The slogan, “Democracy Dies in Darkness,” is the sort of self-important verbiage expected of a 20 year-old man in university whispering to a woman cornered in a campus bar, explaining that he’s “different than other guys,” and that he truly understands how tax cuts lead to fascism, or whatever.
“Democracy Dies in Darkness” was the first slogan to be officially adopted by The Washington Post in its 140-year history. According to the newspaper, the phrase was popularized by investigative journalist Bob Woodward. Woodward used the phrase in a 2007 piece criticizing government secrecy,and referenced the phrase during a 2015 presentation at a conference when he talked about The Last of the President’s Men, his book about the Watergate scandal. Woodward said he did not coin the phrase himself, instead attributing the phrase to a judge ruling on a First Amendment case, believed to be from Circuit Judge Damon Keith. The paper’s owner Jeff Bezos, who attended Woodward’s 2015 presentation, also used the phrase in a May 2016 interview. The newspaper said it decided to adopt an official slogan in early 2016. This started a process which involved a small group of newspaper employees meeting to develop ideas for slogans. The group eventually settled on “Democracy Dies in Darkness” after brainstorming over 500 options.
Who first said democracy?
Under Cleisthenes, what is generally held as the first example of a type of democracy in 508–507 BC was established in Athens. Cleisthenes is referred to as “the father of Athenian democracy”.
