【英文原文】

 

The First American Woman to be A Media Mogul

 

Katharine Graham，who died on July １７at ８４，was，for many years，arguably the most powerful woman in America．She was the first woman to be a true media mogul，running The Washington Post Company for more than three decades．For several generations of public officials and journalists，she embodied the Washington establishment．

She first gained true fame during the Watergate scandal1） of the early １９７０s，when the Post’s reporting helped bring down President Nixon．In １９９８，her memoir，“Personal History，”was a No．１best seller and won the Pulitzer Prize．

Just before World War II，she married Philip Graham，a brilliant Harvard Law grad and Supreme Court clerk．Phil，who took over The Washington Post fro m Katharine’s father，Eugene Meyer，and began the paper’s climb to greatness．But Phil Graham was a manic－depressive2)，and his flights of greatness were accompanied by terrible lows．When Graham shot himself in １９６３，his widow had virtually no confidence in her ability to guide her family company or continue her husband’s role as Washington power broker．

She was operating in a world that was still essentially male－dominated．Slowly，hesitantly，not always aware of what she was doing，Mrs．Graham begin to challenge the social order．The custom at fancy dinner parties for many years in Washington and elsewhere was for the“ladies”to retire after dinner so the men could talk about important matters．At one dinner party given by columnist Joseph Alsop in the １９６０s，Mrs．Graham finally，and at first meekly3)，rebelled．She was irritated4) at being banished，she later wrote，because she realized she knew more about the subjects the men were discussing than they did．She told her host that she would rather go home and read than join the ladies in the drawing room．Alsop got the message――and an old and condescending5) custom was cast away．It was not long before cabinet officials were begging to join the conversation at her table．

The Washington Post had just begun to come into its own in the early １９７０s when a pair of young Post reporters，Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein，began to uncover serious wrongdoing in the Nixon White House．When the paper began reporting on the scandal that became known as Watergate，Nixon’s Attorney General，crudely threatened Katharine Graham，warning Bernstein that“Kay Graham’s tit is going to get caught in a wringer”if the paper persisted in investigating the president．Though the Post was at considerable financial risk――the Post Company had just gone public and the Nixon administration was threatening the Post’s television licenses6)――Graham stood up against the pressure from the White House．Months later，after Nixon had resigned in disgrace，humor columnist Art Buchwald jokingly give Graham a small bronze wringer7)．

A couple of years earlier，Graham had taken an equally principled and courageous stand in publishing the Pentagon Papers，the U．S．government‘s secret history of the Vietnam War，despite threats of criminal prosecution8) by the Justice Department．Widely honored for her courage as a paragon9) of the First Amendment，she also became an immensely successful business－woman．Acquiring TV stations，cable companies and other media outlets，she made the Post a well－established Fortune ５００company．Other media leaders turned to her as an example and an inspiration．But though she was a model for the advancement of women for some ４０years，she never modeled herself as a feminist10) protagonist．She was，to the end，a gentlewoman of the old school，gracious and mannerly．