The Columnist: Leaks, Lies, and Libel in Drew Pearson's Washington

385 Pages·2021·25.44 MB·English

by  Donald A Ritchie

The Columnist

The Columnist

LEAKS, LIES, AND LIBEL IN
DREW PEARSON’S WASHINGTON
Donald A. Ritchie
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1
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Library of Congress Cataloging- in- Publication Data
Names: Ritchie, Donald A., 1945– author.
Title: The columnist : leaks, lies, and libel in Drew Pearson’s Washington / Donald A. Ritchie.
Description: New York : Oxford University Press, 2021. | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2020057180 (print) | LCCN 2020057181 (ebook) |
ISBN 9780190067588 (hardback) | ISBN 9780190067601 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Pearson, Drew, 1897–1969. | Journalists—United States—Biography. |
United States—Politics and government—20th century.
Classification: LCC P N4874.P38 R58 2021 (print) | LCC P N4874.P38 (ebook) |
DDC 070.092 [B]—dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057180
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2020057181
DOI: 10.1093/ oso/ 9780190067588.001.0001
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed by LSC Communications, United States of America
Frontispiece: The fedora became Drew Pearson’s trademark once Lee
Hats and later Adam Hats became his radio sponsors. Lyndon B. Johnson
Presidential Library, B- 8526- 12
For Jeff, Jack, and Boone
“Democracies die behind closed doors. . . .
When the government begins closing doors,
it selectively controls information rightly belonging to the people.
Selective information is misinformation.”
— – Judge Damon J. Keith
Detroit Free Press v. Ashcroft, Sixth Circuit, 2002
Contents

Acknowledgments ix
Introduction: The Man Who Broke Secrets 1
1. Launching the Column 17
2. Nothing to Fear 37
3. Breaking Secrets in Wartime 59
4. Drew Pearson’s Leg Men 89
5. Just Mild about Harry 107
6. The Case against Congress 129
7. Battling McCarthyism 149
8. Disliking Ike 181
9. Between Kennedy and Khrushchev 203
10. Lyndon’s Lackey? 229
11. Prisoner of the “Merry- Go- Round” 257
Epilogue: A Muckraker’s Legacy 271
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viii Contents
A Note on Sources 277
Notes 281
Bibliography 339
Index 355
ACknowledgments

I first became aware of the “Washington Merry- Go- Round” column
when I attended graduate school at the University of Maryland in 1967 and
began reading the W ashington Post . None of the papers I grew up reading in
New York City had carried it. I followed the column during Drew Pearson’s
last two years, until I was drafted—u nexpectedly into the marine corps—
three months before he died. When I returned to graduate school in 1971,
Jack Anderson had charge of the column, which I followed compulsively
throughout Watergate.
D uring the 1970s while writing my fi rst book about James Landis,
who served in the government from the New Deal to the New Frontier,
I interviewed many of the political fi gures about whom Drew Pearson
wrote and who also appear in this book. In 1976 I joined the staff of the
Senate Historical Offi ce, where I interviewed others and was in turn
interviewed by news reporters in search of historical information. My curi-
osity about how they gathered news, and the accuracy of reporting, led to
three other books:  Press Gallery: Congress and the Washington Correspondents
(1991); American Journalists: Getting the Story (1997); and R eporting from
Washington: Th e History of the Washington Press Corps (2005). By chance,
Drew Pearson appeared in all three.
Full credit for inspiring this book belongs to Tyler Abell. I met Bess and
Tyler Abell through mutual friends, and Bess and my wife, Anne, served
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