????《華盛頓郵報》并未試圖將自己打造成為首都版《紐約時報》（New York Times），而是立志于在新聞報道和特寫之間取得平衡，這樣就可以在一個規模相對較小的城市獲得足夠的發行量。《華盛頓郵報》最引以為傲的地方便是它的社論版。它客觀獨立、擲地有聲、信息量大的社論是全美國所有報紙的編輯們都關注的。《華盛頓郵報》因此獲得了空前的影響力，正如英國出版人諾斯克里夫勛爵所言：“在美國所有的報紙之中，我更愿意擁有《華盛頓郵報》，因為它已經擺上了國會議員們的早餐桌了。”

????《華盛頓郵報》也已經擺上了近164,000位普通民眾的早餐桌，影響力巨大。雖然標題的排版只有大小寫之分，非常樸素簡單，但是內容卻涵蓋了國際、軍事、外交等領域，而這些新聞都是《郵報》的編輯從三大通訊社以及《紐約先驅論壇報》（New York Herald Tribune）駐外記者發回的海量訊息中精心挑選出來的。華盛頓地區的新聞則是由《郵報》自己的“國內新聞部”負責，通常是通訊社無暇顧及的分析性和解釋性的報道。在華盛頓這樣一個擁擠的城市，犯罪率要比其他城市高，但是犯罪新聞的重要性卻排在國內和國際新聞之后。

????在白宮，《華盛頓郵報》是美國總統每天必讀的六份報紙之一。人們猜測，總統會特別留意《郵報》的社論版。他曾在一次記者會上對當天早晨刊登在《華盛頓郵報》上的一則有關外交政策的評論發表過看法。他說：“當我看到社論作者能如此透徹地理解我的外交政策時，我吃驚得差點從床上摔下來”。

????正如年紀比他稍長的約瑟夫?普利策一樣，尤金邁耶最感興趣的地方也是社論版。雖然全體記者編輯會議不是每天都有，但是召集得很頻繁。這樣，社論作者們就可以了解邁耶對于某些事件發展的想法。在這幅畫中，坐在編輯邁耶旁邊的是副主編赫伯特?艾利斯頓（叼著煙斗的那位）和艾倫?巴斯，他是羅斯福新政的支持者。其他人從左到右分別是：外交事務編輯巴尼特?諾華、書評編輯及社論作者約瑟夫?拉里以及一個從不道歉的共和黨人莫羅?蒲賽。

????盡管華盛頓特區的公民沒有投票權，但一般來說，國會議員們都會對《華盛頓郵報》上對自己的贊揚和批評都比較敏感。在一些極端案例中，邁耶先生會暗示，國會議員家鄉的報紙也會引用《華盛頓郵報》社論，并通過這種方式來獲取主動權。去年，《華盛頓郵報》曾經采用這種策略，迫使眾議院免除了佐治亞州眾議員尤金?考克斯在針對聯邦通訊委員會（FCC）的一個調查委員會擔任的主席職務。FCC違反法律之前，考克斯就曾被指收受了一位私人客戶2,500美元的報酬。不過，此事一直無人過問，直到邁耶先生寫了一份公開信給眾議院議長雷伯恩。言語之中透露，如果需要的話，《華盛頓郵報》會刊登這封公開信，并在雷伯恩和考克斯的家鄉作為付費廣告發布。

????《華盛頓郵報》的影響力并不只是局限在華盛頓的官場之上，在民生方面，它也有著巨大的能量。某天，一位第二代意大利裔女孩寫信給專欄作家杰瑞?克魯茨建議《華盛頓郵報》發起一項活動，讓每個在政府部門工作的女孩都捐出1美元，為美軍捐助一架飛機。隨后的四周時間內，155,000名在政府機關工作的女孩共捐出157,000美元。這筆錢足夠為陸軍購買一輛福特野馬汽車，或者說為海軍添置一家海盜式攻擊機。

????《國會議事錄》（the Congressional Record）經常引用或轉載《華盛頓郵報》的新聞，僅在今年9月20號當天的《國會議事錄》中就有8篇轉載。《華盛頓郵報》聲稱，外地媒體對其報道的轉載率是華盛頓特區本地日報總轉載量的近乎2倍。艾莫?羅珀抽樣調查后發現，《華盛頓郵報》在國會中的讀者人數排在第一位，共有72%眾議員和參議員會讀《華盛頓郵報》，而排名第二的是《華盛頓明星報》，其眾議員和參議員讀者的人數僅為《華盛頓郵報》的六成。（財富中文網）

????譯者：唐昕昕

????In Washington, the Post has not tried to be another New York Times (NYT) but has aimed for a balance of news and features that would give it an adequate circulation base in a relatively small city. Its particular glory is its editorial page, which is so independent, vigorous, and well informed it is coming to be watched by alert editors in all sections of the country. It is attaining the kind of influence Lord Northcliffe, the British publisher, had in mind when he said: "Of all the American newspapers I would prefer to own the Washington Post because it reaches the breakfast tables of the members of Congress."

????The Post reaches Washington's breakfast tables -- some 164,000 of them -- and it arrives with an impact. Dressed in chaste upper-and-lower-case headlines, the Post presents the foreign, military, and diplomatic news as sifted from the dispatches of the three major wire services and the foreign service of the New York Herald Tribune. The capital news is intelligently reported by the Post's own "national bureau" with a measure of analysis and interpretation to which the press associations do not aspire. The crime news, of which war-crowded Washington seems to have more than its share, is always subordinated to national and international news.

????At the White House, the Post is one of the six newspapers with which the President opens his day. He pays special attention, it is generally supposed, to the Post's editorial page. He once remarked at his press conference, concerning a foreign-policy editorial that had appeared in the Post that morning, "I was so surprised to find myself so well understood by an editorial writer that I almost fell out of bed."

????Although Washingtonians do not vote, Congressmen generally are sensitive to praise or censure in the Post. In extreme cases of recalcitrance, Mr. Meyer has obtained action by seeing that the Post's editorials are quoted in the newspapers back home. This is the technique the Post employed last year to force the removal of Representative Eugene Cox of Georgia as chairman of the House committee investigating the Federal Communications Commission. Cox was charged with having accepted a $2,500 fee for representing a private client before the FCC in violation of the criminal code, but nothing was done about it until Mr. Meyer wrote Speaker Rayburn an open letter, letting the word seep through that if necessary the letter would be reprinted as a paid advertisement in Mr. Rayburn's and Mr. Cox's home towns.

????The paper's influence is not limited to official Washington: It is just as powerful in civic causes. One day a second-generation Italian girl wrote Columnist Jerry Kluttz suggesting that the Post sponsor a drive to have government girls contribute a dollar each to buy a war plane for the Army. In the ensuing four weeks 155,000 government girls contributed $157,000 -- enough to buy a Mustang for the Army and a Corsair for the Navy.

????The Post is liberally quoted and reprinted in the Congressional Record, eight instances of this occurring in the issue of September 20 alone. The Post claims its editorials are reprinted by out-of-town papers twice as often as those of all other Washington dailies combined. A sampling by Elmo Roper showed the Post has the highest readership in Congress. Seventy-two per cent of the Senators and Representatives read it, compared to 60 per cent for the Washington Star, the runner-up.