Existing comment:
Katharine Meyer Graham, 1917-2001
Attorney General John Newton Mitchell, 1913-1988
The relationship between Washington Post owner and publisher Katharine Graham and Attorney General John N. Mitchell began cordially. In 1971, Mitchell praised the Post for correcting a misquote: “Now you can see why I say the Post is the best paper in the country.” Graham later commented in her memoir, “I should have framed the letter.” The following year, Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, both Washington Post journalists, asked Mitchell to comment on his role in the Watergate scandal. Yelling at Bernstein over the phone, Mitchell denied authorizing $250,000 for the break-in when he was director of the Committee to Re-Elect the President: “Katie Graham’s gonna get her tit caught in a big fat wringer if that’s published,” he threatened. Bernstein quoted Mitchell, omitting the slang.
In a clever reversal, this 1972 caricature presents Graham waving goodbye to Mitchell, who, wearing a prisoner’s uniform, is caught in a clothes wringer. In 1975, Mitchell was convicted of conspiracy, obstruction of justice, and perjury, and imprisoned.
Edward Sorel, 1972 |