Harry Jaffe Washingtonian Magazines Editor at Large

Published: Dec. 20, 2016, 11 a.m.

Harry Jaffe is a brilliant award winning writer and author, and a media strategist. As Andy O puts it Harry covers the good, the bad and the ugly of Our Town. Andy calls him a local celebrity, a friend and welcomes him as a special guest in this all new episode of Our Town. Andy wants you to get to know Harry Jaffe. The Harry no one knows.\n\n\n\nHarry is a Philly boy and can\u2019t escape it. He says \u201cI wish that I could root for the Washington Nationals but I don't like them because I'm a Phillies fan. . .\u201d He says this even after leaving home at 17. He recalls that Wilt Chamberlain and his older sister attended high school together, and he himself attended the high school where Kobe Bryant would eventually go. Although he applied to several colleges, and was even recruited by Dartmouth to play Lacrosse, his Dad had the final say on where he would attend \u2013 Dickinson College in Carlisle, PA where the Washington Redskins had training camp for many years.\n\nHarry and Andy talk Lacrosse and how popular it is in the Northeast. Back in the day, Harry tells Andy, he \u201cplayed Lacrosse with wooden sticks that really hurt when you hit somebody and that was why I love lacrosse is because it's the only sport where you can legally hit somebody with a stick.\u201d\n\nHarry goes on to talk about Dickinson College. It is a liberal arts school that doesn\u2019t prepare one for any profession much less journalism. Harry came out of college as a decent photographer and that\u2019s what got him into journalism.\n\nAndy asks Harry about how he came to Our Town. The first time, Harry says \u201cwas in 1971 when I was arrested for the May Day protests. I was arrested on Dupont Circle. I was a senior in college. They took me to the DC jail and I wound up suing the Federal Government because it was an illegal arrest. About ten years later I got paid 1500 bucks in a settlement because we sued in a class action suit.\u201d\n\nNext stop for Harry after college was Vermont. He tells Andy he was a hippie but even so he had to make a living and went to work for the Rutland (VT) Herald as a weekend photographer in 1974. He said \u201cit was like the hand of God came down and said \u2018Harry your home.\u2019 I adored being in that newsroom and I learned how to type I learned how to be a reporter.\u201d\n\nHarry Jaffe covered Patrick Leahy the first-term senator from Vermont - a Watergate baby elected in 1974. In 1978, having been at the Rutland Herald long enough, Harry applied for a press secretary job with Leahy and he was hired. That\u2019s how Harry started working in Washington DC. Not much for being Leahy\u2019s mouthpiece, Harry left his press secretary gig in less than a year and went back to journalism. He wanted what he wrote under his byline, plus Leahy \u201ckept disappointing me. I love Patrick. He\u2019s a good Senator but he did things that I felt were not up to snuff and so I left.\u201d \n\nJaffe went to work for a non-defunct small news service, States Service, that covered Washington DC for small towns and small papers all over the country. After working for States Service, Harry freelanced pieces for the Washington. He also wrote Post Watch for the Washingtonian Magazine. Andy and Harry discuss the popularity of the column during the 90s and early 2000s. It was the most read column in the magazine. At the time, a lot of people didn\u2019t like the Post, so when Harry wrote about the Grahams, Ben Bradlee or Sallie Quinn people ate it up.\n\nJaffe tried not to be a media critic. Rather he just told stories about the people behind the bylines. He made characters out of the writers such as Sally Jenkins, Tom Boswell, and Tony Kornheiser. Jaffe goes on to say that Kornheiser hated him, but that was ok because Jaffe says he wore that as a badge of honor. Andy and Jaffe talk about how Jaffe\u2019s work on Post Watch was necessary to keep the Post and its writers straight and call them on issues on which they might turn a blind, or take too far. Andy recalls the Post\u2019s feud with WOL in Northe...