Tufty was a powerful, popular woman. She carried herself like royalty, as was referred to as "The Duchess." Her articles appeared in as many as 300 papers at the height of her 60-year career, and she covered wars when she was 55 and 70 years old. In her final years, she was thought to be the oldest working reporter in Washington.
Tufty was the first woman to head three organizations for women in the media -- American Women in Radio and Television, the American Women's Newspaper Club, and the Women's National Press Club.
Tufty worked in Washington, D.C., and covered every president from Franklin Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan. She was one of the first women reporters to cover the White House with people like Doris Fleeson. She began her own news operation, called Tufty News Service, which served over 300 papers at its peak. Always a woman who took charge, she ran it until a few months before she died.Besides writing, she reported on the radio. Because she ran her own news service, she didn't depend on editors for her assignments, and went anywhere she wanted in the world to cover stories. Even though she was put in dangerous situations sometimes, she knew she wanted to report on important events and get the news out.
Tufty was an amazing leader, and very popular and widely read in her time. Although it is hard to start a news service, many people start their own newspapers and magazines. Get together with your friends and make a small newspaper. Find things that need to be reported on, like what is going on in your school or neighborhood. You could even make it like a mainstream paper with news, arts reviews, opinion columns, and cartoons. You can either type the articles and cut and paste them onto the paper and photocopy them, or if there's a computer available, you can design the paper that way. If other people like your paper, try getting new articles and putting out several issues.