motherjones.com
A dying journalist. He has one final assignment: Find out if President Richard Nixon ordered him assassinated.
That's what occurred at the end of the life of the infamous columnist Jack Anderson, one of the most influential Washington reporters of the 1950s,
'60s, and '70s. This intriguing and poignant tale is recounted by Mark Feldstein, a former investigative correspondent for CNN and ABC (and onetime
Anderson intern) in his marvelous new book, Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture.
First, some background: After writing for the military newspaper Stars and Stripes during World War II, Anderson hit Washington, DC, and eventually
became a "legman" for Drew Pearson, whose muckraking "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column was carried by more newspapers than any other column at the
time. Over the course of the next three decades, Richard Nixon would be a constant target of the column as he rose from House member to senator to
vice president to president. (Pearson and Anderson's discovery of a Nixon slush fund in 1952 led to Nixon's famous "Checkers" speech.)
Many of you are too young to remember Nixon and the Watergate scandal. He was famous for his "dirty tricks" against the opposition party, which led
to the huge Watergate scandal which forced him to resign his office.
Nixon was not all bad. He got us out of Vietnam finally, and opened up trade relations with China.
I'm of the opinion that ALL presidents have probably had some dirty secrets that have been covered up. Some of them reach the light of day, sometimes
years later.
For those of you who are interested in history, this is an interesting read.
edit on 6-10-2010 by Sestias because: (no reason given)