Editorial: Graham a bulwark for First Amendment

Wednesday, July 18, 2001 | 9:02 a.m.

Katharine Graham, the former publisher of the Washington Post who died Tuesday, will be remembered for her paper's unflinching role in uncovering the Watergate scandal, which ultimately led to President Nixon's resignation. And Graham didn't back down earlier in 1971, when her paper published the Pentagon Papers, the federal government's secret history of the Vietnam War. The Post's attorneys and business side argued against publication, but fortunately she sided with the paper's journalists in defying the government's injunction.

Graham's success in building a media empire was noteworthy, but her lasting contribution is that she understood the First Amendment's vital role in preserving a democracy -- and the duty to protect it.

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