John Seigenthaler
John Seigenthaler | |
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Born | John Lawrence Seigenthaler July 27, 1927 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. |
Died | July 11, 2014 Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. | (aged 86)
Occupation(s) | Journalist, writer |
Years active | 1949–2014 |
Spouse |
Dolores Watson (m. 1955) |
Children | John Michael Seigenthaler |
John Lawrence Seigenthaler (
Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean in 1949, resigning in 1960 to act as Robert F. Kennedy's administrative assistant. He rejoined The Tennessean as editor in 1962, publisher in 1973, and chairman in 1982 before retiring as chairman emeritus in 1991. Seigenthaler was also the founding editorial director of USA Today from 1982 to 1991. During this period, he served on the board of directors for the American Society of Newspaper Editors, and from 1988 to 1989, was its president.
Early life
Born in
Career
Journalism
Seigenthaler began his career in journalism as a police beat reporter in The Tennessean city room[5] after his uncle encouraged an editor about his talent.[4] Seigenthaler gradually established himself on the staff among the heavy competition that included future standout journalists David Halberstam and Tom Wicker.
He first gained prominence in November 1953 when he tracked down the former Thomas C. Buntin and his wife. The case involved the son of a wealthy Nashville business owner who had disappeared in September 1931, followed six weeks later by the disappearance of his secretary. Seigenthaler was sent to Texas by The Tennessean after reports surfaced that Buntin (now known as Thomas D. Palmer) was living somewhere in Texas. While investigating in Orange, Texas, Seigenthaler saw an older man step off a bus. Noting the man's distinctive left ear, Seigenthaler followed him home. After three further days of investigation, he returned to the home, where he confirmed the identities of Buntin/Palmer, his wife, the former Betty McCuddy, and their six children.[6] Seigenthaler won a National Headliner Award for the story.[5]
Less than a year later, on October 5, 1954, Seigenthaler again made national news for saving a suicidal man from jumping off the
In July 1957, Seigenthaler began a battle to eliminate corruption within the local branch of the
Seigenthaler took a one-year sabbatical from The Tennessean in 1958 to participate in Harvard University's prestigious Nieman Fellowship program.[4] Upon returning to The Tennessean, Seigenthaler became an assistant city editor and special assignment reporter.[5]
Politics
Frustrated by the leadership of Tennessean publisher Silliman Evans Jr., Seigenthaler resigned in 1960 to serve as an administrative assistant to incoming
External videos | |
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"Interview with John Seigenthaler" conducted in 1985 for the Eyes on the Prize documentary in which he discusses serving as Attorney General Robert Kennedy's representative in meetings with Alabama officials. |
During the
Seigenthaler was a block away when he rushed to help Susan Wilbur,
Seigenthaler's brief career in government would conclude as a result of Evans' death from a heart attack on July 29, 1961. A brief transition followed, during which longtime Tennessean reporter John Nye served as publisher. On March 20, 1962, the newspaper announced that Evans' brother, Amon Carter Evans, would be the new publisher.[citation needed]
One of the new Evans' first acts would be to bring back Seigenthaler as editor. The two had worked together at the paper when Seigenthaler served as assistant city editor and Evans was an aspiring journalist. On one occasion during that era, the two nearly came to blows over Seigenthaler's assignment of Evans to a story.[citation needed]
Evans named Seigenthaler editor of The Tennessean on March 21, 1962.[16] With this new team in place, The Tennessean quickly regained its hard-hitting reputation. One example of the paper's resurgence came following a Democratic primary in August 1962, when The Tennessean found documented evidence of voter fraud based on absentee ballots in the city's second ward.[9]
Seigenthaler's friendship with Kennedy became one of the focal points of Jimmy Hoffa's bid to shift his jury tampering trial from Nashville. Citing "one-sided, defamatory" coverage from the newspaper, Hoffa's lawyers got Seigenthaler to admit he wanted Hoffa convicted. However, the journalist noted that he had not conveyed those sentiments to his reporters. Hoffa's lawyers gained a minor victory when the trial was moved to Chattanooga in a change of venue, but Hoffa was nonetheless convicted in 1964 after a 45-day trial.
The following year, Seigenthaler led a fight for access to the Tennessee state senate chamber in Nashville after a resolution was passed revoking the floor privileges of Tennessean reporter Bill Kovach. The action came after Kovach had refused to leave a committee hearing following a call for executive session.
In December 1966, Seigenthaler and
Seigenthaler then took a temporary leave from his duties at the newspaper to work on Robert Kennedy's
Remaining focused on the cause of civil rights, Seigenthaler then supported Tennessee Bishop Joseph Aloysius Durick in 1969 during the latter's contentious fight to end segregation, a stance that outraged many in the community who still believed in the concept.
In publishing
On February 8, 1973, Seigenthaler was promoted to publisher of the Tennessean, after Amon Carter Evans was named president of Tennessean Newspaper, Inc.
As the publisher, Seigenthaler worked with Al Gore, then a reporter, on investigative stories about Nashville city council corruption in the early 1970s.[28] In February 1976, Seigenthaler contacted Gore at home to tip him off that he had heard that U.S. Representative Joe L. Evins was retiring,[26] telling Gore "You know what I think."[21] Seiganthaler had encouraged Gore to consider entering public life.[25] Gore decided to resign from the paper and drop out of Vanderbilt University Law School, beginning his political career by entering the race for Tennessee's 4th congressional district, a seat previously held by Albert Gore Sr., his father.
On May 5, 1976, Seigenthaler dismissed Jacque Srouji, a
Afterward, the FBI appears to have collected rumors about Seigenthaler. FBI Deputy Assistant Director Homer Boynton told an editor of the New York Times to "look into Seigenthaler," whom he called "not entirely pure." After hearing this, Seigenthaler tried for a year to get his own FBI dossier. He finally received some highly expurgated material, including these words: "Allegations of Seigenthaler having illicit relations with young girls, which information source obtained from an unnamed source." He had previously promised to publish whatever the FBI gave him and did so. He flatly stated that the charges were false. The attorney general issued an apology, the allegations were removed from Seigenthaler's file, and he received the 1976 Sidney Hillman Prize for "courage in publishing".[30][31]
In May 1982, Seigenthaler was named the first editorial director of USA Today. In announcing the appointment,
The publication of author Peter Maas' 1983 book, Marie: A True Story, again put Seigenthaler under scrutiny over the investigation of a pardon scandal involving former Tennessee governor
Later life
In 1986, Middle Tennessee State University established the John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies, honoring Seigenthaler's "lifelong commitment to free expression values".[35]
Seigenthaler announced his retirement in December 1991 from The Tennessean, just months after he made a similar announcement concerning his tenure at USA Today.[citation needed]
On December 15, 1991, Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University,[36] saying, "It is my hope that this center at Vanderbilt University ... will help promote appreciation and understanding for those values so vital in a democratic society." The center serves as a forum for dialog about First Amendment issues, including freedom of speech, press, and religion.
In 1996, Seigenthaler received the
In 2001, Seigenthaler was appointed to the
In 2002, when it was discovered that
In 2002, Vanderbilt renamed the 57,000-square-foot (5,300 m2) building that houses the
In April 2014, the
Seigenthaler hosted a book review program on Nashville
Wikipedia biography incident
On May 26, 2005, an unregistered Wikipedia user created a five-sentence biographical article about Seigenthaler that contained false and defamatory content.[39] The false statement in Seigenthaler's Wikipedia article read:[40]
John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s. For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven.
When alerted of the article's existence, Seigenthaler directly contacted Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who removed the false claims. As Seigenthaler later wrote: "For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin before Wales erased it from his website's history" on October 5.[40]
Seigenthaler noted that the falsehoods written about him on Wikipedia were later posted on Answers.com and Reference.com. He later wrote an
According to a scholar specializing in biographies, including digital life narratives, "The Seigenthaler case became a formative moment in Wikipedia's history, and led to the development of policies to protect individuals from defamation."[41]
Death
Seigenthaler died of complications from colon cancer on July 11, 2014, at the age of 86, surrounded by his family in his home.[3][42]
Publications
External videos | |
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Booknotes interview with Seigenthaler on James K. Polk, January 18, 2004, C-SPAN |
- Seigenthaler, John (1971). A Search for Justice. Aurora Publishers. ISBN 0-87695-003-9.
- Seigenthaler, John (1974). The Year of the Scandal Called Watergate. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-914636-01-4.
- Seigenthaler, John (2004). James K. Polk: 1845–1849: The American Presidents Series. New York: Times Books. ISBN 0-8050-6942-9.
References
- ISBN 978-0-9562052-0-9.
- ^ a b Fliess, Maurice (October 8, 1999). "Public dangerously unsupportive of free press, Seigenthaler warns". freedomforum.org. Archived from the original on March 19, 2012. Retrieved May 18, 2006.
- ^ a b Schwartz, John (July 11, 2014). "John Seigenthaler, Editor and Aide to Politicians, Dies at 86". The New York Times.
- ^ a b c "Seigenthaler Named Nieman Fellow". The Tennessean. June 5, 1958.
- ^ a b c Ritter, Frank (December 6, 1991). "A Model and Mentor: Seigenthaler Leaves Mark at Newspapers Nationwide". The Tennessean.
- ^ "Visitors in Limbo". Time Magazine. December 7, 1953. Archived from the original on January 1, 2012.
- ^ "Reporter Balks Man's Suicide From Bridge". Los Angeles Times. October 6, 1954. p. 6.
- ^ "John Seigenthaler honored with renaming of bridge". The Tennessean. Retrieved July 12, 2014.
- ^ a b "The Fighting Tennessean". Time Magazine. September 14, 1962. Archived from the original on December 26, 2011.
- ISBN 9781931082297. Retrieved July 20, 2012.
- ISBN 0-553-05233-0.
- ^ "Aide Hurt in Riots Returns to Capital". United Press International. May 22, 1961.
- ^ "American Experience: RFK". PBS. Archived from the original on January 2, 2012. Retrieved November 27, 2006.
- ^ "President's Representative Hurt Helping a Girl Escape Violence". Associated Press. May 21, 1961.
- ISBN 0-671-68742-5.
- ^ "Seigenthaler Editor of Tennessean". Nashville Banner. March 22, 1962.
- ^ Turner, Wallace (May 10, 1968). "New Aides Try to Reverse Decline in Kennedy California Drive". The New York Times.
- ^ "Bobby Kennedy is assassinated". HISTORY. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved October 23, 2019.
- OCLC 451652.
- ^ a b Lemann, Nicholas (July 31, 2000). "Gore Without a Script". The New Yorker. Retrieved May 8, 2018.
- ^ Ayres, B. Drummond (April 27, 1984). "A Troubled Kennedy Makes Last Trip Home". The New York Times.
- ^ Turque, Bill (December 6, 1999). "Al Gore's Patriotic Chore". Newsweek.
- ^ a b Tolchin, Martin (February 1, 1981). "Tennessee Senator Campaigns For 1982". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Henneberger, Melinda (August 11, 2000). "The 2000 Campaign: The First Race; Birth of a Candidate: Al Gore Goes Into the Family Business". The New York Times.
- ^ a b Maraniss, David (January 4, 1998). "As a Reporter, Gore Found A Reason to Be in Politics; Losing Verdict in 'Sting' Trial Motivated Him to Enter Law School". The Washington Post.
- ^ Alter, Jonathan (October 22, 1984). "The Media in the Dock". Newsweek.
- ^ Wood, E. Thomas (January–February 1993). "Al Gore's Other Big Week". Columbia Journalism Review. Archived from the original on March 9, 2007. Retrieved November 3, 2006.
- ^ "A Special Relationship". Time Magazine. May 24, 1976. Archived from the original on January 25, 2012.
- ^ Lewis, Anthony (August 25, 1977). "Not Entirely Pure". New York Times.
- ^ "Letter, The Silkwood Case". The New York Review of Books. April 29, 1982. Archived from the original on October 14, 2012.
- ^ Fontenay, Charles (May 14, 1982). "Publisher Heads Editorial Voice For USA TODAY". The Tennessean.
- ^ "7 Staffers Taking Up Duties at 'USA Today'". The Tennessean. September 7, 1982.
- ^ Friendly, Jonathan (July 22, 1983). "Debate on Reporting of Nashville Scandal Reopens". The New York Times.
- ^ "Middle Tennessee State University Chairs of Excellence". Archived from the original on July 22, 2014. Retrieved June 18, 2014.
- ^ "John Seigenthaler Biography at First Amendment Center". Archived from the original on February 8, 2010. Retrieved May 18, 2006.
- ^ "'USA Today' Probe Finds Kelley Faked Stories". Editor & Publisher. Associated Press. March 19, 2004. Archived from the original on April 4, 2004.
- ^ Cass, Michael (April 29, 2014). "John Seigenthaler honored with renaming of bridge". The Tennessean. Retrieved July 11, 2014.
- ^ Page, Susan (December 11, 2005). "Author apologizes for fake Wikipedia biography". USA Today. Archived from the original on December 28, 2011. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
- ^ a b c Seigenthaler, John (November 29, 2005). "A false Wikipedia 'biography'". USA Today. Archived from the original on November 28, 2012. Retrieved December 17, 2017.
- JSTOR 24570354.
- ^ The Tennessean (July 11, 2014). "Prominent editor, activist John Seigenthaler dies at 86". USA Today. Retrieved July 11, 2014.