Pulitzer-Winning Columnist Anderson Dies

yahoo ^ | 12-17-05

[LouAvul]

WASHINGTON - Jack Anderson, the Pulitzer Prize-winning muckraking columnist who struck fear into the hearts of corrupt or secretive politicians, inspiring Nixon operatives to plot his murder, died Saturday. He was 83.

Anderson died at his home in Bethesda, Md., of complications from Parkinson's disease, said one of his daughters, Laurie Anderson-Bruch.

Anderson gave up his syndicated Washington Merry-Go-Round column at age 81 in July 2004, after Parkinson's disease left him too ill to continue. He had been hired by the column's founder, Drew Pearson, in 1947.

The column broke a string of big scandals, from Eisenhower assistant Sherman Adams taking a vicuna coat and other gifts from a wealthy industrialist in 1958 to the Reagan administration's secret arms-for-hostages deal with Iran in 1986.

[TomGuy]

Anderson was a hard-hitting investigative journalism.

Then, he got his own TV program and got soft [placating to advertisers, etc.]

Good investigative journalists help keep politicians honest. Too bad, there are too few of each.

[TruthNtegrity]

BTTT

[PLMerite]

Jack Anderson revealed national secrets and cost American lives.

[bigfootbob]

WOW, I thought he'd died years ago. I'll never forget during my youth hearing him tell how the CIA laced his steering wheel with acid, (LSD) and wondering...WHY?

What would that possibly do except turn him into a hippy?

Then I wondered what kind of acid..the good stuff Timothy Leary talked about...Ozley or was it Brown?

RIP

[appleharvey]

I always liked Jack Anderson. From all I read about Drew Pearson, he seemed like a real Com-symp. Anderson was as hard on Democrats as he was on Republicans. He really was unmerciful on Carter when he was President. RIP Mr. Anderson.

[Ruy Dias de Bivar]

Raised at the knee of Drew Pearson.

[IronJack]

The world has lost one scandalmonger. The position need not be filled.

[peyton randolph]

I always liked Jack Anderson.

Anderson worked with Philip Agee to out CIA spies during the Cold War. Many lost their lives. Anderson should have been shot (with Agee) for treason. I never met Anderson. Had the opportunity in the mid-80s to tell Agee what I thought of him.

[LdSentinal]

He seemed rather quiet during the Clinton presidency, which was the golden era of corruption.

[A.A. Cunningham]

Liddy didn't do it.

[wardaddy]

that's Owsley Stanley (source of Grateful Dead dancing bears)....and the acid was clear and odorless. Lots of folks almost got dosed back then with the real deal unlike today's girly acid. I think Jerry Rubin and Abby Hoffman tried to dose Eugene McCarthy amongst many others.

Liddy offered to kill Anderson for Nixon.

I'm ambivalent.

[USS Alaska]

"Liddy offered to kill Anderson for Nixon. "

Should have done it for the good of the Country. He did expose some demonRATS, but mostly he was into exposing cia and other gvmt secrets. He would have exposed his mother's right breast if it would have gotten him another byline.

Another anti-American publicist hiding behind the 1st Amendment, frothing at the mouth against America, and demanding to be protected by our Constitution. Typical.

[The Spirit Of Allegiance]

Somebody got a raise for working a Nixon bash into the lede...

[Chode]

Sandoz Pharmaceuticals...

[wardaddy]

I had not thought much about Owsley in nearly 3 decades but I just found an interview with him where he now lives in Queensland AUS

he made the comment that the Grateful Dead was never the same after PigPen died....always my thoughts precisely, never knew he was on record with that observation

he can have his acid though....I lost interest rather young

[Sociopathocracy]

Jack Anderson revealed national secrets and cost American lives.

That's one heck of an epitaph.

[x]

Seems like he just sort of disappeared in the 1980s, only turning up once in a while in Parade magazine.

"Washington Merry-Go-Round" puzzled me as a child, since it was one of the least fun things in the paper. Not as bad as the real estate section, though.

Something surprising:

In 1984 under the Reagan White House Office of Private Sector Initiatives, Mr. Anderson founded the Young Astronaut Council and became its Chairman. The YAC was created to motivate elementary and middle school students to study math and science. Also in the mid 1980’s, along with businessman Peter Grace, Jack co-founded Citizens Against Government Waste a watchdog and whistle-blowing non-profit group established to alert Americans on how their tax dollars are being misspent. Today, Anderson continues to serve as Chairman for both organizations. Source

Surprising to hear that Jack might have been at least a little bit Reaganite.

[Chode]

last time i saw the Dead was 1973 at the SummerJam WatkinsGlen NY... 600,000 came to see the Dead, the Band and the AlmondBros

[Blake#1]

Pearson/Anderson once reported that a police car was parked outside the Watergate Complex at the same time the break-in occurred. The implication was they were tiped to the action by Nixon haters. Further implying it was a set up by the Democraps. Significance...a president of the USofA resigned from the action.