Question 1

True or false: Graham was a trained opera singer before entering the newspaper business.

Accepted Answer

False. She studied history and journalism; her early career involved reporting, not opera, though she loved the arts.

Question 2

True or false: Graham personally fired Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein during the Watergate scandal.

Accepted Answer

False. She supported them throughout the investigation; her decision to publish the Pentagon Papers actually preceded Watergate.

Question 3

True or false: She was a close friend of President Richard Nixon and often dined at the White House.

Accepted Answer

False. Nixon viewed her as an enemy; the Post's Watergate coverage led to his animosity and threats against her.

Question 4

True or false: Katharine Graham was the first female CEO of a Fortune 500 company.

Accepted Answer

True. She became CEO of The Washington Post Company in 1973, making her the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 firm.

Question 5

True or false: Graham inherited the Post directly from her husband’s will with no prior business experience.

Accepted Answer

False. She had worked at the Post earlier and took control only after her husband’s suicide, but learned on the job.

Question 6

True or false: She won a Pulitzer Prize for her autobiography 'Personal History' in 1998.

Accepted Answer

True. The memoir won the Pulitzer for Biography in 1998, detailing her life and the Post's historic coverage.

Question 7

True or false: Graham's father, Eugene Meyer, bought The Washington Post at a bankruptcy auction for $825,000.

Accepted Answer

True. Meyer purchased the struggling newspaper in 1933 for that amount, later passing it to Graham and her husband.

Question 8

True or false: She was the first woman to serve on the board of the Associated Press.

Accepted Answer

True. Graham joined the AP board in 1973, breaking a male-only tradition at the major news cooperative.

Katharine Graham Trivia Questions