Post Watch: No Spying on New Editor

Editor's note: The September issue carries a picture of a house in Bethesda's Westmoreland Hills, captioned as Brauchli's house, that is across the street from the house that Brauchli has rented; the picture above (right) shows the house that the new Post editor has rented. 

There was always a not-so-subtle message in the house of former Post editor Ben Bradlee—his welcoming home in the center of Georgetown put him at the center of Washington. His successors haven’t followed the lead.

Will we be seeing more of incoming Post editor Marcus Brauchli than we have of incumbent Leonard Downie? Judging from the glimpses of their houses from the street, the answer is “not much.”

Downie’s home, just north of DC’s Palisades, hides behind a hedge as imposing as the Berlin Wall. Brauchli is renting a house in Bethesda’s Westmoreland Hills, a wooded enclave off Massachusetts Avenue. Brauchli’s house is hidden from the street—driving by, you can barely see the red brick through the wall of shrubbery. All that’s missing is a sign saying TRESPASSERS WILL BE PROSECUTED.

This article appears in the September 2008 issue of Washingtonian magazine. To see more articles in this issue, click here.

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Harry Jaffe