Newspaper Industry Has Lost a Class Act

Much is being written about the late Katherine Graham, and well it should. She was of the old school ... a lady who came up the hard way. She inherited the Washington Post after her philandering and mentally ill husband committed suicide. She built the paper into a great institution.

Yes, it is liberal, but we shall not see its like again. And we have not seen it the way it was in more than 20 years. Corporations are buying up most media now. Newspapers and television are run by non-journalists, interested only in the bottom line. Many reporters take what's handed them and do little investigating or original reporting. Add to that the one-dimensional world view most journalists hold and the media product is predictable and boring and mostly does not serve the public well.

Katherine Graham was a rare breed. Those running the Washington Post today are not. But then journalism isn't what it used to be either. Graham's death leaves a major hole in the profession that will not be filled by anyone I know.