The Washington Post
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- This article concerns the newspaper. The Washington Post is also a patriotic march by John Philip Sousa
The Washington Post is the largest and oldest newspaper in Washington, D.C., the capital of the United States. It gained worldwide fame in the early 1970s for its Watergate investigation by Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, which played a major role in the undoing of the Nixon presidency. It is generally considered second only to The New York Times in stature among American daily newspapers.
The Post has a reputation for being especially good at coverage of American national politics, befitting its location in the nation's capital; in contrast, the Times focuses more on foreign affairs coverage. Conversely, the Post (like Washington itself) is sometimes seen as devoted to politics at the expense of the rest of life.
It is part of the Washington Post Company, which owns a number of other media and non-media companies, including Newsweek magazine, the online magazine Slate, and the Kaplan test preparation service.
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Circulation
As of September 2004, its average daily circulation was 707,690 and its Sunday circulation was 1,007,487, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulations. It is the fifth largest newspaper in the country by circulation, behind The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times, The Wall Street Journal, and USA Today. While its circulation has been slipping, it has one of the highest market-penetration rates of any metropolitan news daily.
Major Sections
Daily
- The Front Page
- Metro (local news)
- Style
- Sports
- Business
Day Specific
- Weekend
- Food
- Sub-region local focus (The District, Alexandria/Arlington, Montgomery County, Prince Georges' County)
- Real Estate
- Washington Post Magazine
- Sunday Source
History
The paper was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins and in 1880 became the first newspaper in Washington, D.C. to publish daily. In 1899, during the Spanish-American War, the Post printed Clifford K. Berryman's illustration Remember the Maine.
In 1905 Washington McLean and his son John Roll McLean, owners of the Cincinnati Enquirer, purchased a controlling interest. When John died in 1916 he put the paper in trust, having little faith in his playboy son Edward "Ned" McLean with his inheritance. Ned went to court and broke the trust, quickly driving the paper to ruin. It was purchased in a bankruptcy auction in 1933 by a member of the Federal Reserve's board of governors, Eugene Meyer, who restored the paper's health and reputation. Philip L. Graham, Meyer's son-in-law, would work his way up to become publisher upon Meyer's death in 1959.
In 1954 the Post acquired its chief rival, the Times-Herald, to become the only morning daily in Washington. Thenceforth its main competition was the Washington Star (Evening Star) until that paper's demise in 1981. After Graham committed suicide in 1963, control of the Washington Post Company passed to Meyer's daughter, Katharine Graham. She was publisher of the newspaper from 1969 to 1979, chairman of the board from 1973 to 1991 and chairman of the executive committee from 1993 until her death in 2001. Her son, Donald Graham, was publisher from 1979 to 2000 when Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr. took over as publisher and CEO of The Washington Post.
As of 2005 the Post had been honored with 18 Pulitzer Prizes, 18 Nieman Fellowships, and 368 White House News Photographers Association Awards, among others.
Political leanings
The Post is generally seen as being politically liberal, particularly on the opinion pages. For example, it usually supports Democratic candidates when making political endorsements. It is often cited along with The New York Times as epitomizing the "liberal media."
The paper argues that its news coverage is politically neutral, an assessment that has its supporters but also draws fire from many directions. However, like many news organizations, the Post focuses its most critical attention on those in power; since the upper echelons of American politics has been more often Republican than not in recent decades, this contributes to the perception of an anti-GOP bias.
Criticism by Ombudsmen
After the publication of 'Jimmy's World' (http://www.uncp.edu/home/canada/work/markport/lit/litjour/spg2002/cooke.htm), in 1981 for which Post reporter Janet Cooke had been nominated by Bob Woodward for the Pulitzer Prize, which she subsequently won and later returned after it was established the story was a fabrication, Post Ombudsman Bill Green concluded an investigation with several comments and recommendations, including "The scramble for journalistic prizes is poisonous. The obligation is to inform readers, not to collect frameable certificates, however prestigious. Maybe The Post should consider not entering contests."[1] (http://academics.smcvt.edu/dmindich/Jimmy%27s%20World.htm)
In 1998 the Post printed a series of denials regarding public leaks of depositions given by President Clinton in the Jones v Clinton case contrary to an Order of the Court. Dr. Deni Elliot of the Practical Ethics Center after reviewing the matter concluded the Washington Post knew the source of the illegal leaks yet "knowingly deceived its readers" by alleging the leaks could have come from the Court or the opposing councels office. Dr. Elliot wrote in the Organization of News Ombudsmen’s publication , “The Post intentionally lied to its readers in printing this set of denials", and "None of this sounds like the making of ethical principals". [2] (http://www.newsombudsmen.org/elliott.html)
Notable contributors
- Anne Applebaum (writer)
- Carl Bernstein (writer)
- Herb Block (cartoonist)
- Ben Bradlee (editor)
- David Broder (writer)
- Tina Brown (writer)
- Richard L. Coe (theatre critic/writer)
- Richard Cohen (writer)
- Janet Cooke (writer)
- E.J. Dionne (writer)
- Leonard Downie, Jr. (editor)
- Meg Greenfield (editor)
- Jim Hoagland (writer)
- Colbert King (writer)
- Tony Kornheiser (writer)
- Mary McGrory (writer)
- Dana Milbank (writer)
- Alex Hummer (writer)
- Charles Lane (writer)
- Shirley Povich (writer)
- William Raspberry (writer)
- Ken Ringle (writer)
- Tom Shales (writer)
- Howard Simons (editor)
- Tom Toles (cartoonist)
- James Russell Wiggins (editor)
- Michael Wilbon (writer)
- Bob Woodward (writer)
- Robin Wright (writer)
Executive Officers and Editors - Past and Previous
- Philip Bennett
- Milton Coleman
- Jackson Diehl
- Leonard Downie, Jr.
- Donald Graham
- Katharine Graham
- Philip Graham
- Fred Hiatt
- Stephen P. Hills
- Boisfeuillet Jones, Jr.
- Colbert I. King
- Eugene Meyer
External links
- Official website (http://www.washingtonpost.com)
- Timeline of the history of The Washington Post (http://washpost.com/gen_info/history/timeline/)de:Washington Post
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