Washington Redux Summary and Analysis

Katherine Graham had inherited the chief executive position of the Washington Post when her husband killed himself in 1963. She did not see herself as totally competent and thus hired Benjamin Bradlee to run it. In 1971, the Post was propelled into international fame when Katherine overrode the opinions of her advisers and published the Pentagon Papers, despite Nixon's threat to indict her. As an encore, she backed the Watergate investigation of two of her reporters. The Washington Post catapulted to greater fame, but its financial picture was not commensurate. The Post had gone public, and Buffett began to buy what he perceived a bargain. Graham did not know what to think but, after meeting Buffett, asked him to be on her board of directors.

The relationship between Graham and Buffett was complex. Buffett schooled her in finance, so that she...