson had been "entertaining" his future-wife Mrs. Galt, but instead wrote that he had been "entering" Mrs. Galt.

When John McLean died in 1916, he put the newspaper in trust, having little faith that his playboy son Edward Beale McLean, Edward "Ned" McLean could manage his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, but, under his management, the newspaper slumped toward ruin. He bled the paper for his lavish lifestyle, and used it to promote political agendas.

During the Red Summer of 1919 the Post supported the white mobs and even ran a front-page story which advertised the location at which white servicemen were planning to meet to carry out attacks on black Washingtonians.

Meyer–Graham period

In 1929, financier Eugene Meyer (who had run the War Finance Corporation, War Finance Corp. since World War I) secretly made an offer of $5 million for the ''Post,'' but he was rebuffed by Ned McLean. On June 1, 1933, Meyer bought the paper at a bankruptcy auction for $825,000 three weeks after stepping down as Chairman of the Federal Reserve. He had bid anonymously, and was prepared to go up to $2 million, far higher than the other bidders. These included William Randolph Hearst, who had long hoped to shut down the ailing ''Post'' to benefit his own Washington newspaper presence.

The ''Post'' health and reputation were restored under Meyer's ownership. In 1946, he was succeeded as publisher by his son-in-law, Philip Graham. Meyer eventually gained the last laugh over Hearst, who had owned the old ''Washington Times (1894–1939), Washington Times'' and the ''Washington Herald, Herald'' before their 1939 merger that formed the ''Washington Times-Herald, Times-Herald.'' This was in turn bought by and merged into the ''Post'' in 1954. The combined paper was officially named ''The Washington Post and Times-Herald'' until 1973, although the ''Times-Herald'' portion of the nameplate (publishing), nameplate became less and less prominent over time. The merger left the ''Post'' with two remaining local competitors, the ''Washington Star'' (''Evening Star'') and ''The Washington Daily News'' which merged in 1972, forming the ''Washington Star-News.''

After Phil Graham's death in 1963, control of The Washington Post Company passed to his wife Katharine Graham (19172001), who was also Eugene Meyer's daughter. Few women had run prominent national newspapers in the United States. Katharine Graham described her own anxiety and lack of confidence as she stepped into a leadership role in her autobiography. She served as publisher from 1969 to 1979.

Graham took The Washington Post Company public on June 15, 1971, in the midst of the Pentagon Papers controversy. A total of 1,294,000 shares were offered to the public at $26 per share. By the end of Graham's tenure as CEO in 1991, the stock was worth $888 per share, not counting the effect of an intermediate 4:1 stock split.

During this time, Graham also oversaw the Post company's diversification purchase of the for-profit education and training company Kaplan, Inc. for $40 million in 1984. Twenty years later, Kaplan had surpassed the ''Post'' newspaper as the company's leading contributor to income, and by 2010 Kaplan accounted for more than 60% of the entire company revenue stream.

Executive editor Ben Bradlee put the newspaper's reputation and resources behind reporters Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, who, in a long series of articles, chipped away at the story behind the 1972 burglary of Democratic National Committee offices in the Watergate complex in Washington. The ''Post'' dogged coverage of the story, the outcome of which ultimately played a major role in the resignation of President Richard Nixon, won the newspaper a Pulitzer Prize in 1973.

In 1972, the "Book World" section was introduced with Pulitzer Prize-winning critic William McPherson (writer), William McPherson as its first editor. It featured Pulitzer Prize-winning critics such as Jonathan Yardley and Michael Dirda, the latter of whom established his career as a critic at the ''Post''. In 2009, after 37 years, with great reader outcries and protest, ''The Washington Post Book World'' as a standalone insert was discontinued, the last issue being Sunday, February 15, 2009, along with a general reorganization of the paper, such as placing the Sunday editorials on the back page of the main front section rather than the "Outlook" section and distributing some other locally oriented "op-ed" letters and commentaries in other sections.Letter from the editor
, ''The Washington Post'', Sunday, February 15, 2009; Page BW02 However, book reviews are still published in the Outlook section on Sundays and in the Style section the rest of the week, as well as online.

In 1975, 1975–76 Washington Post pressmen's strike, the pressmen's union went on strike. The ''Post'' hired replacement workers to replace the pressmen's union, and other unions returned to work in February 1976.

Donald E. Graham, Katharine's son, succeeded her as a publisher in 1979.

In 1995, the domain name washingtonpost.com was purchased. That same year, a failed effort to create an online news repository called Digital Ink launched. The following year it was shut down and the first website was launched in June 1996.

Jeff Bezos era (2013–present)

In late September 2013, Jeff Bezos purchased the ''Washington Post'' and other local publications, websites, and real estate for , transferring ownership to Nash Holdings LLC, Bezos's private investment company. The paper's former parent company, which retained some other assets such as Kaplan and a Graham Media Group, group of TV stations, was renamed Graham Holdings Company shortly after the sale.

Nash Holdings, including the ''Post'', is operated separately from technology company Amazon (company), Amazon, which Bezos founded and where he is executive chairman and the largest single shareholder, with 12.7% of voting rights.

Bezos said he has a vision that recreates "the 'daily ritual' of reading the ''Post'' as a bundle, not merely a series of individual stories..." He has been described as a "hands-off owner", holding teleconference calls with executive editor Martin Baron every two weeks. Bezos appointed Fred Ryan (founder and CEO of ''Politico'') to serve as publisher and chief executive officer. This signaled Bezos' intent to shift the ''Post'' to a more digital focus with a national and global readership.

In 2015 the ''Post'' moved from the building it owned at 1150 15th Street to a leased space three blocks away at One Franklin Square on K Street (Washington, D.C.), K Street. Since 2014 the ''Post'' launched an online personal finance section, a blog, and a podcast with a retro theme. The ''Post'' won the 2020 Webby Award, 2020 Webby People's Voice Award for News & Politics in the Social and Web categories.

In 2017, the paper hired columnist Jamal Khashoggi, who was murdered by Saudi agents in Istanbul in 2018.

Political stance

1933–2000

When financier Eugene Meyer bought the bankrupt ''Post'' in 1933, he assured the public he would not be beholden to any party. But as a leading Republican (it was his old friend Herbert Hoover who had made him Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Federal Reserve Chairman in 1930), his opposition to FDR's New Deal colored the paper's editorial stance as well as its news coverage. This included opinion piece, editorializing "news" stories written by Meyer under a pseudonym. His wife Agnes Ernst Meyer was a journalist from the other end of the spectrum politically. The ''Post'' ran many of her pieces including tributes to her personal friends John Dewey and Saul Alinsky.

Eugene Meyer became head of the World Bank in 1946, and he named his son-in-law Phil Graham to succeed him as ''Post'' publisher. The post-war years saw the developing friendship of Phil and Kay Graham with the JFK, Kennedys, the Ben Bradlee, Bradlees and the rest of the "Georgetown, D.C., Georgetown Set" (many Harvard alumni) that would color the ''Post's'' political orientation. Kay Graham's most memorable Georgetown soirée guest list included British diplomat/communist spy Donald Maclean (spy), Donald Maclean.

The ''Post'' is credited with coining the term "McCarthyism" in a 1950 editorial cartoon by Herbert Block. Depicting buckets of tar, it made fun of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's "tarring" tactics, i.e., smear campaigns and character assassination against those targeted by his accusations. Sen. McCarthy was attempting to do for the Senate what the House Un-American Activities Committee had been doing for years—investigating Soviet espionage in the United States, Soviet espionage in America. The HUAC made Richard Nixon nationally known for his role in the Alger Hiss, Hiss/Whittaker Chambers, Chambers case that exposed communist spying in the State Department. The committee had evolved from the John William McCormack, McCormack-Samuel Dickstein (congressman), Dickstein Committee of the 1930s.

Phil Graham's friendship with JFK remained strong until their untimely deaths in 1963. Director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover reportedly told the new President Lyndon B. Johnson, "I don't have much influence with the ''Post'' because I frankly don't read it. I view it like the ''Daily Worker''."

Ben Bradlee became the editor-in-chief in 1968, and Kay Graham officially became the publisher in 1969, paving the way for the aggressive reporting of the ''Pentagon Papers'' and Watergate scandals. The ''Post'' strengthened public opposition to the Vietnam War in 1971 when it published the ''Pentagon Papers''. In the mid-1970s, some conservatives referred to the ''Post'' as "''Pravda'' on the Potomac River, Potomac" because of its perceived left-wing bias in both reporting and editorials. Since then, the appellation has been used by both liberal and conservative critics of the newspaper.

2000–present

In the PBS documentary ''Buying the War'', journalist Bill Moyers said in the year prior to the Iraq War there were 27 editorials supporting the Bush administration's ambitions to 2003 invasion of Iraq, invade the country. National security correspondent Walter Pincus reported that he had been ordered to cease his reports that were critical of the administration. According to author and journalist Greg Mitchell: "By the ''Post'' own admission, in the months before the war, it ran more than 140 stories on its front page promoting the war, while contrary information got lost".

On March 26, 2007, Chris Matthews said on his television program, "Well, ''The Washington Post'' is not the liberal newspaper it was, Congressman, let me tell you. I have been reading it for years and it is a neoconservatism, neocon newspaper". It has regularly published a mixture of op-ed columnists, with some of them left-leaning (including E. J. Dionne, Dana Milbank, Greg Sargent, and Eugene Robinson (journalist), Eugene Robinson), and some of them right-leaning (including George Will, Marc Thiessen, Michael Gerson and Charles Krauthammer).

In a study published on April 18, 2007, by Yale professors Alan Gerber, Dean Karlan, and Daniel Bergan, citizens were given a subscription to either the conservative-leaning ''Washington Times'' or the liberal-leaning ''Washington Post'' to see the effect that media has on voting patterns. Gerber had estimated based on his work that the ''Post'' slanted as much to the left as the ''Times'' did to the right. Gerber found those who were given a free subscription of the ''Post'' were 7.9–11.4% more likely to vote for the Democratic candidate for governor than those assigned to the control group, depending on the adjustment for the date on which individual participants were surveyed and the survey interviewer; however, people who received the ''Times'' were also more likely than controls to vote for the Democrat, with an effect approximately 60% as large as that estimated for the ''Post''. The study authors said that sampling error might have played a role in the effect of the conservative-leaning ''Times'', as might the fact that the Democratic candidate took more conservative-leaning positions than is typical for his party, and "the month prior to the post-election survey was a difficult period for President Bush, one in which his overall approval rating fell by approximately 4 percentage points nationwide. It appears that heightened exposure to both papers' news coverage, despite opposing ideological slants, moved public opinion away from Republicans."

In November 2007, the newspaper was criticized by independent journalist Robert Parry (journalist), Robert Parry for reporting on anti-Obama chain e-mails without sufficiently emphasizing to its readers the false nature of the anonymous claims. In 2009, Parry criticized the newspaper for its allegedly unfair reporting on liberal politicians, including Vice President Al Gore and President Barack Obama.

Responding to criticism of the newspaper's coverage during the run-up to the 2008 United States presidential election, 2008 presidential election, former ''Post'' ombudsman Deborah Howell wrote: "The opinion pages have strong conservative voices; the editorial board includes centrists and conservatives; and there were editorials critical of Obama. Yet opinion was still weighted toward Obama." According to a 2009 Oxford University Press book by Richard Davis on the impact of blogs on American politics, liberal bloggers link to ''The Washington Post'' and ''The New York Times'' more often than other major newspapers; however, conservative bloggers also link predominantly to liberal newspapers.

In mid-September 2016, Matthew Ingram of ''Forbes'' joined Glenn Greenwald of ''The Intercept'', and Trevor Timm of ''The Guardian'' in criticizing ''The Washington Post'' for "demanding that [former National Security Agency contractor Edward] Snowden ... stand trial on espionage charges".

In February 2017, the ''Post'' adopted the slogan "Democracy Dies in Darkness" for its masthead.

Since 2011, the ''Post'' has been running a column called "The Fact Checker" that the ''Post'' describes as a "truth squad".Glenn Kessler (January 1, 2017)
"About the Fact Checker"
, ''The Washington Post'' The Fact Checker received a $250,000 grant from Google News Initiative/YouTube to expand production of video fact-checking, fact checks.

Political endorsements

In the vast majority of U.S. elections, for federal, state, and local office, the ''Post'' editorial board has endorsed Democratic candidates. The paper's editorial board and endorsement decision-making are separate from newsroom operations. Until 1976, the ''Post'' did not regularly make endorsements in United States presidential elections, presidential elections. Since it endorsed Jimmy Carter in 1976, the ''Post'' has endorsed Democrats in presidential elections, and has never endorsed a Republican for president in the general election, although in the 1988 United States presidential election, 1988 presidential election, the ''Post'' declined to endorse either Governor Michael Dukakis (the Democratic candidate) or Vice President George H. W. Bush (the Republican candidate). The ''Post'' editorial board endorsed Barack Obama in 2008 and 2012; Hillary Clinton in 2016 United States presidential election, 2016; and Joe Biden for 2020 United States presidential election, 2020.

While the newspaper predominantly endorses Democrats in congressional, state, and local elections, it has occasionally endorsed Republican candidates. While the paper has not endorsed Republican candidates for governor of Virginia, it endorsed Governor of Maryland, Maryland Governor Robert Ehrlich's unsuccessful bid for a second term in 2006. In 2006, it repeated its historic endorsements of every Republican incumbent for Congress in Northern Virginia. The ''Post'' editorial board endorsed Virginia's Republican U.S. Senator John Warner in his Senate reelection campaign in 1990, 1996 and 2002; the paper's most recent endorsement of a Maryland Republican for U.S. Senate was in the 1980s, when the paper endorsed Senator Charles Mathias, Charlies "Mac" Mathias Jr. In U.S. House of Representatives elections, Moderate Republicans (modern United States), moderate Republicans in Virginia and Maryland, such as Wayne Gilchrest, Thomas M. Davis, and Frank Wolf (politician), Frank Wolf, have enjoyed the support of the ''Post''; the ''Post'' also has endorsed some Republicans, such as Carol Schwartz, in some D.C. races.

Criticism and controversies

"Jimmy's World" fabrication

In September 1980, a Sunday feature story appeared on the front page of the ''Post'' titled "Jimmy's World" in which reporter Janet Cooke wrote a profile of the life of an eight-year-old heroin Substance dependence, addict. Although some within the ''Post'' doubted the story's veracity, the paper's editors defended it, and assistant managing editor Bob Woodward submitted the story to the Pulitzer Prize#Board, Pulitzer Prize Board at Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism, Columbia University for consideration. Cooke was awarded the Pulitzer Prize for Feature Writing on April 13, 1981. The story was subsequently found to be a complete fabrication, and the Pulitzer was returned.

Private "salon" solicitation

In July 2009, in the midst of an intense debate over Health care reforms proposed during the Obama administration, health care reform, ''The Politico'' reported that a health-care lobbyist had received an "astonishing" offer of access to the ''Post's'' "health-care reporting and editorial staff." ''Post'' publisher Katharine Weymouth had planned a series of exclusive dinner parties or "salons" at her private residence, to which she had invited prominent lobbyists, trade group members, politicians, and business people.Richard Pérez-Peña (July 2, 2009)
"Pay-for-Chat Plan Falls Flat at Washington Post"
, ''The New York Times:'' "Postscript: Oct. 17, 2009 . . . Mr. Marcus W. Brauchli, Brauchli now says that he did indeed know that the dinners were being promoted as 'off the record' . . . " Participants were to be charged $25,000 to sponsor a single salon, and $250,000 for 11 sessions, with the events being closed to the public and to the non-''Post'' press.Gautham Nagesh (July 2, 2009
"WaPo Salons Sell Access to Lobbyists"
, ''The Atlantic'' ''Politico''s revelation gained a somewhat mixed response in Washington as it gave the impression that the parties' sole purpose was to allow insiders to purchase face time with ''Post'' staff.

Almost immediately following the disclosure, Weymouth canceled the salons, saying, "This should never have happened." White House counsel Gregory B. Craig reminded officials that under Honest Leadership and Open Government Act, federal ethics rules, they need advance approval for such events. ''Post'' Executive Editor Marcus Brauchli, who was named on the flier as one of the salon's "Hosts and Discussion Leaders", said he was "appalled" by the plan, adding, "It suggests that access to ''Washington Post'' journalists was available for purchase."Howard Kurtz (July 3, 2009)
"Washington Post Publisher Cancels Planned Policy Dinners After Outcry"
, ''The Washington Post''

''China Daily'' advertising supplements

Dating back to 2011, ''The Washington Post'' began to include "China Watch" advertising supplements provided by ''China Daily'', an English language newspaper owned by the Publicity Department of the Chinese Communist Party, on the print and online editions. Although the header to the online "China Watch" section included the text "A Paid Supplement to The Washington Post", James Fallows of ''The Atlantic'' suggested that the notice was not clear enough for most readers to see. Distributed to the ''Post'' and multiple newspapers around the world, the "China Watch" advertising supplements range from four to eight pages and appear at least monthly. According to a 2018 report by ''The Guardian'', "China Watch" uses "a didactic, old-school approach to propaganda."

In 2020, a report by Freedom House titled "Beijing's Global Megaphone" was also critical of the ''Post'' and other newspapers for distributing "China Watch". In the same year, 35 Republican members of the U.S. Congress wrote a letter to the U.S. Department of Justice in February 2020 calling for an investigation of potential FARA violations by ''China Daily''. The letter named an article that appeared in the ''Post'', "Education Flaws Linked to Hong Kong Unrest", as an example of "articles [that] serve as cover for China's atrocities, including ... its support for the 2019–20 Hong Kong protests#Mainland China reactions, crackdown in Hong Kong." According to ''The Guardian,'' the ''Post'' had already stopped running "China Watch" in 2019.

Employee relations

In 1986, five employees (including ''Newspaper Guild'' unit chairman Thomas R. Sherwood and assistant Maryland editor Claudia Levy) sued ''The Washington Post'' for overtime pay, stating that the newspaper had claimed that budgets did not allow for overtime wages.

In June 2018, over 400 employees of ''The Washington Post'' signed an open letter to the owner Jeff Bezos demanding "fair wages; fair benefits for retirement, family leave and health care; and a fair amount of job security." The open letter was accompanied by video testimonials from employees, who alleged "shocking pay practices" despite record growth in subscriptions at the newspaper, with salaries rising an average of $10 per week, which the letter claimed was less than half the rate of inflation. The petition followed on a year of unsuccessful negotiations between ''The Washington Post'' Guild and upper management over pay and benefit increases.

In 2020, ''The Post'' suspended reporter Felicia Sonmez after she posted a series of tweets about the Kobe Bryant sexual assault case, 2003 rape allegation against basketball star Kobe Bryant after 2020 Calabasas helicopter crash, Bryant's death. She was reinstated after over 200 ''Post'' journalists wrote an open letter criticizing the paper's decision. In July 2021, Sonmez sued ''The Post'' and several of its top editors, alleging workplace discrimination; the suit was dismissed in March 2022, with the court determining that Sonmez had failed to make plausible claims.Charlotte Klein
Judge Tosses Reporter Felicia Sonmez's Discrimination Case Against The Washington Post
, ''Vanity Fair'' (March 28, 2022). In June 2022, Sonmez engaged in a Twitter feud with fellow ''Post'' staffers David Weigel (criticizing him over what he later described as "an offensive joke") and Jose A. Del Real (who accused Sonmez of "engaging in repeated and targeted public harassment of a colleague").Jeremy Barr
Post editor Buzbee warns staff on Twitter strife: 'Be constructive and collegial'
''Washington Post'' (June 7, 2022). Following the feud, the newspaper suspended Weigel for a month for violating the company's social media guidelines, and the newspaper's executive editor Sally Buzbee sent out a newsroom-wide memorandum directing employees to "Be constructive and collegial" in their interactions with colleagues. The newspaper fired Sonmez, writing in an emailed termination letter that she had engaged in "misconduct that includes insubordination, maligning your co-workers online and violating ''The Post''s standards on workplace collegiality and inclusivity."

Lawsuit by Covington Catholic High School student

In 2019, Covington Catholic High School student Nick Sandmann filed a defamation lawsuit against the ''Post'', alleging that it libeled him in seven articles regarding the January 2019 Lincoln Memorial confrontation between Covington students and the Indigenous Peoples March. A federal judge dismissed the case, ruling that 30 of the 33 statements in the ''Post'' that Sandmann alleged were libelous were not, but allowed Sandmann to file an amended complaint as to three statements. After Sandmann's lawyers amended the complaint, the suit was reopened on October 28, 2019. In 2020, ''The Post'' settled the lawsuit brought by Sandmann for an undisclosed amount.

Controversial op-eds and columns

Several ''Washington Post'' op-eds and columns have prompted criticism, including a number of comments on race by columnist Richard Cohen (columnist), Richard Cohen over the years, and a controversial 2014 column on campus sexual assault by George Will. The ''Post''s decision to run an op-ed by Mohammed Ali al-Houthi, a leader in Yemen's Houthi movement, was criticized by some activists on the basis that it provided a platform to an "anti-Western and antisemitic group supported by Iran." The headline of a 2020 op-ed titled "It's time to give the elites a bigger say in choosing the president" was changed, without an editor's note, after backlash. In 2022, actor Johnny Depp successfully sued ex-wife Amber Heard for an op-ed she wrote in ''The Washington Post'' where she described herself as a public figure representing domestic abuse two years after she had publicly accused him of domestic violence.

Criticism by elected officials

Former president Donald Trump repeatedly railed against ''The Washington Post'' on Donald Trump on social media, his Twitter account, having "tweeted or retweeted criticism of the paper, tying it to Amazon more than 20 times since his campaign for president" by August 2018. In addition to often attacking the paper itself, Trump used Twitter to blast various ''Post'' journalists and columnists.

During the 2020 Democratic Party presidential primaries, Senator Bernie Sanders repeatedly criticized ''The Washington Post'', saying that its coverage of his campaign was slanted against him and attributing this to Jeff Bezos' purchase of the newspaper. Sanders' criticism was echoed by the socialist magazine ''Jacobin (magazine), Jacobin'' and the progressive journalist watchdog Fairness and Accuracy in Reporting. ''Washington Post'' executive editor Marty Baron responded by saying that Sanders' criticism was "baseless and conspiratorial".

Executive officers and editors

Major stockholders
# Stilson Hutchins (1877–1889)
# Frank Hatton and Beriah Wilkins (1889–1905)
# John Roll McLean, John R. McLean (1905–1916)
# Edward Beale McLean, Edward (Ned) McLean (1916–1933)
# Eugene Meyer (1933–1948)
# The Washington Post Company (1948–2013)
# Nash Holdings (Jeff Bezos) (2013–present)

Publishers
# Stilson Hutchins (1877–1889)
# Beriah Wilkins (1889–1905)
# John Roll McLean, John R. McLean (1905–1916)
# Edward Beale McLean, Edward (Ned) McLean (1916–1933)
# Eugene Meyer (1933–1946)
# Phil Graham, Philip L. Graham (1946–1961)
# John W. Sweeterman (1961–1968)
# Katharine Graham (1969–1979)
# Donald E. Graham (1979–2000)
# Boisfeuillet Jones Jr. (2000–2008)
# Katharine Weymouth (2008–2014)
# Fred Ryan, Frederick J. Ryan Jr. (2014–present)

Executive editors
# James Russell Wiggins (1955–1968)
# Ben Bradlee (1968–1991)
# Leonard Downie Jr. (1991–2008)
# Marcus Brauchli (2008–2012)
# Martin Baron (2012–2021)
#Sally Buzbee (2021–present)

Notable staff

* Dan Balz, correspondent
* Jonathan Capeheart, associate editor
* Robert Costa (journalist), Robert Costa, reporter
* Michael de Adder, editorial cartoonist
* Karoun Demirjian, reporter
* Shane Harris, reporter
* Fred Hiatt, editorial page editor overseeing Opinions section
* David Ignatius, opinion writer
* Jamal Khashoggi, columnist
* Carol D. Leonnig
* Ruth Marcus (journalist), Ruth Marcus, deputy editorial page editor
* Dana Milbank, opinion writer
* David Nakamura, reporter
* Ashley Parker
* Kathleen Parker, opinion writer
* Catherine Rampell, opinion writer
* Eugene Robinson (journalist), Eugene Robinson, opinion writer
* Jennifer Rubin (journalist), Jennifer Rubin, opinion writer
* Philip Rucker
* Michelle Singletary, personal finance columnist
* Dayna Smith, photojournalist
* Stephen Stromberg, Editorial Board
* David Weigel
* Leana Wen, contributing columnist focusing on public health
* George Will, George F. Will, opinion writer

See also

* 1975–76 Washington Post pressmen's strike
* ''All the President's Men'', a 1974 book by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward about the Watergate scandal
* ''All the President's Men (film), All the President's Men'', a 1976 film based on Bernstein's and Woodward's book
* List of prizes won by The Washington Post, List of prizes won by ''The Washington Post''
* The Post (film), ''The Post'', a 2017 film based on the publication of the ''Pentagon Papers''
* ''The Washington Star'' (1852–1981)
* ''The Washington Times'' (1982–present)

References

Further reading

* Kelly, Tom. ''The imperial Post: The Meyers, the Grahams, and the paper that rules Washington'' (Morrow, 1983)
* Lewis, Norman P. "Morning Miracle. Inside the Washington Post: A Great Newspaper Fights for Its Life". ''Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly'' (2011) 88#1 pp: 219.
* Merrill, John C. and Harold A. Fisher. ''The world's great dailies: profiles of fifty newspapers'' (1980) pp 342–52
* Roberts, Chalmers McGeagh. ''In the shadow of power: the story of the Washington Post'' (Seven Locks Pr, 1989)

External links

*
*

''The Washington Post'' Company history
at Graham Holdings Company

''The Washington Post'' channel
in Telegram (software), Telegram
* Scott Sherman, May 2002
"Donald Graham's ''Washington Post''"
''Columbia Journalism Review''. September / October 2002.
*
* Jaffe, Harry.
Post Watch: Family Dynasty Continues with Katharine II
, ''Washingtonian (magazine), Washingtonian'', February 26, 2008.
*

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