Poisoning The Press

by Mark Feldstein

  Nixon Library: David Greenberg, “Another Nixon Pardon,” Slate (Jan. 24, 2006); “irresponsible journalists”: Ambrose, Ruin, 577; “spot that will not out”: Kutler, Wars, xiv.

  Hutschnecker: Greenberg, 242.

  Nixon funeral, “made mistakes”: Maureen Dowd, “Clinton Asks Nation to Judge Ex-President on His Entire Life,” NYT (April 28, 1994), A1, 21; Summers, Arrogance, xii–xiii.

  “introvert”: JA and Gibson, 286; “vendetta”: James M. Perry, “Multimedia Maven,” WSJ (April 25, 1979), A1; “just doing”: JA intv. Gibson; notoriety: Spear intv. Gibson.

  “political fix,” forged documents: Charles R. Babcock and Fred Barbash, “Vesco Evidence Not Authentic, Anderson Says,” WP (Sept. 26, 1978), A1; Anderson testified: Charles R. Babcock and Fred Barbash, “Columnist and Confidant Feud,” WP (Nov. 5, 1978), A3; provoke a Senate investigation: Morton Mintz and Art Harris, “Columnist Is Go-between for Senator, Swindler,” WP (Aug. 3, 1980), A3; “habitually lies”: JA and Gibson, 289; “modus operandi”: Powell, 41.

  “October Surprise” to “grotesque and irresponsible”: “Post Withholds Jack Anderson ‘Invasion’ Column,” WP (Aug. 17, 1980), A3; Richard Burt, “U.S. Rebutting Columnist,” NYT (Aug. 26, 1980), A5.

  hadn’t even bothered, spiked the “Merry-Go-Round,” “scoop of the century,” “embarrass, bedevil,” disinformation campaign: Powell, 252–55, and George C. Wilson, “Is the Press Being Duped?” WP (Sept. 25, 1983), C5.

  Anderson’s junior partner, Dale Van Atta, later acknowledged that the Pentagon proposal for invading Iran was only a “contingency plan” leaked by anti-Carter members of the military. Nonetheless, Van Atta said, “Jack hyped” the information and “leaned on me to tell [Washington Post editors] that we had more evidence than we had.” According to another Anderson legman who investigated the October Surprise allegation, Ron McRae, “Nobody I talked to knew anything about it. Still, I felt certain pressure to come through for Anderson, who I knew wanted this story intensely. And so . . . I did a horrible thing: I [falsely] told Anderson that my sources had confirmed the story.” Van Atta intv., Ron McRae, “Beyond Gonzo,” Spy (June 1992), 52.

  “all-American quality”: JA and Gibson, 341; “exclusive” interviews: JA and Dale Van Atta, MGR (March 3, 5, 19, 30, April 13 and 23, 1986), JAP.

  “Young Astronauts”: JA and Gibson, 361–62; “dramatic bid”: JA, “President Hopes to Spur Youths into Space Age,” WP (July 6, 1984), B8; Anderson’s children on the Young Astronauts’ payroll: Corn, 560; solicited financial donations: letter, JA to Don Kendall (Jan. 18, 1985), JAP.

  presidential commission: JA and Joseph Spear, “A Reagan Promise Pays Off,” WP (Sept. 10, 1987), DC11; letter, JA to Jay Van Andel (Oct. 25, 1984), JAP; “sell his soul”: Van Atta intv.; “what Jack craves”: Harrington, 49.

  Iran scandal: JA and Dale Van Atta, “Iran-Contra Affair,” The World Almanac (New York: Pharos Books, 1988); Draper, 120; Patricia Sullivan, “David Kimche, 82,” WP (March 10, 2010), B7; resembled Nixon’s Plumbers: Hertsgaard, 303; “irresponsible, even traitorous”: Dale Van Atta, “Giving Up the Scoop of the ’80s,” Boston Globe (June 28, 1987), F1ff; “lowest point”: Van Atta intv.

  reporters fabricating information: Spear intv. Gibson and Fred Vallejo, “Anderson Goes It Alone,” Washington Journalism Review (Jan. 1982); “top-secret” to “positive thinking”: JA, “Pentagon Invades Buck Rogers’ Turf,” WP (Jan. 9, 1981), D16, and Ron McRae, “Beyond Gonzo,” Spy (June 1992), 53–54; worst columnist: Wendy Swallow, “Rating Washington Columnists,” Washingtonian (Oct. 1981), 87–88; “tarnished”: letter, David Hendin to JA (Jan. 26, 1988), JAP; “entertaining crank”: Hume intv.

  girdle: Loveless intv.; “went to his head”: Harrington, 47; “do almost daily,” “thinner and thinner”: Kornheiser, F6; low-salaried assistants: Whitten intv.; rubber stamp: Newman intv.; “self-serving bullshit”: Rosenberg intv.

  National Star: Novak, 297; Inside Edition: Margo Hammond, “Merry-Go-Round Is Slowing Down,” St. Petersburg Times (Feb. 16, 1997), D7ff; “Barnum & Bailey”: Capaccio intv.; Truth: JA and Gibson, 406; Target: USA!: Matt Roush, “Jack Anderson: On ‘Target,’ or Tabloid TV?” USA Today (May 31, 1989), 30; Hollywood: “Hollywood’s Love Affair with Anderson,” WP (March 23, 1980), SM5, and “A Jack Anderson Sitcom,” NYT (Aug. 11, 1983), A18; “big score”: L. Goldberg intv.

  cocaine: JA, “Dornan Presses Probe of Hill Cocaine Use,” WP (Aug. 4, 1982), VA13; JA, “Clearing Up Atmosphere on Drug Story,” WP (May 11, 1983), VA15; Robert J. McCloskey, “The Anderson Allegations,” WP (May 4, 1983), A26.

  “voluptuous” to “intimate physical description”: Benjamin C. Bradlee, “Why The Post Killed That Anderson Column,” WP (June 21, 1976), A23, and JA, “The Senator Byrd Story,” WP (June 24, 1976), A31.

  Roy Cohn: JA and Dale Van Atta, “NIH Treated Roy Cohn for AIDS,” WP (July 25, 1986), C19.

  “Here you have”: David Astor, “Controversial Piece on Pentagon Official,” Editor and Publisher (Aug. 17, 1991), 40; “outdated piety”: JA and Gibson, 394; Cheney: JA intv. Gibson.

  sexposés suppressed: Alwood, 280; “only attention . . . salacious stories”: Van Atta intv.; “hot scoop”: George Maksian, “Anderson May Be Jumping Jack,” New York Daily News (Nov. 29, 1982); edit it more carefully: Armstrong intv.

  Persian oil heiress: Bruch, Lawrence intvs.; JA and Gibson, 105, 328; “corner turrets”: Todd Smith, “Old Mansions Give Businesses New Ambience,” Washington Times (July 17, 1990), C1; “eerily reminiscent,” “Muckrakers, Incorporated”: Downie, 138; “Castle,” bidet: Newman intv.

  “buck-raking”: Richard Harwood, “Honoraria for Journalists,” WP (Jan. 29, 1989), D6; fraud and lying: Maxine Cheshire, “The Muckraker and the Entrepreneur,” WP (May 25, 1972), C1; improper stock trading: Corn, 559; “sexploitation”: Welles, “Business Deals,” F11; publisher of a pornographic magazine: letter, JA to Bob Guccione (Oct. 27, 1983), JAP; bizarre cult: Elissa Silverman, “You Don’t Know Jack,” Washington City Paper (March 2–8, 2001), 20–25; “marginal character”: Mitchell intv.

  “Become A Millionaire?” to “reputation of the column”: letter and ad, Dale Van Atta, Joe Spear, Daryl Gibson, Michael Binstein, and Opal Ginn to JA (July 25, 1988), JAP.

  selling classified, “boggled the imagination”: Van Atta intv.

  Davidson money: Davidson intv.; Davidson indictment, pleas, and “reputation so golden”: Welles, “Tarnishing,” 22.

  “Koreagate”: S. Trento, 110; Charles R. Babcock, “The Envelope, Please, Mr. Park,” WP (April 5, 1978), A2; Michael Dobbs, “ ‘Koreagate’ Figure Tied to Oil-for-Food Scandal,” WP (April 15, 2005), A19; Diplomat National Bank: Welles, “Business Deals,” F1, 3; Scott Armstrong and Maxine Cheshire, “Bank Stock Owned by Park, Pak,” WP (Nov. 14, 1976), A1; Scott Armstrong, “Columnist to Quit Role with Bank,” WP (Nov. 22, 1976), A1; “pants down”: Satchell, A1; “awkward position”: Mark R. Arnold, “The Final Victim,” National Observer (Dec. 4, 1976).

  Sinatra: Denton intv.; angered a potential investor: Corn, 558; Jhoon Rhee “transformed” the “spectacular sport”: JA, “The Big Bout in Congress,” Parade (Aug. 3, 1975); Welles, “Business Deals,” F1, F3; Bob Addie, “Allen, Anderson: Boosters of Karate,” WP (May 15, 1975), C5; Steve Daley, “Rhee: The Art of Marshaling Influence,” WS (Nov. 19, 1976); Smolonsky intv.; “mindless cheapness”: Grady intv.

  “no species affected” to “stealth sponsor”: Howard Kurtz, “The Muckraker and the Oil Spill,” WP (Dec. 22, 1992), C1; “Depression-era mentality”: Kurtz intv.

  “long climb”: Hume, 283–84; lazy glamour boy: Whitten intv. Gibson; “see a psychiatrist”: Whitten intv.; “got into a rut”: Hume, 284; reporters also departed: Cloherty, Owens, Smolonsky, Van Atta intvs.

  “publisher”: Harrington, 22; rotating cast of employees: Chuck Conconi, “Personalities,” WP (April 3, 1985), D3; Howard Kurtz, “New Muckraker for Jack Anderson,” WP (Nov. 21, 1999), D1; mocking: Newman intv.

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nbsp; occasional scoop: JA and Dale Van Atta, “Buckley Is Dead,” WP (Dec. 13, 1985), B21; mentoring journalists: JA and Gibson, 9–13; backing of a new nationwide organization: Aucoin, 123–29.

  Liberty Lobby: Mintz, 5–8, 202; Al Kamen, “High Court Gives News Media Major Victory on Libel Law,” WP (June 26, 1986), A1; “They dragged Jack” to “behind him”: Sullivan intv.; “I took a lot of chances”: JA intv. Gibson.

  column declined, staff dwindled: Susan Hansen, “Jack, Be Nimble,” NewsInc. (March 1992), 13–14; “No one seemed to notice”: Margo Hammond, “Merry-Go-Round Is Slowing Down,” St. Petersburg Times (Feb. 16, 1997), D7; “reorganizing the features”: “Dear Readers,” WP (Jan. 24, 1997), E1; Financing kept afloat, credit card debt: Howard Kurtz, “New Muckraker for Jack Anderson,” WP (Nov. 21, 1991), D1.

  laid off Opal, “I wasn’t even given time”: Howard Kurtz, “Jack Anderson Column in Jeopardy,” WP (Oct. 15, 1991), E1; “wanting to do it”: Van Atta intv.; alcoholism: JA, Reynolds, Van Atta intvs.; “six sheets to the wind”: Smolonsky intv.; inspired fear: Denton, Rosenberg, Van Atta intvs., Spear intv. Gibson.

  “her whole life,” “knew every source”: Gibson intv.; “broke her heart”: Whitten intv.; kiss-and-tell book: JA, Muncy intvs.; “putting her out to pasture”: Howard Kurtz, “Jack Anderson Column in Jeopardy,” WP (Oct. 15, 1991), E1; incriminating paperwork: Van Atta intv.

  “abrupt, unwarranted dismissal”: letter, Richard Bolger to JA (April 21, 1998); “dire straits”: letter, Les Whitten to JA (Aug. 4, 1998); “lifetime of loyalty”: Jack Mitchell to JA (Aug. 5, 1998); “share[d] your concern”: letter, JA to Jack Mitchell (Aug. 7, 1998)—all in JAP; “got drunk every night”: Muncy intv.

  toast her farewell: Gooding intv.

  “wouldn’t let me”. . . Anderson funeral absence: Mayfield intv.; death: “Obituaries: Opal Ginn,” WP (July 15, 1999), B6; “basically committed suicide”: Muncy intv.

  Gordon estrangement: JA, G. Anderson, K. Anderson intvs.; Salt Lake City nursing home, “We’re proud” to “It’s all right”: Harrington, 44, 50.

  Anderson’s retirement: Howard Kurtz, “Curtain Call?” WP (Aug. 16, 2004), C7; “Jack understood”: Rosenstiel intv.

  Anderson’s health, last days: JA, T. Neider, S. Neider, Whitten, Grady, Van Atta intvs.

  Anderson died: Patricia Sullivan, “Investigative Columnist Jack Anderson Dies,” WP (Dec. 18, 2005), C8; “feet of clay”: Sally Denton, “Jack Anderson: An American Original,” Progressive Review (Dec. 2005); “betrayed the ideal”: Harrington, 47–48, and Whitten intv.; “no network”: Hume intv.

  “you sometimes shoot your own men”: Les Whitten, “Eulogy for a Muckraker,” Huffington Post (Dec. 27, 2005); “marketable product”: JA and Clifford, 3.

  “readers were his flock”: Inderjit Badhwar, “Notes from the Washington Merry-Go-Round,” Indian Express (Dec. 26, 2005), 9.

  buried: Van Atta intv.; tombstone: photo, JAP.

  EPILOGUE

  post-Watergate reforms: Kutler, Wars, 574, 586, and Francine Kiefer, “Watergate Reforms Fade,” Christian Science Monitor (June 17, 2002), A1; “learning from Watergate”: Greenberg, 177.

  Cheney and Rumsfeld: Anne E. Kornblut, “The News Media Is Still Recovering from Watergate,” NYT (June 5, 2005), WK4; “restoration”: Emily Bazelon, “All the President’s Powers,” NYT (Nov. 18, 2007), BR18.

  “ruthless little bastard”: Cockburn, 20; stripped power: Suskind, 24–25.

  “actor,” “ultimate presidential commodity”: Hertsgaard, 46, 6.

  PR team, advertising gimmicks: Hertsgaard, 38, 5; “divert people’s attention”: Maltese, 199; “stage the news”: Tebbel and Watts, 552.

  Reagan’s men played hardball, leaks: Hertsgaard, 6, 41, 109–11, 233.

  “bark is much worse than its bite”: Hertsgaard, 7–8; “slicker and smarter”: Tebbel and Watts, 545.

  Reagan deregulation: Hertsgaard, 182; talk radio: Michael Massing, “The End of News?” NYRB (Dec. 1, 2005), 23–24; Johann Hari, “G. Gordon Liddy: Voice of Unreason,” The Independent (Nov. 22, 2004).

  homosexual smear: Margaret Carlson, “Getting Nasty,” Time (June 24, 1989); “You don’t let press set the agenda”: Maltese, 2.

  Clinton tactics: Maltese, 228–29; Scaife: Lukas, 112: Neil A. Lewis, “Almost $2 Million Spent in Magazine’s Anti-Clinton Project,” NYT (April 15, 1998), A20; pseudo-scandals: Lowry, 125, 131; Goldberg and Snow: David Streitfeld and Howard Kurtz, “Literary Agent Was Behind Secret Tapes,” WP (Jan. 24, 1998), A1ff.

  Ailes may have been the founder of Fox News, but it was his former boss, Richard Nixon, who first suggested “the creation of a 4th Network as a means of elevating the standard of all TV broadcasting.” Nixon even approached his longtime financial angel, billionaire Howard Hughes, about starting such a conservative network, but it would take another three decades before it became a reality under Ailes. Drosnin, 162.

  “Richard Nixon’s downfall” to “America before”: Davis, 6, 2, 1.

  journalism’s abdication: Martha M. Hamilton, “What We Learned in the Meltdown,” Columbia Journalism Review (Jan./Feb. 2009), and Massing, passim; Nixonian echoes: R. Dallek, “Iraq Isn’t Like Vietnam—Except When It Is,” WP (May 20, 2007), B3, and Scott Shane, “Parsing the Nixon and Kissinger Pas de Deux,” NYT (April 17, 2007), E1.

  Bush propaganda: Christopher Lee, “Update: Prepackaged News,” WP (Feb. 14, 2006), A13; Jacob Weisberg, “Beyond Spin,” Slate (Dec. 7, 2005); Mark Mazzeretti and Borzou Daragahi, “U.S. Military Covertly Pays to Run Stories in Iraqi Press,” Los Angeles Times (Nov. 30, 2005), Al, 12. “Haldeman model”: William Hamilton, “Bush Says Top Aide Urged Bush to Fire Rumsfeld,” WP (Sept. 30, 2006), A4; “military analysts”: David Barstow, “Behind TV Analysts, Pentagon’s Hidden Hand,” NYT (April 20, 2008), A1, 24–25.

  funneled taxpayer dollars: David Barstow and Robin Stein, “Under Bush, a New Age of Prepackaged News,” NYT (March 13, 2005), A1, 18–19; Eric Alterman, “Bush’s War on the Press,” The Nation (May 9, 2005); Ian Buruma, “Theater of War,” NYT (Sept. 17, 2006), BK 11; Spencer S. Hsu, “FEMA Official Apologizes for Staged Briefing with Fake Reporters,” WP (Oct. 27, 2007), A3.

  “shameful act,” “helping the enemy”: Peter Baker and Charles Babington, “Bush Addresses Uproar over Spying,” WP (Dec. 20, 2005), A1; injunction: Jeffrey Rosen, “Behind the Scenes of Secret Surveillance,” NYT (April 3, 2008) 9.

  leak classified information: Neil A. Lewis, “Libby, Ex-Cheney Aide, Guilty of Lying in C.I.A. Leak Case,” NYT (March 7, 2007), A5; secretly ordered a study: David Folkenflik, “CPB Memos Indicate Level of Monitoring,” NPR Morning Edition (June 30, 2005); “hit men”: John Eggerton, “Moyers Has His Say,” Broadcasting and Cable (Nov. 28, 2005), 16; “Nixon would be back”: Paul Fahri, “A Different Reception for Public Broadcasting,” WP (March 20, 2005), A8.

  Karl Rove, “Haldeman and Ehrlichman”: Dean, Worse, 4, 11, and James Ridgeway, “Grime Pays,” Village Voice (July 12, 2005), 20.

  “confidant”: Aitken, Colson, 13, 411; $2 million: Gary Wills, “A Country Ruled by Faith,” NYRB (Nov. 16, 2006), 9; “lower than the animal species”: Max Blumenthal, “Born Again, Again,” Washington Monthly (July 1, 2005), 47ff.; “spiritual ancestor”: Hunt, Spy, 173; “former White House counsel”: Frank Rich, “Don’t Follow the Money,” NYT (June 12, 2005), D14.

  “erosion”: Weisberg, 178–79.

  “I told him I’d been” to “blame this on Nixon”: JA intv.; “Bless you”: book inscription, Charles Colson, Against the Night, JAP.

  FBI actions: K. Anderson, Olivia Anderson, Bruch intvs.; went public: Scott Carlson, “George Washington U. to Receive Jack Anderson’s Papers,” Chronicle of Higher Education (April 18, 2006), 1ff.

  front-page headlines: Scott Shane, “F.B.I. Seeking Access to Dead Columnist’s Papers,” NYT (April 19, 2006), A1; Suzanne Goldenberg, “Family Refuses FBI Access to Columnist’s ‘Legacy,’ ” The Guardian (April 21, 2006), A21; Nathan Guttman, “FBI Wan
ts Deceased Reporter’s Notes on AIPAC Case,” Jerusalem Post (April 20, 2006), A2; “dubious sounding”: “Still a Target,” USA Today (April 20, 2006), A11; “waited until Jack Anderson was dead”: “Hands Off,” Salt Lake Tribune (April 20, 2006), editorial page; “attempted raid”: “FBI Needs to Back Off,” Kansas City Star (April 20, 2006), editorial page; “Mau-Mauing”: Brian Bennett and Mark Thompson, “A Reporter’s Last Battle,” Time (May 1, 2006), 29.

  In an effort to obtain Anderson’s files, two FBI agents even visited the author at home, flashing their badges and demanding access to twenty-five-year-old documents that were part of the research for this book. “We’re not after [Anderson’s] reporters,” FBI agent Leslie Martell said. “Just their sources.” Why did the Bush administration want to look through Anderson’s dusty archives? The columnist’s family believed it was revenge for Anderson’s long feud with J. Edgar Hoover; others suspected surviving Nixon loyalists in Bush’s administration, especially Vice President Cheney and Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, who had tangled with Anderson in the past. But the true reason appears to be more bizarre: a disgruntled former Anderson legman named Ron McRae told the FBI that Anderson’s papers might contain evidence that his sources had committed espionage. McRae’s reliability as an informant should have been suspect: not only did he write an article about how he “invented” stories for Anderson’s column and by his own account became destitute and homeless, eating out of garbage cans; he also spent time in prison for sodomizing a young boy. Nonetheless, the FBI evidently believed his espionage allegation and used heavy-handed tactics to investigate it after Anderson’s death. Sources for the above: FBI probe: Mark Feldstein, “A Chilling FBI Fishing Expedition,” WP (April 29, 2006), A16; “invented,” destitute: Ron McRae, “Beyond Gonzo,” Spy (June 1992), 50–56; sodomizing: letter, Richard H. Black to JA, “Re: Ronald Michael McRae” (Aug. 21, 1987), JAP.