1. Nixon made explicit threats about the licenses, but a paper trail did not surface to document this until May 1974 (Katharine Graham, Personal History. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1997). Graham filed an affidavit with the FCC on June 21, 1974, saying the challenge was “part of a White House–inspired effort to injure … the company in retaliation for its Watergate coverage.” Morton Mintz, “Mrs. Graham Links White House, TV Fights,” Washington Post, June 27, 1974; David E. Rosenbaum, “Threats by Nixon Reported on Tape Heard by Inquiry,” New York Times, May 16, 1974.
2. Katharine Graham, Personal History.
3. Ibid.
4. All quotes on Meyer are from Cary Reich, Financier: The Biography of André Meyer: A Story of Money, Power, and the Reshaping of American Business. New York: William Morrow, 1983.
5. “The whole company at one point got down to where it was selling for eighty million,” Buffett says. “We spent a little less than ten million bucks when all was said and done and paid a price that valued the company on average at a hundred million.”
6. Graham’s memoir, which downplays her relationship with Meyer, credits Gillespie and Beebe for the idea of the two-class stock. Meyer’s biographer, Cary Reich, credits Meyer for the idea. Given Meyer’s talents as a banker, it seems unlikely he had no involvement.
7. Cary Reich used the term “irate” in Financier.
8. Interview with Arjay Miller.
9. Katharine Graham, Personal History.
10. The company had disclosed in 1971 that the city was interested in buying it.
11. Interview with Bill Ruane.
12. Warren Buffett letter to Malcolm Forbes, August 31, 1973.
13. Interview with Bill Ruane.
14. Katharine Graham, Personal History.
15. Patrick Brogan, The Short Life and Death of the National News Council: A Twentieth Century Fund Paper. New York: Priority Press Publications, 1985. The Council survived for eleven years before giving up—a decade before the Internet became available—for lack of a viable outlet through which its findings could reach the public.
16. Interview with George Gillespie.
17. Interview with Don Graham.
18. Katharine Graham, Personal History.
19. October 20, 1973.
20. Graham more tactfully called him a “delightful and mischievous goad” in Personal History.
21. In her book, Graham recalls that “someone” mentioned the amortization of intangibles and that Howard Simons, unprompted, then challenged her to define it. Possibly Graham did not perceive herself as “showing off” when writing what was, after all, her own memoir.
22. Interview with Don Graham.
23. Interview with Liz Hylton.
24. The Dumbarton Oaks Conference; the Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection.