The investor who was close friends with the Washington Post publisher talks about the woman who became a pivotal figure in Washington politics, whose story is told in a new documentary, 'Becoming Katharine Graham.'
Warren Buffett rarely gives interviews. But also rare is his friendship with the late, trailblazing publisher of the Washington Post, Katharine Graham. 'If there's any story that should be told, it should be her story,' he said.
'If I was a young girl, I'd want to hear that story. It would change my self-image.'She was one of a kind, and she was terrified of the job,' Buffett said. 'She knew she could do things, but she'd been told all her life that she wasn't , and that females didn't do things. I mean, her mother told her, 'Nobody's interested in listening to you.' And so, all of a sudden, here she is, and she had an all-male board that was waiting for her, and all they wanted was her to stay home and cash the dividend checks.'Graham was thrust into the role, taking over the company, after her husband, Philip Graham, died by suicide. She was then the center of some of the century's biggest stories. She made the decision to publish the Pentagon Papers that helped lead to the end of Vietnam War. It was Graham who supported the investigative journalism that led to President Nixon's resignation after Watergate.All this in spite of the fact that, Buffett said, Graham had had drummed into her head the idea, 'Only men can succeed at business.' Graham herself once said, 'The worst handicap women work under is the self-inflicted one – that is, if you've grown up thinking of yourself as a second-class citizen, that you tend always to put yourself down.'Graham's journey from housewife to the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company is laid out in a new documentary, 'Becoming Katharine Graham,' now streaming on Amazon Prime. And at the center of the story is an unlikely friendship that began on June 4, 1973, when Buffett sent Graham a letter after buying a significant amount of the Washington Post Company's stock. 'I said, 'I'll never buy another share unless you personally okay it,' and I signed a document. Then we became friends.'In the documentary, Graham recalled of Buffett: 'He used to come to board meetings with about 20 annual reports, and he would take me through these annual reports. I mean, it was like going to business school with Warren Buffet.'Asked why he invested in the Post to begin with, Buffett replied, 'It was ridiculously cheap. It was a super bargain. It was worth at least $500 million and was selling for $100 million.'Katharine Graham's son, Don Graham, a former publisher of the Post, said that Buffett was the greatest thing in business that ever happened to Katharine Graham.Buffett said, 'She needed somebody to reassure her.' I asked, 'What were the things you would say to her to boost her confidence?''The biggest thing I said is, when you look in the mirror, it's a funhouse mirror because you're seeing it for the eyes of what the males are telling you about it,' Buffett replied. 'So, my job is to turn that funhouse mirror into a regular mirror. And she knew I was on her side, and I admired her enormously. And she was torturing herself. She couldn't help doing that.' The documentary, for the first time, shows the public the full extent of President Nixon's feud with Graham. A White House recording features one of the president's conversations with FBI director J. Edgar Hoover: Hoover: 'I saw her on TV last night, Mrs. Graham. I would've thought she's about 85 years old. She's only about, I think, something like 57.'Nixon: 'Oh, no, I know that.'Hoover: 'She's aged terribly.'Nixon: 'She's a terrible old bag.'Hoover: 'Oh, she's an old bitch, in my estimation.'Nixon: 'That's right!'But according to Buffett, 'Nixon didn't scare her at all.' What did scare her was the idea of losing the paper. Never did that feel more real to Graham than in 1975, when the Post's printers damaged the presses and went on a bitter strike for more than four months, limiting the paper's circulation.'How challenging was that time?' I asked. 'Well, it tore her apart,' said Buffett. 'She was suffering in that way at that time more than she ever suffered during Watergate, or during the Pentagon Papers, or anything. But she thought she might be blowing everything.'Buffett told us Katharine Graham prevailed because she was brave … and it's because of her that the Washington Post Company stock price went up more than 3,000 percent while she was publisher.But she didn't just make Buffett a lot of money; she said she introduced to him 'the possibility that a steady diet of fast food and Cherry Cokes might not be the best for him.' 'Yeah, but she didn't convert me!' laughed Buffett, who said his favorite foods were what he was eating when he was six years old: 'Hot dogs and hamburgers and Coke and ice cream sundaes, and root beer floats are my favorite. I frequently have a dinner with a root beer float.'Once, attending a dinner at Graham's, prepared by a French chef, Buffett was served a lobster: 'Well, I unfortunately attacked it from the wrong side,' he said. 'Of course, she was very reluctant to criticize me. Finally at some point she said, 'You know, it might be helpful …' What did I know about lobsters?'Graham died in 2001, and Buffett served as an usher at her funeral.As for the 'Oracle of Omaha,' the legendary investor is now 94 years old, still chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, and still making front page news. Every word he utters has the power to roil the financial markets. When asked about the state of the economy today, Buffett demurred: 'Well, I think that's the most interesting subject in the world, but I won't talk, I can't talk about it, though. I really can't.'Asked about how tariffs will affect the economy, Buffett stated, 'Tariffs are actually, we've had a lot of experience with them. They're an act of war, to some degree.'I asked, 'How do you think tariffs will impact inflation?''Over time, they are a tax on goods. I mean, the Tooth Fairy doesn't pay 'em!' he laughed. 'And then what? You always have to ask that question in economics. You always say, 'And then what?''Despite deflecting questions about the current news from Washington, or of Trump adviser Elon Musk's efforts to cut the government, Buffett did admit that he is bullish on American companies. 'A majority of any money I manage will always be in the United States,' he said. And why is that? 'It's the best place!' he laughed. 'I was lucky to be born here.' For more info:The documentary 'Becoming Katharine Graham' is streaming via Amazon PrimeBerkshire Hathaway Story produced by Julie Morse. Editor: Carol Ross. See also: Newspaper editor Marty Baron: 'We always have to hold power to account' Extra! New strategies for survival by South Carolina newspapers A Colorado newspaper that's also a time machine
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