DC Bureau - Investigative Journalism, Environmental News, and National Security Stories That Matter

Jack Anderson put the fire in my belly, convincing me that being a reporter was the most important thing I could do with my life. Anderson used my material in his columns with Drew Pearson and by doing that helped build my confidence to go find out more.

He inspired that same instinct in a lot of like-minded men and women. But he could also be maddening.

My most memorable assignment for Jack was trying to run down a tip from an old-line Republican that H.R. Haldeman, John Ehrlichman and Dwight Chapin were homosexual lovers and would be found together in trysts at Haldeman’s Watergate apartment. I though Jack was crazy. For weeks Jack had a colleague, Don Gangloff, and me stake out the Watergate waiting for Chapin and Ehrlichman to come sneaking out of the building early in the morning. I asked Jack what such a scene would even prove. He said “stick with it.” I told Jack I thought the whole thing was nuts. He could not be dissuaded. Jack finally told me who his source was; a top Republican who had been frozen out of the cabal that ran the Nixon White House. I believe that Jack’s addition to the enemies list was directly related to him looking into Haldeman’s personal life. The Nixon team pushed back hard.

When I worked for him Jack was still under the shadow of Drew Pearson, the Quaker bean farmer who brought a level of personal outrage to his work as a columnist that was matched only by his national influence. Pearson was a media powerhouse that took on Joe McCarthy long before Ed Murrow. His relationship with Jack was difficult and complicated. Pearson was above reproach in his business dealings. Jack was a mess in his business dealings. Jack would have all kinds of ambitious young reporters who unknowingly competed for his attention. Jack tried to build-up his reporters. He got me an assignment for Parade Magazine for an article on what a disgrace it was that America’s space and aviation heritage was being neglected. That article later helped convince Congress to appropriate the money for the National Air and Space Museum.
He would promise us all bylines in magazines he had connections with. On one occasion, I did a piece for True Magazine and when the piece came out it carried a joint byline with someone I never met. The stuff added to my piece by Anderson without my knowledge resulted in a lawsuit. Jack never explained it or even called me about the suit. I learned about it years later.

When Pearson died in the autumn of 1969, there was a huge fight within Pearsons’s family about Jack getting his due and inheriting the column. Jack always felt that Pearson did not have enough respect for his reporting ability and did not appreciate him. Drew paid Jack $13,000 a year in 1969. That is why Jack entered into secret business arrangements with publications such as Generoso Pope’s National Enquirer. Jack had to keep his huge brood of children going, and donate part of is income to the Mormon’s, so he was in constant need of money.

One of the best things about working for Jack was his long time assistant Opal Ginn. Opal was protective of Jack but also protective of the reporters he collected. It was Opal who warned me that Jack had a habit of holding out a partnership in the column to more than one of his “favorites.”

I got her message and left to do my first book. I wanted to do more complicated stories and I wanted my own byline on them. As I got better at my craft and began to do bigger stories, the drive that Anderson had instilled in me began to pay off. The self-confidence you gain from successfully going after stories that you were told you could get is the joy of reporting. Jack understood how to instill that competitive trait into those he mentored. I will always be indebted to him for that.

Jack went on to do some great reporting and drove the Nixon White House crazy. For Jack, reporting was as much a Mission as his commitment to his religion.

Jack Anderson believed that reporters should not become part of the administration they cover. It is too bad he wasn’t editing Judy Miller and Bob Woodward. Anderson didn’t much go for stenographers posing as reporters.