John Seigenthaler Sr.

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Press photo of Seigenthaler

John Lawrence Seigenthaler (pronounced [ˈsigɛnˌθɔlɚ], born July 27, 1927) is an American journalist, writer, and political figure.

Born in Nashville, Tennessee, he attended Peabody College. Seigenthaler joined The Tennessean newspaper in 1949 and became its editor in 1962, publisher in 1973, and chairman in 1982 before retiring as Chairman Emeritus in 1991. Seigenthaler also was the founding editorial director of USA Today from 1982 to 1991 and served on the board of directors (and, in 1988-1989, as president) of the American Society of Newspaper Editors.

He married Dolores Watson in 1955. Their only child is John Seigenthaler Jr., an anchor with NBC News. (Born John Michael Seigenthaler, he began using "Jr." as a TV anchor in Nashville.) The elder Seigenthaler's brother, Thomas Seigenthaler, was the founder of Seigenthaler Public Relations.

1 Beginnings as a reporter
2 Association with Robert F. Kennedy
3 Time as publisher
4 Later life
- 4.1 Wikipedia controversy
5 Publications
6 References
7 External links

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Beginnings as a reporter

Seigenthaler first gained prominence in November 1953 when he interviewed the former Thomas C. Buntin and his wife. The bizarre 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 the Lone Star state. After a series of dead-ends, Seigenthaler struck paydirt in Orange, Texas, where he saw an elderly man step off a bus. Noting the man's distinctive left ear, Seigenthaler followed him home. After three further days of investigation, he went back to the home, where he confirmed the identities of Buntin/Palmer, his wife, the former Betty McCuddy, and their six children.^[1]

Less than a year later, on October 5, 1954, Seigenthaler once again made national news for his efforts in saving a suicidal man from jumping off a Nashville bridge. Gene Bradford Williams had called The Tennessean saying he would jump and for the newspaper to "send a reporter and photographer if you want a story". After talking to Williams at the bridge for 40 minutes, Seigenthaler watched the man begin to attempt his 100 foot plunge off the bridge railing. Grabbing hold of his collar, Seigenthaler and police saved the man from falling into the Cumberland River. Williams muttered "I'll never forgive you" to Seigenthaler.^[2]

In July 1956, Seigenthaler began a battle to eliminate the unsavory activities of the local branch of the Teamsters, noting the criminal backgrounds of key employees, along with the uses of intimidation in keeping news of certain union activities quiet. He contacted both top Teamster officials, Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa during this stretch, but both ignored Seigenthaler's queries. His series of articles resulted in the impeachment of Chattanooga Criminal Court Judge Ralston Schoolfield.

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Association with Robert F. Kennedy

Frustrated by the leadership of Tennessean publisher Silliman Evans, Jr., Seigenthaler resigned in 1960 to serve as an administrative assistant to incoming Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy. On April 21, 1961, Seigenthaler was the only other Justice Department figure to witness a meeting between Kennedy and Martin Luther King. During the Freedom Rides of 1961, he served as chief negotiator for the government, attempting to work with Alabama Governor John Malcom Patterson.

On May 20, 1961, Seigenthaler was a block away from a bus stop, where a white mob was attacking Freedom Riders. Rushing to Susan Wilbur^[3], a Freedom Rider who was being chased by the mob, Seigenthaler shoved her into a car before being cut behind the left ear. Knocked unconscious, he wasn't picked up until police arrived 10 minutes later, with Montgomery Police Commissioner Lester B. Sullivan noting, "We have no intention of standing police guard for a bunch of troublemakers coming into our city."^[4]

Seigenthaler's brief career in government would wind down as a result of Evans' death from a heart attack on July 29, 1961. A brief transition period in which long-time Tennessean reporter John Nye served as publisher was followed on March 20, 1962 by the announcement of Evans' brother, Amon Carter Evans, as the newspaper's new publisher. One of the new Evans' first duties would be to bring back Seigenthaler as editor.

The two had worked together before at the paper, when Seigenthaler served as assistant city editor and Evans worked as an aspiring journalist. On one occasion during this era, the two nearly came to blows over Seigenthaler's assignment of Carter to a story.

With this new team in place, the Tennessean quickly regained its hard-hitting reputation. One example of this resurgence came following a Democratic primary in August 1962, when the paper found documented evidence of voter fraud based on absentee ballots in the city's second ward. ^[5]

However, 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 were able to get Seigenthaler to admit he personally wanted Hoffa convicted. However, the journalist noted that he hadn't conveyed those sentiments to his reporters. Hoffa's lawyers gained a slight 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.

Seigenthaler also worked on Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. After Kennedy's death from an assassin's bullet on June 6, 1968, Seigenthaler served as one of the pallbearers at his funeral, and later co-edited the book An Honorable Profession: A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy.

Remaining focused on the cause of civil rights, Seigenthaler supported Tennessee Bishop Joseph Aloysius Durick in 1969 during the latter's contentious focus on ending segregation, a stance that outraged many in the community who still believed in the concept.

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Time as publisher

In February 1976, he contacted Tennessean reporter Al Gore at home to inform him that U.S. Representative Joe L. Evins was not running for re-election. 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 fourth Congressional district, a seat previously held by his father, Albert Gore, Sr.

On May 5, 1976, Seigenthaler dismissed Jacque Srouji, a copy editor at the Tennessean, after finding that she had served as an FBI informant for much of the previous decade. The controversy came to light after Srouji testified before a U.S. Senate subcommittee investigating nuclear safety. Srouji, who was writing a book critical of Karen Silkwood, had perused more than 1,000 pages of FBI documents pertaining to the nuclear power critic. In followup testimony, FBI agent Lawrence J. Olson, Sr. acknowledged that the bureau had a "special relationship" with Srouji. Tennessean reporters had been suspicious of Srouji's reporting coups, coming just months after she had joined the paper. These included such things as a late-night FBI raid on illegal gambling establishments, as well as one on a local business suspected of fraud.^[6]

Afterwards 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 FBI files, and 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."^[7]

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Later life

Seigenthaler continues to make frequent public speaking engagements.

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." He founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University in 1991, and in 2001 he was appointed to the National Commission on Federal Election Reform that followed the 2000 presidential election. He is also a member of the Constitution Project on Liberty and Security. In 2002, Vanderbilt renamed the 57,000-square-foot (5,300 m²) building that houses the Freedom Forum, First Amendment Center, and Diversity Institute the John Seigenthaler Center.

Seigenthaler currently hosts a book review program on Nashville public television station WNPT, called A Word on Words, and chairs the selection committees for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's Profiles in Courage Award and the RFK Memorial's Robert F. Kennedy Book Award.

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Wikipedia controversy

Main article: John Seigenthaler Sr. Wikipedia biography controversy

Seigenthaler was interviewed on CNN along with Jimmy Wales in December 2005 concerning Seigenthaler's false Wikipedia biography.

In May 2005, an anonymous user created a Wikipedia article about Seigenthaler which contained a number of inaccurate statements as well as an allegation that Seigenthaler might have been involved in the assassinations of Robert and John Kennedy. This version of the article remained largely undisturbed until September, when Victor S. Johnson, Jr., an old friend of Seigenthaler, brought this to his attention. Seigenthaler contacted Wikipedia, and the content was immediately deleted. This incident prompted Seigenthaler to write an op-ed in USA Today on November 29,^[8] in which he wrote that "Wikipedia is a flawed and irresponsible research tool...for four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin." Seigenthaler wrote that he had tried to determine the identity of the anonymous editor but had been unable to do so. Seigenthaler's article prompted a number of commentators to write about the issue and Wikipedia in general. On December 5, Seigenthaler appeared on CNN with Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales and on National Public Radio the following day.^[9]^[10] In response to the incident, Wales instituted a new policy preventing unregistered users from creating new articles on the English Wikipedia.

Four days later, Brian Chase, the original hoaxer, stepped forward after his IP address was traced to his employer by Daniel Brandt. Chase resigned from his job and personally confessed to Seigenthaler, who declined to file suit^[11]. According to USA Today, "Seigenthaler urged Chase's boss, James White, not to accept his resignation."^[12]

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Publications

Seigenthaler, John (2004). James K. Polk: 1845-1849: The American Presidents Series, New York:Times Books. ISBN 0805069429.
Seigenthaler, John (1974). The Year of the Scandal Called Watergate, New York:Times Books. ISBN 0914636014.
Seigenthaler, John (1971). A Search for Justice, Aurora Publishers. ISBN 0876950039.

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