Prisoner of the “Merry-Go-Round”

President Richard Nixon barred his staff from talking to Drew Pearson, while the columnist’s own staff thought he was being too easy on Nixon. Aging and in ill health, Pearson had mellowed but could not afford to stop working—although he began sharing a byline with Jack Anderson. Rather than retire, Pearson bought his newspaper syndicate and sought to buy a radio station. While he still earned a great deal, he needed to pay staff salaries and maintain his revenue-losing farms in Maryland. What saved him from financial disaster were lucrative book contracts and the Supreme Court’s ruling in New York Times Co. v. Sullivan that made it harder for public officials to win libel suits. Yet when he died in 1969, his financial estate was in disarray.

Disliking Ike

Although Drew Pearson encouraged Dwight Eisenhower to run for president, he quickly lost his enthusiasm and became a frequent critic. Pearson had hoped that Eisenhower would stand up against McCarthyism but considered his response to be weak. Knowing that many of the newspapers that carried the “Merry-Go-Round” were Republican, Pearson tried to cover the Republican administration fairly, while scrutinizing it thoroughly. His columns helped to defeat the nomination of Lewis Strauss to be secretary of commerce, and forced the resignation of Eisenhower’s chief of staff, Sherman Adams. Eisenhower’s objective of a “leak-free” administration made investigative reporting harder and caused Pearson to be frequently assailed by Eisenhower’s press secretary, James Hagerty, for publishing lies. Later evidence, however, has supported Pearson’s reporting and revealed Hagerty to be the liar.

Breaking Secrets in Wartime

In a 1944 poll, the Washington press corps rated Drew Pearson as the columnist who exerted the greatest influence over national opinion but ranked him lower for reliability and fairness. A better measure of his influence was the anguish that his columns caused inside the White House, State Department, Pentagon, and even the British cabinet. During World War II, the FBI tapped his phones, naval intelligence officers tailed him, and foreign operatives spied on him. His publication of British secrets would have led to his prosecution under the UK’s Official Secrets Act, but the First Amendment protected him in United States. Pearson took sole control over the column after Robert Allen joined the army. The column and his weekly radio programs gave him immense influence, but he still had to struggle with the government’s wartime censorship of the news.

Drew Pearson’s Leg Men

Filling a daily column that mixed breaking news with opinion required more news gathering than Drew Pearson could handle on his own. He augmented his reporting with “leg men,” a team of able news hunters. They lacked a byline but were compensated by their association with the nation’s most famous muckraking columnist, whose clout made them respected and feared. Operating out of half of Pearson’s Georgetown home, the leg men produced copy, scored scoops, and occasionally came under fire for questionable tactics. Among his top staff, David Karr prompted his boss to take progressive stands, but also came under fire for having Communist sympathies. Jack Anderson, who later shared the byline with Pearson and succeeded him, was more neutral in his politics but even more aggressive in digging up government secrets.

Nothing to Fear

Franklin Roosevelt and the New Deal provided a bonanza for the “Washington Merry-Go-Round.” The president and his cabinet members showered the columnists with strategic leaks, often to test the waters before making official announcements. This enabled Drew Pearson and Robert Allen to scoop the rest of the press corps on pending appointments and other issues. Although Pearson admired Roosevelt and his liberal policies, he resisted playing propagandist. He criticized the administration and irritated Roosevelt by revealing news the president was not yet ready to release. Roosevelt retaliated by prompting General Douglas MacArthur to file a libel suit against the columnists, and by denouncing Pearson as a “chronic liar.” Pearson used the column to attack his father’s critic, Senator Millard Tydings, which Robert Allen regarded as vindictive. The pressures of reporting eventually caused strains between the two columnists, leading Allen to quit the column after Pearson revealed damaging information about General George S. Patton during World War II.

Between Kennedy and Khrushchev

During the 1960 election, the “Merry-Go-Round” ’s revelation of a suspicious loan from billionaire Howard Hughes helped to defeat Richard Nixon. Nevertheless, Drew Pearson remained an outsider in John Kennedy’s New Frontier, having accused Kennedy’s Pulitzer Prize–winning book, Profiles in Courage, of having been ghost-written, and painted Joseph P. Kennedy as being sympathetic to Nazi Germany before World War II. Being a generation older than Kennedy, Pearson found himself more comfortable with Soviet Premier Nikita Khrushchev and scored a rare interview with him. Khrushchev insisted that he sought peace, which Pearson communicated to Kennedy and to his readers. Consequently, anti-communist groups assailed the column and picketed Pearson. At the same time, Pearson grew more appreciative of the civil rights movement. The column attacked the Ku Klux Klan and encouraged Kennedy to speak out more forcefully against racial segregation and inequality.

Introduction

A disarming personality and Quaker morality camouflaged Drew Pearson’s relentless, crusading journalism. His style set him apart from other Waeshington columnists. Rather than offer an informed interpretation of news that others had reported, his column generated its own news, well ahead of others. Unlike an investigative reporter, at the mercy of a single editor, Pearson’s syndicated column ran in so many newspapers that no editor could curtail him. Instead, if his accusations proved worrisome, editors would trim out its most troublesome passages. To gather news, Pearson employed a squad of reporters who served as his “private FBI,” cultivating sources at every level of government. Pearson’s exposés attracted readers but also made him powerful enemies in the White House and the Capitol. Breaking news also won the begrudging respect of other Washington reporters, whenever he had the nerve to write what they could not hope to get printed.

Battling McCarthyism

Drew Pearson carried on a four-year campaign against the Red-baiting Joe McCarthy that ended with the senator’s censure. For Pearson, their clash caused the loss of his radio and television sponsors, and a substantial cut in his income, along with a physical beating by McCarthy. Since the senator had made himself a good source, the “Merry-Go-Round” treated him well until his speech in Wheeling, West Virginia, accusing the State Department of harboring known Communists. Pearson rebutted these charges and devoted numerous columns to McCarthy’s irresponsible accusations. He also targeted McCarthy’s young aides, Roy Cohn and G. David Schine. The column’s reports that Schine had evaded military service led to his being drafted. Cohn’s efforts to win special privileges for Private Schine then precipitated the Army-McCarthy hearings. Pearson’s stand against McCarthyism also caused his permanent estrangement from FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover.

Lyndon’s Lackey?

After criticizing Lyndon Johnson as a Senate leader, Drew Pearson became a strong supporter of his presidency, remaining sufficiently close to be jeered as “Lyndon’s lackey.” Access to the president provided a fountain of information but complicated his efforts to report candidly. If he wrote anything complimentary, critics charged that LBJ had dog-collared him. If he wrote anything unfavorable, Johnson protested bitterly. Although Pearson encouraged Johnson to withdraw American troops from South Vietnam, he supported the widening war. Anti-war activists accused him of selling out to Johnson, and his own wife picketed the White House. Pearson held his dissent until 1968, shortly before Johnson announced he would not run for reelection. The column assailed Robert F. Kennedy for approving the wiretapping of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. It also conducted an extensive anti-corruption campaign against Senator Thomas Dodd, which resulted in Dodd’s censure by the Senate.

The Case against Congress

Favorable mention in the “Washington Merry-Go-Round” could boost congressional careers, while exposés undermined them. Believing that those who wrote the laws should abide by them, Pearson taunted legislators about their misdeeds and encouraged them to police themselves. He denounced lax ethics rules and exposed members who took kickbacks. The columnist took credit for the indictment, imprisonment, censure, and expulsion of a half dozen members of Congress, and the defeat of many more. It might not have mattered as much to elected officials if the “Merry-Go-Round” had appeared exclusively in the Washington Post, but its widespread syndication increased the odds that their constituents would also read him. Congressman Martin Sweeney sued him, and many more denounced him as a liar. Pearson responded by publishing a “liars’ scorecard,” indicating how often his critics were later convicted for the crimes he accused them of committing.