Rolling Stone, andNew York.

Newspapers were
"Whatthe Hell Do You struggling to accommodate themselves to these
Think You're Doing?" new forms of reportage, with mixed results.
Yes, Ben Bradlee says twenty years later, the "There was the counterculture, the women's
Style section was his idea, his baby. And his movement, rock music, all this social change,"
cross to bear, in the beginning. says Bradlee. "Could we not collect in one sec-
The executive editor of the Washington Post rs tion, combined with the arts and service features,
sitting in his book-lined office off the fifth-floor all these things that had to do with living?"
newsroom, recalling the early days of this pi-
oneering and still controversial "soft news" Style premidred on January 6, 1969. "We
section of the Posr. thought of calling it
"It had more Lifestyle for a
than one input," while," Bradlee
Bradlee says of the says, "but finally
meetings and we decided on
memos and brain- Style, just Style. "
storming and soul- The first lead sto-
searching that went ry, with bold,
on at the paper black graphics,
through most of was about a
1968. "Dave Lav- young rad-
enthol [the first ed- ical named
itorl deserves a lot RuthEise-
of credit. He got it mann-Schier
on its feet. And on the FBI's
Nick von Hoffman, most-wanted list.
who brought a lot "That woman,
of ideas and a lot of wanted for mur-
spirit to the thing, der, '' Bradlee
and he was just says, chuckling at
such a terrific re- the stir the story
porter. And Art created.
Buchwald played a "That story was
role, not only be- just an enormous
cause he agreed to shock to readers,"
have his column go says Elsie Carper,
into the Style sec- then editor of
tion, but also be- women's news,
cause he liked the who later became
idea and encour- Style editor. "We
aged us to do it. " took a lot of kid-
Not everybody ding about this.
did. "Oh, there Mrs. Graham
was a lot of resis- talked to me about
tance to it, a lot of it. She had some
resistance," Brad- real concerns. She
lee says. Nicholas von was afraid the section would become too male-
Katharine Graham, then publisher of the Post, oriented, that we would be losing our women
now chairman of the board, was not enthusiastic Hoffman was readers.
about Style. the first Style "I thought Style was a good idea, but inde-
"That's a fair statement, I think," Bradlee pendent of that, we had the best women's sec-
says, "the only time in our long association columnist to tion in the country. It didn't just carry fluff
together we really disagreed on something. She build a following pieces, but also hard news. Frequently you
wanted to nibble at it, do it gradually. We had a would find stories that would have been on the
number of dust-ups about this. " and generate front page of other newspapers. It had a lot of
Style was prompted in part by a growing dis- lots of hate reporting strength in the East Wing of the White
satisfaction at the Posl with the For and About House. It had Maxine Cheshire. [Cheshire went
Women section. "There was this feeling that we mail. "On a good on to write a widely read gossip column in
weren't treating women as people, not taking dayrtt Ben Style.l It was a good section.
them seriously, ' ' Bradlee says. ' 'There was evi- "There was also the possibility that the sec-
dence that younger women were not reading the Bradlee once tion would lose advertising, the fashion adver-
women's pages. They were not relating to that tising, Garfinckels. The Post is very good about
saidr "Nick
.kind of coverage anymore. " this; they don't tell you this directly. But you
Style also was an outgrowth of the New Jour- could cancel could sense,they were uneasy. ' '
nalism, the highly personalized, impressionis- "Kay Graham really did not like the idea of
2OO to 3OO Style at all-she thought it was a very, very poor
tic, often anti-establishment reporting done in
the '60s by such writers as Tom Wolfe, Gay subscriptions." idea," says Nicholas von Hoffman, now an
Tlilese, Hunter Thompson, and Gloria Steinem author and magazine writer in New York "I
in such cutting-ed.ge magazines as Esquire, think it was on the third day of publishing, the
122 TheWashingtonian/Jirly 1989
 big story of the day, with art, was about this
train, this enormous choo-choo train , and she
was having a fit: 'You men have gotten hold
my women's section, and there's no food, no
fashion, no parties, nothing but this goddamn
train!' In the course of the morning, Dave Lav-
enthol went up there first to assuage her. He
came back limping, covered with scratches and
cuts. Then Bradlee came back, looking very
grim, and came over and told me, 'You go lp
there and talk to her!' So I went up
there, and she was just in a fury:
'You bastards, what the hell do
became a columnist, and because of that the
section attracted a lot ofyoung readers.'
of Von Hoffrnan was the first"Style coiumnist to
!{ld a following and generate lots of hate mail.
"On a good day, Nick could cancel 200 to 30d
subscriptions," Bradlee once said. When von
Hoffman had submitted one particularly far_out
diatribe on some high-finance matter, i O"outu
Style editor brought it to Bradlee and said, ..This il
terrible, I don't understand a word of it.,; ,.print it
anyway," Bradlee toid him. ,.It's
kill it. "
easier to print it than it is to

you think youire doing?' Kay had

Eventually, von Hoffman's col_
umns of outrage became less out_
been around newspapers a long Ghilly Reception rageous, moved to the inside
time, you know. She could use
very strong language when she Judith Martin, now better known as glCgst appeared less frequently.
Miss Manners, covered the Nixon He left the Post in 1977. ,.Daiiy
thought the situation called for it. journalism really takes it out of
She was just carrying on. 'So what White House for Style until the Nixons,
feeling "uncomfortablel with her often you," he says. "It's extraordinar-
do you have to say for yourself,
you son of a bitch?' she finally sardonic scrutiny, asled the post to ily hard to do a lot of reporting. "
But those were the good old days:
said. 'Toot, toot,' I said. Sh-e have her removed from the beat. "There was a certain . . . I will call
looked up at me and kind of smiled Then Tricia Nixon, the president's it playfulness we had in the begin-
and said, 'Get the hell out of daughter, got matried on a Saturday
here.'" ning," he remembers. "TIte Znit-
afternoon in June tg7 L Martin, barred geist had a lot of bubble in it. you
from the Nixon White House, neverthe- couldn't predict what was going to
"Style-what a dumb idea, I less coordinated the post's coverage. be in the section from day to day. It
thought," says Myra Macpher-
Three Style reporters were dispatched was too idiosyncratic for a lot of
son, an early sign-on. ',Now ev-
ery newspaper in the country has a to the wedding, held on the White people. It was full of surprises, and
people were disturbed by that. They
style section." MacPherson, mar- House lawn.
ried to a Florida state senator, When it came time to write the always are when you're trying
something new."
lives in Miami but still writes for story, Martin insisted on having the "Ben said he wanted to explore
Style, mostly political profiles. A sole byline. Style editor Larry Stern areas ofjournalism that hadn't been
seasoned political reporter when said no. Martin threw what one repdrt- explored before," says reporter Mi-
she came to Style, she took a dim er present remembers as ..an enor_ chael Kernan, who recently retired.
view of the experimental reporting mous tantrum." Stern still said no. "He wanted us to have a lot of fun
of some of its writers. ''There wai "We thought Larry would cave in on with the language. "
this generational split. I was rather
contemptuous of some of them. that one, but he didn'1," a Style report- "Ben had newsmagazine experi-
er recalls. ence, remember," says von Hoff-
They were really amateur, not
The story of Tricia's wedding ran in man. [Bradlee was Washington
trained as journalists. You would
Style the next day, without a bytine. bureau chief of Newsweek before
see cheese holes in the copy, not
going to the Post in 1965.1 He was
sup_ported by facts. It was very less wedded to the daily-journal-
self-indulgent. A lot of the rulesof ism way of doing things. And Ben
reporting had been broken. "
, was very good at finding talent.
He had a particularly good nose for talent. "
What Style staffers remember most about the
early days was the sense of adventure. and the
hours. "I remember arriving at 9 AM and not "l'm Thinkingof Hiring
leaving until one in the morning, and so did a lot You as a Party Reportelt'
of other-people," says Laventhol, now presi- One spring morning in 1969, a few months after
dent of the Times Mirror Company in Loi An-
the.start-up, a young blond socialite named Sally
geles. "We had to get the section-out, and we
Quinn got a phone call from "this man named
were flying blind a lot of the time, doing it on Ben Bradlee," whom she had never heard of.
instinct, and we didn't have that large a sta- . " He asked herto come in. "I'm thinking of hiring
"We worked incredibly long houri," says Elsie
you as a party reporter, " he told her.
Carper. "I lived at the paper. We were trying to A1 Army general's daughter who had gone to
fill pages, do takeouts. Nick [von Hotfnanl was in _
Smith College, dabbled in acting in New york,
charge of culture. Nick is wonderfiI. and fuU of
and worked for a time as social secretary to
ideas, but he is not suited to sitting down and
Algerian Ambassador Cherif Guellal, euinn
reading someone's copy. The critics found it diffi-
was dating New York Pasl correspondent War-
cult to work under Nick. He came in one day and ren Hoge. She had just thrown a splashy party at
announced, 'There will be no more articles ibout
her parents' home in Bethesda for newly elected
Vivaldi in the paper.'
California congressman Barry Goldwater Jr.
"After the first few weeks, we settled down The party was covered by the Style section.
into a very clean layout, with good use of pic-
tures ahd a better balance of stories. We didn't,
Quinn went in to see Bradlee and was charmed
by him. "I thought he was the sexiest man, " she
as we had feared, lose the advertising. Nick
confessed later. But when he offered her thejob,
Juty 198g/TheWashingtonian 123
she protested that she wasn't a journalist, that candidates, and social climbers, on whom she
she hadn't written anything. Hearing this, Phil cast a particularly cold eye. Her profile of a
Geyelin, then the Posr's editorial-page editor, young lawyer and aspiring power host named
remarked, "Well, nobody's perfect. " Steve Martindale stands as the definitive Style
Twenty years later, Mrs. Ben Bradlee, also takeout on social climbing inWashington.
known as Sally Quinn, sits in the library of their "Sally," says Bradlee, "had a way of spot-
Georgetown mansion, sipping ginger ale and ting stories that defined whole subcultures in
chatting about her years in Style. this town. The Washington mistress, which they
"I didn't have any journalism training, " she adapted for TV-that was a story that gave you a
says. "I hadn't even known any journalists be- sense of what really goes on in this town. "
fore I dated Warren. The first day Quinn made a brief, disastrous
thatl started, I covered aparty, an foray into television as a CBS
art opening I think it was. So I Morning News co-anchor in 1973.
called Warren from the office and
told him, 'I'm on deadline, and Tinsel & lnk ' She returned, sadder and wiser,
and did a memorably irreverent
I'm having a neryous breakdown.' Robert Redford's production company profile of Alice Roosevelt Long-
Warren said, 'Just pretend that invaded the Post newsroom in 1975 to worth at 90. "That piece would
you're talking on the telephone to
plan the filming of the Bob Woodwardl never make it into the paper to-
Barbara Howar [a Quinn friend] day," she'says. And then she mar-
and telling her about the party.' Carl Bernstein book All the President's ried the boss.
"It came out kind of chatsy, and Men. Style assigned Tqm Shales, Tom
they liked that, because it was fun Zito, and Jeannette Smyth to the story. "I ruined Sally for the Style sec-
and easy to read. And it was in the The result was headlined "When tion," Bradlee says. "I made it
paper the very next day, with my Worlds Collide: Lights! Camera! Egos!" impossible for her. Whatever she
byline, and that was i/ for me." It created a furor, pitting Washington wrote, it reflected on me. "
She laughs. "I felt as if I had come against Hollywood. "lt's a battle of "I had my own Style persona, but
home. After the first few weeks, I glamour," Sally Quinn noted, "and the I couldn't just be a reporter, I was
realized, this is what I'm supposed movie people have found out they're the wife of the editor," Quinn says.
tobe. "The scrutiny was just unbearable.
"Dave Laventhol was my editor. losing." ln the Village Voiee, an in- Everything I wrote was a reflection
He was very quiet, but he was very censed Redford questioned Smyth's onBen, ontheGrahams."
effective. He would look at your right to call herself a reporter. And A three-part profile of President
copy and say, 'Hmmm, a little more writer Nora Ephron-Bernstein's fu- Carter's national-security adviser,
of this, a little less of that. . . .' " ture wife-was furious at Shales's Zbigniew Brzezinski-"The Poli-
"What I quickly discovered using even an unattributed quote from tics of the Power Grab"-late in
about Sally," Elsie Carper recalls, her, "because my voice is so distinc- 1979 caused Quinn and the Posr
"was that she had a better eye and tive they will know it's me." considerable embarrassment. A
ear than anybody I'd ever seen for At the Kennedy Center premiAre a titillating piece of information
detail, for scene. She put a sharp year later, Zito and Walter Coblenz, the based on a misleading photo-
edge to the stories. " graph-of a flirtatious and "exu-
film's producer, almost got into a fist-
fight. "Walter Coblenz is a creep," ex- berant" Brzezinski apparently un-
Von Hoffman credits Larry Stern, zipping his fly in the presence of
who followed Carper as Style edi-
plains Shales.
another female reporter-proved
tor, with "a big role in Sally's never to have happened. Quinn
development-you know, his andhereditor, Shelby Coffey, had
ideas for stories, the profiles, the a tense meeting with White House
right way to play it, and so on. He was quite an counsel Lloyd Cutler. The White House de-
unusual editor. He had this steeliness in him. He manded a full retraction. The Post ran a correc-
was kind of an instigator. She came up with big tion, and an apology, the next day.
stories very quickly, but I don't think she would The times had changed. "The atmospherics, "
have enjoyed the success she had without Larry. Quinn says. "The Reagans came in, everything
She had a lot of joie de vivre. And she threw got very conservative. I did a piece about Nancy
very nice parties in her apartment on California that was not very favorably received-'Oh, my,
Street. Larry would go to the parties, and other do you have to be so critical of Mrs. Reagan?' It
staffers. The dessert was always Popsicles. " was a complete reversal of the way it was when I
Quinn gained a reputation as a party reporter, started. We had an edge. We took no prisoners.
but party reporting was not easy, she says. "It's But then the Chlture became more conservative.
very stressful. You have to dress up and be one I think Watergate had an effect,, and some of the
of them, only you're not one of them, but you lawsuits. People are more litigious now, people
have to pretend it, and then pull back and write are just more suspicious. You can't be nearly as
your story under a terrible deadline. " loose and easy as you once were. People arejust
She had a knack for approaching people, much wiser about the press. "
putting them at ease and getting them to hang She wrote a Washington novel, Regrets Only,
themselves with their own quotes. She covered and she's at wqrk on a sequel. She still has input
New York scenes, the Mardi gras, the Kentucky into Style. And she devotes a lot of time to her
Derby, and the 2,000th anniversary of the Per- son, Quinn, now seven, who was born with
sian Empire, held in an enormous tent in the physical handicaps. A lively, dark-haired kid
desert tn pre-Ayatqllah Iran. She did long pro- with more than a passing resemblance to his
files of movie stars,,literary figures, political father, he comes home from Lab School as
124 TheWashingtonian/Juty 1d89
 we're winding up the interview. He is dressed in
combatfatigues, "currently his favorite attire, " For God's Sake! Use them wisely and well.'
his mother confides. He sits on a sofa. eatins That was Stern's way of editing, largely by
animal crackers and watching his favorite movl indirection. "
ie, Attack of the Killer Tomatoes.
"I liked Larry Stern as a person, but he was
yu9h. to9 cryptic as an editoi, " says Tom Zito,
Style's first rock-music critic, now a toy manu_
"Ghoose Your Side!" facturer in California. ..He would have these
Style has had eight editors in its twentv vears. three-way, 7en-hke conversations and expect
Some were better than others. Some were more
you to get a clear idea of what he wanted. "
idiosyncratic than Stern, for all his inspirational qualities, ,.was
others. Some lasted an abominable ad-
longer than others. ministrator, " Al-
Larry Stern was th tlutiqu,, len says. ' 'The
Style editor when copy flow was aw-
Henry Allen came ful. We didn'r
on board in No- know what the sto-
vember 1970. "I ries were. Stories
wanted part-time would come in
work as a copy edi- at bigger and
tor-I needed to fix bigger lengths.
my car," Allen re- It really was cra-
calls. "I was living zy, coping with
above the Ben Bow it. So they brought
[a colorful dive on in a guy [to replace
lower Connecticut Sternl named Bill
Avenue, now a ba- Cooper from the
gel shopl. I had business end.
worked for the AP, [Managing editorl
the [New York] Howard Simons
Daily News. I had said, 'Bill Coop-
been in the Marine er's coming in
Corps in Viet- here, and he's
nam-all very going to straighten
'60s, huh?" he you out.' He didn't
says with a laugh. work out at all. He
"They had an couldn't organize.
opening in the He had no experi-
Style section. I had ence. He left in six
never heard of the months. "
Style section. Lar-
ry was in charge. "I came to the Posl
What he wanted to in June of '72,"
accomplish. among says former deputy
other things, was to Style editor Chris-
unload a bunch of tian Williams, now
outmoded ideas about how you cover the people
who ra-n-the country. Don,t play by the otO Sally Quinn ducer in Houywood. .., ;":"1;:t:'rTrtri"oJ
applied at the urging of Carl Bernstein, with
rules. 'Writewhat you see,, he wbuld say. He started as a whom I had worked on a New Jersey newspa_
also spoke in half-sentences. Stern was tremen_
dously inspirational. He had this kind of incredi_
party reporter. per. I expected to go to the Metro desk. The post
ble aggressiveness that was just wonderful to be ttlt's very took me aside and said, ,It says here on vour
around, but it was not understood by the nine_to_ application that you like classicil music. We aie
fivers. You had to have a lot of comhitment. stressful. You trying to_brin€ some news sense to the Style
"Style's success created resentment,,' Allen section..W_ould you be willing to go to Style
have to dress up instead?' My eyes lit up. I haO folLwea tom
says, particularly from the posr t National desk,
and from the Metro desk, which considered and be one of Wo.l{" I had read Style for years. I thought of it
as this.great shining beacon of attractiveivriting
Style writers childish and undisciplined, and them, only and original reporting.
relented Style's poaching on its terriiory.
Paul Richard has been a post art ciitic lons youtre not one "I remember the first meeting-I arrived in a
blue suit with a white shirt and a red necktie.
enough to remember the pre-Style OuVr, ;:*fr"i of them, but you
you had critics like Dick Coe anO paut Hume in Half the editors sat on the floor with their shoes
the back of the Metro section. " have to pretend offand argued, theatrically, about how to cover
the National Zoo. There was an editor named
"Lairy, he was one of the smartest men I've it, and then pull David Legge who dressed tite a comUin"ii;;;i
ever known," Richard says. .,One day, before
we had computers, Henry Allen had a note from back and write George Will and Tom Wolfe. I was his deputv.
The deputy editor of Style. Tom Kendrick, had
Larry rolled into his typewriter that said, as I your story.t' me_staying at his house for three days while I
recall, 'For God's sake! For God's sakei For
looked for an apartment, and inculcated in me
God's sake! Here is'your year's supply of
his very specific point of view of the Style
Juty19gg/TheWashingtonian 125
section-to wit, he was going to run it. me to say to Tom Zito, 'Get the story, write
"It was clear to me upon arriving at Style, it.'It wisn't an expos6 so much as it was a
there was an internecine war going on," Wil- revelation. "
liams says "Kendrick was determined to be "Itwas a wonderful place to write," says
editor. So was Legge, who was chief of the coPY Zito. "You could just walk around and go off to
desk. Bringing them along was an editor, Bill have a great lunch, because there were so many
Cooper, who was, let us say , new to the business interesting people. "
of running a section of a newspaper Kendrick "They generally underpaid people," he adds.
said, in effect, 'Choose Choose your side, be-
"I was making $44,000 when I left [after four-
cause this is a war.' Three months later, teen years], which was ridiculous." According
er and Legge were
to colleagues,
though, Zito's out-
gone. I was assis-
put was erratic, to
tant arts editor, all
in the first few purir kindly. "I
months of my ar-
don't want to
:
cheapen my by-
riving there. And
this all happened
with
breaking.
Watergate
" r
Ne
''I
o 236 1

1
q
line," he would
say.
"The Style sec-
tion then reflected
a maverick sense of
Tall, thin, a chain- ', curiosity and won-
smoker, Tom Ken-
der, " Williams
drick was also Ca- says. "Woodstock
nadian, a foreign- \ had happened. We
er. The Post did not
want to give him
J were after the nov-
elistic way of re-
the Style editor's porting things. It
job. Finally it did.
was never as so-
Kendrick worked
phisticated as we
at least twelve
thought. It was this
hours a day. "A
sense of amaze-
compulsive com-
ment we had. We
plicator," his col-
were young, I was
leagues called deputy editor then,
him. "Tom spe- OF
the reporters were
in meet-
cialized 23. The Z3-year-
ings," Williams olds now are so
says. ' 'No meet- ?Tr LE PYlt" old, aheady think-
ings with Kendrick
ing about the best
took less than two FiI DAY
retirement Plan.
hours, with no few-
.t PR II ll
We didn't give a
er than a dozen at-
shit. It was a sense
tendees. He liked
lists of stories. The
of empowerment
lists were gone by demographics.
over one at a time,
We were taking
with comments from everYbodY. " Style's take on over the world.
Lunch with Kendrick meant lunch with all the
"What has changed-I don't want to talk
editors, making a table of six. "You ordered,
the Hollywood about the Style section today, but I don't recog-
Tom talked, you ate, and you all paid," Wil- Yersion of nize the spirit. I recognize the writers, some of
liams says. "The day just continued with Tom. the writers, but I don't recognize the spirit' "
He would talk right through the lunch. "
Woodward and When Shelby Coffey was named editor of
"Kendrick was a commander," says Jean- Bernstein's Style in 1976, Kendrick "was amiable about
nette Smyth, a former Style reporter who is now
it,-" says Williams, "but I think he felt he was
a Washington freelance writer. "He did not
Watergate saga forced out." Kendrick left the Post to become
public-relations director for the Kennedy Cen-
encourage any romantic notions about writer's set off "a battle ter, then moved to California.
temperament or any literary allusions. But you
knew, for example, that he would not only get of glamourr"
but appreciate such words as trompe I'oeil in Sally Quinn t'Almost Satanic"
sparing and apt usage. He would also make you
gb Uack out at midnight during a monsoon if you noted, "and the "When Shelby took over, I thought Sfyle was at
the end of an era," Chris Williams says. "Shelby
failed to get a quote. He would also move ads movie people said Style was at the beginning of an era-his era. ' '
and fight lurf wars and keep people like I illian
Hellman off your neck if he trusted you-all this have found out A University of Virginia graduate, Coffey
without ever letting you know about it. " was considered a fair-haired boy at the Post
they're losing." right from the start. Youthfully handsome, very
Style under Kendrick, who lasted five years,
"wischaracterized by the existence of a sort of courtly, and very ambitious, he had been made
radical chic," say's Williams. "We discovered editor of Potomac, the Posl's former Sunday
lawyers smoking marijuana. It was easy for magazine, four years earlier, at the age of 25.
126 TheWashingtonian/JulY 1989
 The Shelby Coffey era of Style was character-
.
rzed by a hands-on style of management, a
heightened sense ofpride in the product, and a
certain amount of favoritism. "shelby held our
Who's in Gharge?
noses to the grindstone," says Williams, "and
he worked incredible hours. He had identified
most of the Style stories, and set out to put his
stamp on every one of them. "
"Shelby was born an editor, never left the
newsroom," says Jeannette Smyth. ..He was
the consummate stroker of crazed writers' egos.
He was a tough son of a bitch, but he wis a
southerner, and he had a very romantic view of
writers. "
-.
"Shelby admired good writing," says Wil-
liams. "He was a reader of poetry and a very
literary man. "
"An editor has to encourage the writer to
jump off the cliff, " says Tom Zito, ..but he has Davld Laventhol, 1969: Now
president of Times Mirror
to be there to catch you. Shelby did that. " Corporation, LosrAngeles. Elale Carper, 1969-7O: Recently
.._'H" was a manipulator, a charmer,,'says a
retired from the Post.
"Personalities" columnist Chuck Conconi,
who started at the paper as an editor under
,Coffey. "He was always reading books about
how to manage people. Shelby thought good
writers were like thoroughbreds. They're skit-
tish, he would say, but when you lead them up to
the track, they perform. "
"He was not a conventional editor," says
reporter Curt Suplee. "shelby made up the sec-
tion every day in his head. He terribly enjoyed
perceiving the world vicariously, through ofher
people's prose. "
It was Coffey's idea for John Carmody to do
an expanded TV column. When Judith Martin Larry Stern, l97O-7 l: Went to
came to him with the idea of an etiquette col- National desk; died in 1979 of a
heart attack while jogging. Bill Cooper, 1971: Now sates
umn-"I know it sounds awful, but you'll like manager, Quebecor lnc.
it, you'll like it," she remembers telling him- printers, Newport, Rhode lsland
he did like it, and ran ir. Music critic F.ichard
Harrington says he owes his career atthe post to
Coffey. "I think Shelby saw some promise in
me," he says. "I certainly didn,t fit the mold-a
reprobate hippie. I don't think I would have
been hired without Shelby. "
Coffey's methods are Style lore-the four-
hour editing sessions in which copy with prob-
lems was transformed into someih,ing special;
the late-night phone calls just to talk oi to quote
poetry or to tell a writer how pleased he was
with the latest story, which he had just edited,
and how big an impact it would have in the paper
Tom Kendrlck, 197 1-76: Now
the next day. heads the Orange County Arts
Sally Quinn was a Coffey favorite, although Center in Southern California. Shelby Goffey, 1976-82: Now
they had their difficulties. "shelby was awfirl-to editor of the Los Angeles firnes.
me," she told a reporter who profiled him for
lsquirg last year. "We had terrible editing fights.
I was just out of my mind. I finally saidlo Ben,
'It's Shelby or me. He's making my life misera-
ble.'But Ben said, 'Well, you're going to have to
go, because I think he's terrific. He's just pissing
-
in a circle to stake out his own territory. "'
"Shelby had to be tough with Saliy," Bradlee
says now. "Otherwise, he would have been
accused ofkissing the ass ofthe boss's wife. "
Paul Hendrickson was a favorite. A former
Jesuit seminarian, he has been one of Style's
best writers. "I worship him, " he said of Cof- Lee Lescaze, 1982-83: Now
fey to Esquire. "My feelings for him are sacred. deputy foreign editor of the Wail Mary Hadar: Style editor since
I was struggling, and Shelby saved my soul. " p Street Journal. 1943.

July1989/TheWashingtonian 127
Tom Shales was a favorite. "Shelby did have a see that Howard, who had always suppofted me,
Svengali relationship with Tom," says Curt Su- was getting a kick out of it. "
plee. "He gave Tom a lot of personal atten- Still, Style isn't what it used to be for Shales.
tion. " "I go there, do the work," he says. "My opin-
"I think that Shelby was the best editor," says ions are not asked for. I have to miss the good
Shales. "Shelby has a gift for making you want to old days. Sally was writing, and John Walsh was
write, even when you don't want to write. He just here. [Walsh was a former Rolling Stone editor
knew whatto do, intuitively. It was almost, almost with a large collection of T-shirts, which he
. . . satanic." wore to work; one hanging on his wall read,
Shales had knocked on the Post's door for "Tell Shelby I'm So Depressed."l And Tom
some time before he was finally Donnelly [an arts columnist of
hired in 1971 as a general-assign- wide girth and lacerating witl and
ment reporter in Style. "They told Lon Tuck, a really nice man. "
me I didn't
seem impressed A kind of Marx Brothers anar-.
enough by the prospect ofworking "We Don't Gall lt Gossip" chy would hit the section late in the
atthe Post," he recalls, "and they "l was hired as an editor of Maxine day, Shales recalls fondly. "Shel-
certainly weren't impressed by my by would go into a five o'clock
Cheshire's 'VlP' column," says "Per- meeting and I would go into his
educational background. I hadn't
gone to Harvard. "
sonalities" columnist Chuck Conconi. office and take over his desk and
Shales had written movie re-
"l also edited Diana Mclellan when the announce to everybody, 'I am now
views for the college newspaper at Post bought the 'Ear' colrirnin, after the the editor of the Style section. ' It's
American University. Then he Star folded. I told Ben if would never gone. lt was a really exciting time.
was entertainment editor for the work, but they bought it anyway, and We're living in a sort of aftermath
tabloid DC Examiner, where Tom then Maxine got mad end quit." Chesh- ofthat. "
Kendrick saw his stuff and recalls ire married a Texas multimillionaire "They were interesting times, a
being impressed by it. Shales is and lives in Houston. lot of talented people, we had
amused by the number of people, "Ear" did not fare well at the Post. some good times," says Coffey,
some still at the Post, who claim to "We were lawyering all Diana's col- now editor of the Los Angeles
have "discovered" him. Times. He remembers the "enor-
Once in the TV-critic slot (he
umns," Conconi says. ln December mous pressures. Your abilities,
replaced Sander Vanocur), he
1981, "Ear" said that former president your imagination are really tested
quickly became a must-read. Carter had bugged Blair House-an item all the time. " He remembers cer-
When the Chicago Sun-Times that in the Star would have seemed only tain writers-Hendrickson, of
made him a tempting offer in bizarrely amusing. Now a lawsuit was course, and the way Shales
1980, Coffey persuaded the threatened, an apology demanded. The "would just come roaring out, in
Post-never known for throwing Post regretted the error. And Mclellan 45 minutes, and on deadline, with
money at writers-to match it. fled to the Washin gton Times. an essay about a celebrity who had
Losing Shales was unthinkable, he "ln the column," Conconi says, just died." And certain Style sto-
argued. "we're under the same restraints as a ries. "One of the royal visits we
Coffey also engineered the deal covered in depth-Queen Eliza-
conventional reporter. So it has a ve- beth it was, when we used a differ-
for Shales's TV reviews to be na-
tionally syndicated as a column.
racity to it. And, well, of course, we ent type for the headline, and late
Including syndication, Shales's don't call it a gossip column." at night, when it came off the
salary is now six figures. "Shales press, you saw all this effort had
is much admired, so no one com- come together, when at ten
plains, " says Henry Allen. o'clock that morning, it had been
"Tom is not a very gregarious person social- inpieces, just an idea. "
ly," says Suplee. "He's a very private person, a But for Coffey, speaking by phone from the
very modest guy. He's very shy, sort of eccen- library of his suburban Los Angeles home, his
tric. But Tom has a splendid sense of himself. ' ' five and a halfyears at Style are long ago and far
He stays aloof from most of his Style col- away. "I thought I had done it long enough, " he
leagues. Chuck Conconi, who has an office next says. "It was time to move on and have some
to him, is probably his best Style buddy. "There new things to do. "
are only two indispensable people atthe Post,
Broder and Shales, " Conconi says. ''The rest of Lee Lescaze was appointed Style editor in May
us are dispensable. The Posr is terrified that 1982. when Qoffey was elevated to a newly
Shales will leave and go to Los Angeles. But he created assistarit managing editor slot, oversee-
wouldn't want to do that. He'd only have enter- ing all the soft-news sections of the paper. A
tainment. Here he has news, too. " Harvard graduate who had come up through the
How did Shales feel about winning the Pulitz- ranks-copy aide, Metro, National, the foreign
er for criticism last year? "Numb," he replies. desk, overseas assignments in Singapore and
"I didn't think I would ever win it. I thought Hong Kong (he spoke Chinese and French), the
they'd give it to everybody else except me." White House, and New York bureau chief-
The Style staff applauded when he walked in the Lescaze seemed,avery smart choice.
next morning. "I was moved,"he says, "when But, separated from his wife, he became in-
Ben Bradlee came back and gave me a bottle of volved with Style reporter Lynn Darling (they
Champq,gne. I really do idolize Ben. And How- were later married), despite signals from man-
ard Simons, who iS'very ill, he gave me a big agement that it could cause problems. It did. For
smile. I thought that was worth everything, to one thing, some resentful Style reporters felt
128 TheWashingtonian/July 1989
 thatDarling's stories were played too promi- the te.rritory of the arts, of intellectual life.
nently too often.
In mid-1983, Lescaze came back from a
Washington politics, the Washingt""
All you
.il;;;;;l
month's vacation to find himself removed as
have to do is have the idea"s. "
editor. He took it badly. He was offered Garv
Arnold's job as movie critic, but he rejected it.
"The section didn't seem very interesting,"
"Give Me That lob!"
Is Style today better than ever? Some think so.
says Bradlee. "It seemed to me that he ias A
pale, predictable shadow of its former f";"i"
distracted by personal involvement, and he
self? You hear that, too. More ne*s_o.ientJj
didn't have the good story ideas that we thought
certainly. More responsible. More carefut aboui
he would have for
the section. It was a the facts. Better_
very painful thing looking, too. And
to do. " there's more to
There was also a read (a Style plus
personality factor. section, devoted
"Lee is not a de- largely to consum-
monstrative man," ). er affairs and cop-
says Curt Suplee, ing-with-life mat-
who worked with 'stsuen ters, was added ten
him as deputy edi- years ago). It is
tor. "The sen- Qfa also a smoother op-
eration than it used
tences were too
cool. He wasn't to be.
very good at strok- $or And it can still
ing people. And his code have impact-wit-
personal tastes ness Ken Ringle's
were too rarefied. front-page profile
He was really inter- in May of Pamela
estedin fine arts, Small, describins
highbrow litera- how she was brul
ture. He didn't tally attacked years
watch TV, wasn't ago by a store clerk
interested in media named John Mack,
stories. He didn't who became top
take kindly to aide to House
ideas. And I don't Speaker Jim
think he was politi- Wright. Mack was
cally astute. " forced to resign,
There was also and the story fur-
the Shelby factor. ther damaged the
"Shelby found it embattled Wright.
very difficult to "What's
turn over control of changed is we've
his baby to Lee all grown older,"
Lescaze," says says Paul Richard.
Chris Williams. "Hejust sat on Lee's shoulder. "I was 29 in 1967
The result was, Lee was not able to make his
How Tom Shales when I started here. I knew nothing, my training
was here on thejob. The people who have beei
mistakes. Shelby was still running the Style felt about here a long time are muih 6etter writers now
section..Lee was carrying the water. -The,"port_
ers felt they were working for two masters. i
winning the than they were then. "
"There are reasons why Style had to
_
Cgffey denies this. "I was quite careful not to Pulitzer for his .;The
change," Sally Quinn says.
do that," he says. "Lee was in charge of the Slar folded.
section. "
TV criticism: We became virtually the only paper in Washing-
ton. We went from being this underdog to being
_ "He was my boss, and he sat 50 feet away," "l{umb. I didn't the paper of record. Before Watergaie, beforE
Lescaze recalls without rancor. ,,Did he tell-me
what to do? No. There were instances when we think I would All the President's Men, no one knew what the
Washington Posl was. We pouldn't get into
d_isagreed on stories, but these were very rare. ever win it. I things. [Srar society columnist] Betty B6ale had
He did not bigfoot the section. He was very
thought they'd entrde everywhere when I first started. "
good about this. 'Go talk to Lee,' he would
"The nature of the Posr has changed,', says
say." give it to Curt Suplee, now an editor on the Oitlook set-
"The best thing about Style," reflects Les_ tion. "It's far less adversarial. The attack-mode
caze, now foreign editor of the Wqll Street Jour_ everybody else
hostility, the.great age of advocacy journalism,
nal, "is the freedom you have to pick subiects except me.tt is past.
and ideas to write about, and to biing creitive
surprise to the readers in a newspaper, where, of
Earlier this year the Style section was the subject
neces_sity, so much else is governed by events.
of an intensive in-house criticism-..a tradiiion
Styldis less bound by events than are other here, " Bradlee points out-at the annual ..pug-
sections of the newspaper. It can range all over
Continuedonpage 162
Juty198g/TheWashingtonian l2g

Style Unzipped
Continuedfrompage 129
wash" retreat, a ritual of self-examina-
tion at the Post. Last year the National
section was picked apart. Now it was
Style's turn. A 5O-page report was
produced, circulated, and subsequently
CUSTOM D EANING was leaked to the City Paper, which
f
gave its contents cover-story play: Style
is lazy, formulaic, and parochial, the
report said: its pampered, tenured, self-
indulgent writers are victims df ttreir
elitist attitudes, the pawns of press
!
agents, etc., etc.
Depending on whom you talked to,
the Style section was either "rocked" by
these accusations or took them in stride.
"Ben and Donnie lGraham, Post pub-
lisherl were laughing about it," iays
Quinn. "They were wdndering why no-
body had leaked the National memo last
year. It was much rpore interesting. "
Robert Kaiser, assistant managing ed-
itor for national news, who edited the
critical in-house report, calls Style ,.a
wonderful and important part of the per-
sonality of the paper. Without Style, it
\ would be a very different paper, and a
vastly inferior one. Style plays a very big
and important part in the emotional rela-
Presewing the cherished since 1926 tionship we have with our readers. "
8402 Conn. Ave., Chevy Chase
301-652-3377
Trust Them, They're the Gritics
Explaining Their 0pinions ls a Full-Time Job
The critics in Style have an advantage ar. He describes it as the clarifying
over the general-assignment reporters,
:"" says art critic Paul Richard: ..Editors
tend to listen to the critics, because
they trust the critics. I think David
[$chqds, theater] is well thought of.
;
g
[Tom] Shales is unparalleled. [Alan]
Kriegsman won
a Pulitzer for his dance
A
criticism. The music people are good,
"
the movie people are good.
'^-t
tft After Richard Harrington re-
placed-"overcame," in his word-
:i
rock critic Tom Zito, the beat was
broadened to include pop andjazz. He
also relieves frlm critics Hal Hinson
thgughttul one) and Rita Kempley
(tl-re
(the playful one) of having to review
Conrc Experience The Best Tinre At Ttre Movkx. . .
slasher movies. Harrington is a con-
at the
noisseur, the gorier the better, Hinson
Bethesda says gratefully. "He comes back from
a showing with rhis wild look in his
Ginema tNt Drafthous@! eyes. . . ."
We serve beer, wine and deli foods at your David Richards, who shares the
table throughout each feature in a classic
theater beat with Joe Brown, was hired
1930's Art Deco environment!
771 I Wlsconein Ave. in 1981, with architecture critic Ben
Bethesda, tlD 2O814 !grg"y, when the Washington Star
_ 301.656.3337 folded. "David lives and breathes
Folr PriYatG Partics, Gall 656.32a3 theater," says Style editor Mary Had-
162 TheWashingtonian/July1989
Still, he says, Style "lacks zip" these
days. Part of the reason, he thinks, is
because some ofthe reporters have been
there too long-a point made in the re-
port. "Most sections of the paper benefit
from infusions of younger talent, fresh
ideas. That has been less true of the Style
section. Style writers don't leave. "
Style's current editor, Mary Hadar, is
a solidly built dynamo who exudes en-
thusiasm and good will. Sitting in her
office against the south wall of the
Style section, she greets stop-bys from
other sections of the paper in a relent-
lessly merry voice. "Hi! How are
you?" she beams at somebody from
financial. On a corkboard hang recent
Style sections. Below are three J.C.
Penney-University of Missouri Jour-
nalism School gold awards for best
newspaper feature section. On a shelf
is a photo of a very proud Mary with
her arm around an ambivalent-looking
Tom Shales, taken when he won the
Pulitzer.
Hadar has been editor of the Style
section for six years, longer than anyone
else. A former Style copy editor, night
editor, and deputy editor (before that she
was with the Jerusalem Post and the
Baltimore Szn), she went after the edi-
tor's job following Lee Lescaze's depar-
force in his life. His idea of time off is
to sit around and talk about theater
(although at age 47 , he is also working
on his tennis game). But the clout and
influence conferred by the Post beat
leave Richards ambivalent. He doesn't
covet a public persona. He doesn't like
to be recognized at openings. He likes
even less to be asked at intermission,
"What do you think of it so far?" He's
not all that concerned when people disa-
gree with him. "I tmst my judgment,"
he says. "That's all you can do. "
Joe Mclellan covers classical mu-
sic, 4nd that, too, is a full plate. "The
editors have to trust you a lot more than
if you are a TV critic," he says.
"Ninety to ninety-five percent of TV is
junk. Ninety to ninety-five percent of
what I deal with are certified master-
pieces. "
"With the exception of New York,
there'r probably more arts here than
anywhere else, " says Ken Ringle, edi-
tor of the Show section. "There's more
happening all the time. There's never
enough space, time, or people. "
ture. First she gave herself a pep talk.
Several pep talks, actually. Then she
went in to see Ben Bradlee.
"We looked at a lot of people inside
and outside the paper," Bradlee says.
"One day Mary Hadar came in to see me
and said, 'Ben, I want that job. I want
that job so bad I can taste it. Give me that
job!' I like people who do things like
that, who go after what they want. It was
very impressive to me. "
Giving Hadar this position was con-
sidered a risky, even cynical move by
management to make Style a more com-
plaisant, better-behaved section. But it
seems to have worked out.
"Mary is a generalist, I would say,"
says Paul Richard. "Mary is a very good
editor. She spots holes immediately in
stories. She has a really good grasp of all
the forms of Style pieces. As a person,
she has a heart of gold. She holds no
grudges, and she doesn't play favorites.
Her decisions are fair and equal. She
listens. And she works hard. She works
her ass off. "
''I was an assignment editor for her, "
says Henry Allen, one of Style's most
highly regarded writers, who covers
American culture. "She likes meetings,
long meetings. She likes profiles, and
she likes edge in the stories. When she's
there, the section runs better than when
she isn't. She's another instinctive per-
&&&&&&M
&&&&&&&
son. Mary understands [to] just leave me
alone, I will do the work. "
"She's a fine editor," says Shelby
Coffey.
"She's a terrific editor," says Ben
Bradlee.
Not everyone views her so positively.
"Mary's experience was 100 percent
Shelby," says one former Style staffer.
How does Style Gover'
Katharine Graham's
parties? lois Romano: ItWe
do whatever Mrs. Graham
wants us to do.'l Phil
McGombs: "And we do it
very, Yery carefully."
"She's a clone. There's no originality in
Mary. Mary is a conventional person, so
you get a conventional section. " He went off to write a book about
"She likes mild people, unaggressive
people," says another staffer about her
hires. "I don't think it's so good for the
section. The section suffers. " house. "We sat on the porch," Hen-
Hadar knows that she's dealing with
some diehard Coffey loyalists out there
in the clutter of desks, terminals, edi-
tors, and writers over which she pre-
sides. Is the Coffey legend of inspired
excellence a burden?
"I don't feel that at all-not much,"
she says. "I sometimes invoke his name
when I'm editing. Let me quote Shelby
to you: 'Copy is infinitely perfect-
ible.' " She smiles. "As I say, I have
unbridled admiration for Shelby. I know
that's not universal.
"shelby really taught me everything I
know about a feature section. More than
that, about the care and feeding ofa large
staff. And delegating, and taking risks
with writing. And some parts of manag-
ing, which is the one thing they cannot
really train you for. "
Paul Hendrickson, for one, seems to
have accommodated himself better than
some other Coffey favorites to the suc-
ceeding regimes. He has produced two
blockbuster stories-a revealing, richly
detailed three-parter on former Secre-
tary of Defense Robert S. McNamara,
and another one about the surviving sons
of Ernest Hemingway.
McNamara after that, but when he found
he couldn't do it-for now, anyway-he
called Hadar, who invited him out to the
drickson recalls, "we had a bottle of
wine, and we talked about just about
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 everything except the book and the Style
section. So finally I asked her, 'Mary,
can I come back to the Style section?'
And she had this one word of response,
with this big smile:'Instantly. "'
"Look," says Hendrickson, "the
perception is, I am one ofShelby's peo-
ple. But clearly it has been Mary's Style
section for the past six years. Was the
editing more brilliant under Shelby?
Yes, it was. Do I get good editing from
Mary? Yes, I do. And I love her for her
decency, her warmth, and her fairness. "
Not for Hadar the four-hour editing
sessions, the late-night phone calls to
favored writers. "I delegate a lot more
than he did to the assignment editors,"
she says. "When I go home, I want to
spend the time with my children. "
She lives in Chevy Chase with her two
sons, ages thirteen and fifteen. She is
divorced. Did the long hours and other
demands of the job cost her the mar-
riage? "Oh, you know, people grow
apart. It's beyond your control. Mar-
riages need work." Do her sons resent
her job because it takes her away from
them so much? "I think they've gotten
over that. I always take their phone calls.
They always get through. Howard Si-
mons, when he was dispensing advice,
told me, 'Get another phone at home,
and always talk to your children.' "
A math major at the University of Penn-
sylvania, Hadar says she was "lost"
when she advanced to the more theoreti-
cal areas. She got involved in college
journalism, decided it had more to offer
her than mathematics, and went on to get
!t
a master's degree at the Columbia
School of Journalism.
She has, she says, "a tremendous re-
spect for writers and for what they do.
They're in a very risky business." But
'. writers, she says, are not skittish thor-
oughbreds to her; they are "children."
F She says this sweetly, without any
;.t patronizing.
"I introduced her to my fianc6e re-
fi cently," movie critic Hal Hinson recalls
with some amusement. "A little later
she took her aside and said, 'I'm so glad
to meet you. I was so worried about
Hal.'"
But Hadar can be tough on writers.
"You have to goose them sometimes,"
she says. " 'Hey, you've been working
on that story for how long now? I want it
on my desk Monday morning.' "
As for "mild, unaggressive" addi-
tions to the Style staff-"Gee, I can't
think ofany passive people I've hired,"
she says. "Lloyd Grove, an activist
writer, was one of my first hires. He's
going off to write a book. Hal Hinson
and,Rita Kempley . . . Donna Britt I just
'hired to write abbutr black issues. She's
going to be good. Jhckie Trescott is al-
164 TheWashingtonian/July1989
ready on that beat, and she's good. She
really knows this town. And Martha
Sherrill, who was [fashion editor] Nina
Hyde's assistant, is a new hire. She'll
cover parties. She has a good eye, a
good, offbeat sense of humor, and an
edge. Jim Naughton, also a new hire-
he just came back from his honeymoon
[with Style staffer Elizabeth Kastor]. He
came to me and said, 'I want to write
Anatomyof Styleo
Recounted by editor Mary
Hadar at a lecture on the Style
section, sponsored by the
Smithsonian lnstitution earlier
this year:
"We had a piecd that Tom
Shales wrote about Harry
Hamlin [a star of TV's LA Lawl,
who turned out to be a very
boring interview. The piece
had a line, 'The women in the
office have a question for
you.' And Harry said, 'Twelve
inches.'
"Ben wouldn't let us run it."
about needy people.' We can't just do
the big-time personalities. We don't
want to be the Vanity Fair of the Wash-
ington Post.
"The Judy Bachrachs, the Sally
Quinns, the Myra MacPhersons, all that
bitchy kind of personality writing,"
Hadar says, is what people remember
about Style, "and we need to keep that.
But I think we need to balance that also.
We've got to do more than that. The one
thing that has changed since the early
days is, I think, we're less likely to go
with unattributed pot shots. "
Stephanie Mansfield, who profiled
celebrities for Style with a definite
edge-she once wrote that interviewing
Richard Chamberlain was like "talking
to a piece of tan Styrofoam"-recently
took a leave of absence to write a book
about tobacco heiress Doris Duke and to
be a contributing editor at Vogue maga-
zine. She left amid controversy about
what one reader called her "egregious
attack" on William Howard Taft IV,
deputy secretary of defense, whom she
had characterized in aprofile as "boring
as hell," "really dull," and a man who
tried to "make the world safe for K mart
clothing. "
Mansfield says that the piece was
rushed into print before it was ready.
"People hadn't called me back," she
says. It was a "thin" news day, her
editor said, and they needed the piece.
"I was trying, single-handedly, to be
the 'old' Style," Mansfield says. "Not
what Sally did. She has a unique talent
for getting people to hang themselves.
She thinks I'm meaner. I wonder if Sally
could operate the way she did if she was
working in Style today. ' '
"I felt it was time for a change,"
Mansfield says of her leave-taking.
"I've been here since 197 6. I started out
as a news aide in the food section. It's a
different newspaper now. I said to Ben
that I felt we had gotten more conserva-
tive, and that probably accounts for
some of the negative reaction to the Taft
piece.
"Look, Style is very hard to leave.
Where do you go from there if you want
to do feature writing? But we used to be
on top of things. Now it seems we're the
''
last to do things.
"She's absolutely welcome to come
back," Hadar says. "I'd certainly be
happy to have her back. But when you go
off and write a book, and you sign a
magazine contract, it doesn't always
happen. "
Mary Hadar expresses no inclination to
move on. "Oh, yes, I do like this job,"
she says with a smile. "This job is all-
encompassing." But she has developed
strong management skills running Style,
and the Posr has noticed.If they were to
come to her and offer the soft-news slot
created for Shelby Coffey and vacant
since his departure five years ago, she
says she'd take it. She already oversees
the recently revised Washington Post
Magazine.
Meanwhile, beginning its third dec-
ade, Style continues to evolve. "We
may not recognize it in five years, ' ' says
Coffey. Hadar would like to add a sci-
ence writer, and a critic-at-large who
could stir things up-a kind of Nick von
Hoffman of culture for the '90s. She'd
like to have more critics as well. She's
disappointed, she says, that a compre-
hensive plan to expand arts coverage,
devised by deputy editor Ellen Edwards,
was put on hold. Too expensive for now,
the Posr decided.
What will happen when Ben Bradlee,
whose vision Style was, steps down, and
managing editor Len Downie steps up?
Will the section be diminished?
'n'Len is running the newspaper,"
Hadar says matter-of-factly. "I don't
sense any dissatisfaction on his part as to
Style's role. I do sense from him that
what we should be doing, and I concur,
is more stories that touch the lives of
ordinary people. But Len applauds our
political profiles, too.
"With Len and Ben, I would say,
there has been no effort to influence the
coverage. And I'd like to know how
many feature editors can say that. "
She smiles brightly again. "l haven't
given you much confl ict, have l?' ' U