Downie Pushes “Rules”

“In D.C., there are rules about everything… and everyone breaks at least one rule. The question is, how far can you go?”

-A question posed by Len Downie, the former executive editor of The Washington Post.

Downie made an appearance at the Politics & Prose bookstore on Monday night to discuss the inspiration for his first novel, “The Rules of the Game.” After publishing four non-fiction books related to journalism, Downie felt that fiction would be “a way to express [his] feelings about… [his] interesting experiences in Washington.”

Writing about what he knows best, Downie drew on his eventful career with the Post for his novel. One character even references Deep Throat, a self-referential bit of irony; Downie was an editor involved in the Watergate reporting. (Woodward and Bernstein gave the novel two thumbs up.)

He also described threatening 4am phone calls from an anonymous “military-sounding” caller, pressuring him to cease stories about Oliver North during the Iran-Contra affair for the sake of “national security.” A character in the novel receives similar calls to cease an investigation related to defense contracting.

Besides promoting his book, Downie will be traveling around the country to speak about the future of the media.

“A number of people wanted me for speaking engagements,” he joked, “so I agreed to come if they’d do a book event.” After that he’ll spend the next year working on a project at Columbia University about the future of funding for journalism, before teaching at Arizona State University.

(Thanks to Tiffany March for this report)

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