Jack Anderson (columnist) - Muckraker

Muckraker

Anderson feuded with FBI chief J. Edgar Hoover in the 1950s, when he exposed the scope of the Mafia, a threat that Hoover had long downplayed. Hoover's retaliation and continual harassment lasted into the 1970s. Hoover once described Anderson as "lower than the regurgitated filth of vultures."

Anderson told his staff, "Let's do to Hoover what he does to others." Anderson had his people go through Hoover's garbage, a tactic that the FBI used in the surveillance of political dissidents. Anderson's investigations were a tipping point in the attitude of the public and the press towards Hoover. Prior to Anderson's exposés few people of stature had dared to publicly criticize Hoover. After Anderson, many followed suit, and the man who had been the public persona of exemplary law enforcement became exposed for his failures and dubious activities in the areas of organized crime and civil rights, many of which were of questionable legality.

Anderson grew close to Joseph McCarthy, and the two exchanged information from sources, but when Pearson went after McCarthy, Anderson reluctantly followed at first, then actively assisted with the eventual downfall of his one-time friend.

In the mid-1960s, Anderson exposed the corruption of Senator Thomas J. Dodd and unearthed a memo by an ITT executive admitting the company paid off Richard Nixon's campaign to stymie anti-trust prosecution. His reporting on Nixon-ITT corruption earned him a place on the Master list of Nixon's political opponents.

Anderson collaborated with Pearson on "The Case Against Congress," published in 1969.

According to the family jewels documents, in 1971, during the Indo-Pakistani War, the director of the CIA, Richard Helms, put Anderson under tap. Jack Anderson had written two articles on assassination attempts on Castro through John Roselli.

Other notable topics that Anderson covered included organized crime, the Kennedy assassination, Chappaquiddick, Watergate, fugitive Nazis, the white supremacist group the Liberty Lobby and other far-right organizations, the death of Howard Hughes, the ABSCAM public corruption investigation, the investigation into fugitive financier Robert Vesco, the Iran-Contra scandal, and the activities of numerous Washington agencies, elected officials, and bureaucrats.