Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson
Category: History: U.S.: 20th Century
Author: Mark Feldstein
Copyright/published Year: 2010 by Farrar, Straus
ISBN: 0374235309
Binding: hardcover
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and
the Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture
It is March 1972, and the Nixon White House wants Jack
Anderson dead. The syndicated columnist Jack Anderson, the most
famous and feared investigative reporter in the nation, has
exposed yet another of the President's dirty secrets. Nixon's
operatives are ordered to "stop Anderson at all costs" -
permanently. Across the street from the White House, they huddle
in a hotel basement to conspire. Should they try "Aspirin
Roulette" and break into Anderson's home to plant a poisoned pill
in one of his medicine bottles? Could they smear LSD on the
journalist's steering wheel, so that he would absorb it through
his skin, lose control of his car, and crash? Or stage a
routine-looking mugging, making Anderson appear to be one more
fatal victim of Washington's notorious street crime?
Poisoning the Press: Richard Nixon, Jack Anderson, and the
Rise of Washington's Scandal Culture recounts not only the
disturbing story of an unprecedented White House conspiracy to
assassinate a journalist, but also the larger tale of the bitter
quarter-century battle between the postwar era's most embattled
politician and its most reviled newsman. The struggle between
Nixon and Anderson included bribery, blackmail, forgery, spying,
and burglary as well as the White House murder plot. Their
vendetta symbolized and accelerated the growing conflict between
the government and the press, a clash that would long outlive
both men.
Mark Feldstein traces the arc of this confrontation between a
vindictive president and a flamboyant, crusading muckraker who
rifled through garbage and swiped classified papers in pursuit of
his prey - stoking the paranoia in Nixon that would ultimately
lead to his ruin. The White House plot to poison Anderson,
Feldstein argues, is a metaphor for the poisoned political
atmosphere that would follow, and the toxic sensationalism that
contaminates contemporary media discourse. Melding history and
biography, Poisoning the Press unearths significant new
information from more than two hundred interviews and thousands
of declassified documents and tapes. This is a chronicle of
political intrigue and the true price of power for politicians
and journalists alike. The result - Washington's modern scandal
culture - was Richard Nixon's ultimate revenge.
Condition Information
This book is 'remaindered' and may have marks on the cover and/or bottom of pages.
Condition Description
This is a "remaindered" book with a black mark on the page bottom. Otherwise it is just like a brand new book.
