The Press: The Siege of Washington

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One major irritation for Post executives is that lost advertising has been fattening the rival Star. The financially troubled Star can certainly use the extra revenue, but Graham and New York Times Publisher Arthur Sulzberger have made personal appeals to Star Publisher Joe L. Allbritton to stand together against the unions. (In its own city, the Times announced that it would close in sympathy if its prime competitor, the News, is hit this week by a strike of deliverers, and the News said it would shut down if Times' deliverers struck first.)

The Post was publishing only 48-page editions last week, about half its prestrike size. Reporters found that they had to write their stories shorter, to fit the reduced news hole, and earlier, to meet abbreviated deadlines. "Son of a bitch, I wish this weren't going on," complained harried Post Executive Editor Ben Bradlee. Yet nonunion workers were using the new composition equipment to produce a fairly creditable facsimile of the prestrike Post, and some of Bradlee's colleagues were less troubled by the siege. Remarked Meagher as two female secretaries tended one of the paper's giant presses: "They get a hell of a bang out of making those big machines go."