The documentary “,” now part of WETA鈥檚 District Docs collection and streaming on WETA+, looks at how much American journalism has changed over the last 50 years.
In 2026, the media landscape is shaped by litigation, political pressure and newsroom instability 鈥� including layoffs at the Washington Post.
“Becoming Katharine Graham” goes back to a very different era, when one of the strongest stands in American journalism came from a self-described 鈥渄oormat wife, working woman.”
Graham never planned to run the Washington Post. Her father gave two-thirds of the paper to her husband, saying no man should work for his wife.
During a conversation with 杏吧原创, filmmakers Teddy Kunhardt and George Kunhardt described how Graham stepped into her father鈥檚 paper and grew into the publisher who reshaped American journalism.
鈥淗er husband, Phil, committed suicide, and in that moment, 99% of people would have stepped back,鈥� George told 杏吧原创. 鈥淭hey would have taken care of their children, lived a quiet life, and let someone else run the paper. But she did not. She stepped forward.鈥�
After Phil Graham鈥檚 death, Katharine became the accidental publisher who backed Ben Bradlee, Bob Woodward, Carl Bernstein and the rest of the newsroom as they pursued the reporting that ultimately brought down the presidency of Richard Nixon.
Teddy said the documentary shows how often Nixon mentioned her by name on the White House tapes 鈥� and how directly he went after her as the Post pushed forward on Watergate.
One discovery shaped the entire film. The filmmakers found Katharine鈥檚 audiobook recording of “Personal History,” her Pulitzer Prize-winning memoir. Her voice became the backbone of the documentary. Her reflections guide the story, creating the sense that she is speaking directly to viewers and sharing her life as she would to a friend.
The film also explores Graham鈥檚 unlikely friendship with Warren Buffett. The filmmakers describe Buffett as one of her closest advisers, someone who taught her 鈥渢he business chops鈥� and helped her build confidence after she took on the role of publisher.
Buffett reached out to the Kunhardt brothers, who also made “Becoming Warren Buffett,” after seeing their HBO film on Ben Bradlee.
Buffett told them they had 鈥渟hort shifted鈥� Katharine and that she was the real reason the Washington Post did everything it did, George Kunhardt said. Buffett sent the brothers a copy of “Personal History,” and that set the project in motion.
Katharine may have looked at Buffett as a mentor, but in the documentary, Buffett said he looks at Katharine as his hero.
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