All About the Story: News, Power, Politics, and the Washington Post by Leonard Downie Jr

All About The Story, News, Power Politics and the Washington Post by Leonard Downie Jr, should force you to set aside the 2020 election books and read a magnificent, adventurous memoir. It is a revealing and candid memoir. It is also a terrific history of American politics from 1964 to 2008, an excellent journalism ethics book, a how-to investigative journalism book and an inspiring small-town boy makes good story.
As a former newspaper editor myself, I have known Leonard Downie Jr. (Len) since about 1984 when we dined with a mutual friend at Joe’s Stone Crab in Miami. We interacted as editor colleagues for years. After he retired as editor of the Washington Post we were both professors at Arizona Stater University’s prestigious Cronkite School.
That was a full disclosure paragraph, but after reading the book I realize I didn’t really “know” Len. The level of self-disclosure and self-analysis is stunning even for a memoir. Len is not oblivious to the argument that he is probably the greatest newspaper editor of our generation but he allows other people to come to that conclusion. Remarkably, he treats his very rare screw-ups with more attention than his incredible successes. That deep analysis of his craft makes this a terrific teaching instrument for reporting, investigative journalism, and journalism ethics.
Yet, I don’t want to mislead. Len’s career, mostly as a leader of the post creates a compelling history of a tumultuous time in the U.S. There is almost a Forrest Gump quality to Len’s narratives on Watergate, terrorist acts, Whitewater, the Unabomber and so many more. The man has interacted with so many legendary stories you are left in disbelief. Len even personally covered the Jonestown Massacre. His account of that horror is riveting.
Indeed, Len’s experiences are brilliantly told and much of the book reads like an adventure. Through much of the book Len minimizes his own writing skills. He doth protest too much. I found the book an excellent read.
The book is genuine and authentic. That is best exemplified by his examination of the paper’s coverage of the Bush administration’s run-up to the Iraq war. I will admit I was critical of a key element of that coverage. It turns out I am not as critical of that element as Len is. His revealing self-analysis took real courage.
Len’s sweep of history, his keen analysis of things that went right and of things that went wrong, and his insightful accounts of encounters with top levels of our government make this a must read memoir.

All About the Story: News, Power, Politics, and the Washington Post is Leonard Downie, Jr’s memoir of his 44 year career at the Washington Post. Downie starts his story with the anecdote of how he was accidentally hired as an intern with the Post in 1964. His first assignments led to articles on abuse, influence and bribery in the Washington, D.C. court system. This experience with investigative reporting inspired much of his later work as both a reporter and editor.

Downie describes his experiences as a reporter, both national and international, and his progression up the editorial ranks until, in 1991, he succeeded Ben Bradley as Executive Editor of the Post. He fills the book with details of the Post’s coverage of the well-known stories that occurred during his career. These include Watergate, the Jonestown Massacre, the capture of the Unibomber, the multiple recounts and court battles after the Bush/Gore election, the 9/11 tragedy, the Afghan and Iraq wars, the leaking of the name of CIA agent Valerie Plame and the revelation of the United State’s extreme interrogation practices at sites in several Eastern European countries.

He spends several chapters describing the evolution of the media’s coverage of the private lives of public figures during the 1980s and 1990s. He explains that the media was historically reluctant to report on the private lives of public figures. But, he says, everything changed with the coverage of Gary Hart prior to the 1988 election. This change played to his strength as an investigative reporter. He describes how, as Executive Editor, he managed investigations of public figures including Marion Barry, Robert Packwood, John Towers, Wilbur Mills, Wayne Hayes and, of course, Bill Clinton. And he explains what standards he used to determine when these stories needed to be published.

The strength of this book is in Downie’s detailed description of behind the scenes activities in the Post newsroom related to how stories are assigned, how management deals with pressure from powerful outsiders, how editors decide which stories to print and how stories are finally edited. Since I was generally familiar with the stories themselves, hearing how they were covered was very enlightening.

Unfortunately the book also had its weaknesses. Throughout the book Downie maintains the voice of a dispassionate newspaper reporter. As a result, the reader never really gets to know Leonard Downie, Jr. We learn about his stories, his career and his awards. But we know very little about his personal thoughts regarding the events and people about whom he wrote.

There were times when he tried to display his inner feelings, such as when he witnessed the return of the American hostages from their captivity in Iran. He said that it was very emotional and that “there was a tear in my eye.” I saw his words, but I did not get the feeling from his writing.

He does not seem to be some type of resolute newsman who is unable to write in a voice other than that of a newsman. In fact, I really felt his sadness in the last two chapters of the book where he describes his departure from the Post and the subsequent sale of the Post to Jeff Bezos. I just wish that he had revealed more of himself elsewhere in the book. Instead, as the title of the book says, Downie made his memoir “All About the Story” and not about his feelings.

Notwithstanding the fact that I would have liked to have seen more of the inner Leonard Downie, Jr., this was a very good book for anyone interested in late 20th century American history or the newspaper business in general. I give it 4 stars.

I ordered this book for a friend of mine who lives in DC and reads the Washington Post daily. I went to school with the author, Leonard Downie, Jr, and was in most of the same honors classes with him in junior high school (with the exception of PE/Health). I did not read the book before sending it on so I cannot give it a rating that would be meaningful.