John Seigenthaler

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John Lawrence Seigenthaler (July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and politician.

He was known as a leading defender of First Amendment rights in Nashville, Tennessee. tee, a self-employed writer who resigned in 1960 to serve as Robert F. Kennedy's administrative assistant.

He returned to The Tennessean as editor in 1962, publisher in 1973, and chairman in 1982 before resigning as chairman emeritus in 1991.

Seigenthaler served as the founding editorial director of USA Today from 1982 to 1991.

He served on the board of directors of the American Society of Newspaper Editors for a time, and from 1988 to 1989, was its president.

Early life

Seigenthaler, who was born in Nashville, Tennessee, was the eldest of eight siblings. He attended Father Ryan High School and served in the United States Air Force from 1946 to 1949, earning the rank of sergeant. Seigenthaler was hired at The Tennessean after leaving the service. Seigenthaler took courses in sociology and literature at Peabody College, which is now part of Vanderbilt University, while working at The Tennessean. He was also a member of the American Press Institute for Reporters at Columbia University.

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Career

After his uncle told an editor about his talent, Seigenthaler began his career in journalism as a police beat reporter in The Tennessean city hall. Seigenthaler settled himself on the staff after a fierce competition with future standout journalists David Halberstam and Tom Wicker.

He first rose to fame in November 1953 as he tracked down Thomas C. Buntin and his wife. The son of a wealthy Nashville business owner who had disappeared in September 1931 was implicated in the disappearance of his secretary six weeks later. After rumors that Buntin (now known as Thomas D. Palmer) was living somewhere in Texas, The Tennessean took him to Texas. Seigenthaler saw an elderly man step off a bus while investigating in Orange, Texas. Seigenthaler followed the man home after noting the man's distinctive left ear. He returned to the hospital, where he revealed Buntin/Palmer, his wife, and their six children, after three days of probation. Seigenthaler's tale received a National Headliner Award.

Seigenthaler made national news for his attempts to save a homeless man from jumping off the Shelby Street Bridge in Nashville less than a year ago. Gene Bradford Williams had dubbed The Tennessean that he would leap and for the newspaper to "send a reporter and photographer if you want a story." Seigenthaler Seigenthaler watched the man begin to attempt his 100-foot drop off the bridge railing after being on the bridge for 40 minutes. The man was saved from falling into the Cumberland River due to a grabbing hold on his collar, seigenthaler, and police. To Seigenthaler, Williams muttered "I'll never excuse you." The bridge was renamed the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge on April 29, 2014.

Seigenthaler's local branch of the Teamsters began fighting graft within the Teamsters' local branch, noting some of the key employees' criminal records, as well as the use of coercion in keeping information about certain union activities private. During this time, he called Dave Beck and Jimmy Hoffa, both top Teamsters officials, but the two guys dismissed Seigenthaler's concerns. Judge Ralston Schoolfield's impeachment trial resulted in his series of articles.

Seigenthaler graduated from The Tennessean in 1958 and went on to Harvard University's prestigious Nieman Fellowship Program. Seigenthaler, who returned to Tennessean, became an assistant city editor and special assignment reporter.

Seigenthaler resigned in 1960 to serve as an administrative assistant to rising attorney general Robert F. Kennedy, after being dissatisfied by Tennessean publisher Silliman Evans Jr.'s leadership. Seigenthaler was the only other Justice Department official to attend a meeting between Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr. on April 21, 1961.

In an attempt to collaborate with Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson, Seigenthaler was sent as assistant to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar in his capacity as assistant to Chief Negotiator for the government during the Freedom Rides of 1961. Patterson finally agreed to return calls, but their state trooper escort vanished as soon as they arrived in Montgomery on May 20, 1961, leaving them homeless until the waiting white crowd.

Seigenthaler was a block away when he rushed to help Susan Wilbur, a Freedom Rider who was being chased by the tumultuous crowd. The seigenthaler yelled "Get back!" She was pushed into his sedan and yelled, "Get back!" I'm with the Federal government but I was thrown with a pipe at the left ear. He was not picked up until police arrived ten minutes later, and Montgomery Police Commissioner Lester B. Sullivan said, "We have no intention of standing police guard for a group of troublemakers moving into our neighborhood."

Seigenthaler's brief career in government would come as a result of Evans' death in 1961 from a heart attack. A brief transition period followed, during which long-serving Tennessean journalist John Nye served as publisher. The newspaper announced on March 20, 1962, that Evans' brother, Amon Carter Evans, will be the next publisher.

Seigenthaler will be back as editor in one of Evans' first moves. Both of them had worked together before, as Seigenthaler served as assistant city editor and Evans was an aspiring journalist. The two guys came close to blowing over Seigenthaler's assignment of Evans to a tale on one occasion during the period.

On March 21, 1962, Evans was appointed Seigenthaler editor of The Tennessean. With this new staff in place, the Tennessean quickly recovered its hard-hitting reputation. Following a Democratic primary in August 1962, the Tennessean discovered demonstrable voter fraud based on absentee ballots in the city's second district, one example of the paper's revival.

Jimmy Hoffa's attempt to move his jury tampering trial from Nashville became one of the main points of his Jimmy Hoffa's attempt to shift his jury tampering trial from Nashville. Hoffa's lawyers were able to convince Seigenthaler that he personally wanted him to be arrested, citing "one-sided, defamatory" coverage from the newspaper. However, the journalist revealed that he hadn't conveyed those feelings to his reporters. Hoffa's lawyers won a minor case when the trial was transferred to Chattanooga in a change of location, but Hoffa was also found guilty in 1964 after a 45-day trial.

After a resolution was passed reversing Tennessean reporter Bill Kovach's floor privileges, Seigenthaler led a fight for entry to the Tennessee state senate chamber in Nashville. Following a call for executive session, Kovach had refused to leave a committee meeting.

When controversy about historian William Manchester's book The Death of a President in December 1966, Seigenthaler and Richard Goodwin represented the Kennedy family. The seigenthaler had read an early version of the novel, which resulted in Jacqueline Kennedy's suing for a court challenge over inaccurate and personal information in the book.

Seigenthaler then took a brief break from his newspaper to work on Robert Kennedy's 1968 presidential campaign. "One of a select group of consultants in whom [Kennedy] has utter confidence" during this period, according to the New York Times. Kennedy was shot by an assassination attempt and died on June 6, 1968, moments after winning the California primary. Seigenthaler would serve as one of the pallbearers at his funeral and co-edited the book An Honorable Profession: A Tribute to Robert F. Kennedy.

Seigenthaler remained focused on the cause of civil rights, and during the latter's tumultuous struggle to end segregation in the region, many in the community who still believed in the theory.

Seigenthaler, according to the New Yorker, is "fully connected in the Democratic Party." He was named a "close family friend" of the Kennedys, a "long time family friend" of the Gores, and a mentor of former Democratic Senator James Sasser. In 1976, after having been encouraged Al Gore to consider public life, he told Gore that a close US House representative was resigning. Sen. Sasser was advised by Seigenthaler in 1981 to return to the Democratic Party's "liberal movement": "I keep telling him that Reagan will make it honorable to be a liberal." Reagan's reelection team vetoed Seigenthaler as a reaction panelist for being too liberal.

After Amon Carter Evans was appointed president of Tennessean Newspaper, Inc. on February 8, 1973, Seigenthaler was promoted to publisher of the Tennessean. Inc.

Seigenthaler, the publisher, collaborated with Al Gore, later a reporter, on investigative reports regarding Nashville city council corruption in the early 1970s. Seigenthaler called Gore at home to inform him that he had heard that US Representative Joe L. Evins was resigning, telling Gore, "You know what I think." Gore had been encouraged by Seiganthaler previously to consider entering public life. Gore resigned from the paper and dropped out of Vanderbilt University Law School, starting his political career by running for Tennessee's 4th congressional district, a seat previously held by Albert Gore Sr., his father.

Seigenthaler fired Jacque Srouji, a copy editor at The Tennessean, after discovering that she had been an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for a decade. The scandal emerged after Srouji testified before the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which was investigating nuclear security, revealed the conflict. Srouji, who was composing a book critical of Karen Silkwood, had perused over 1,000 pages of FBI papers relating to the nuclear power critic. FBI agent Lawrence J. Olson Sr. said in a follow-up investigation that the bureau had a "unique alliance" with Srouji. Tennessean journalists had been suspicious of Srouji's reporting coups, only months after she had joined the paper. They included a late-night FBI raid on illegal gaming establishments as well as one on a local business suspected of fraud.

Following this, the FBI seems to have gathered Seigenthaler rumors. Homer Boynton, the FBI's second deputy, told an editor of the New York Times to "look into Seigenthaler," whom he described as "not completely pure." Seigenthaler tried to obtain his own FBI dossier for a year after hearing this, and then received this message: "Allegiances of Seigenthaler having illicit interactions with young girls," the information source obtained from an unidentified source." He had promised to reveal whatever the FBI had given him before, and did so. The allegations were untrue, according to the defendant, who defended them straight out of jail. The attorney general released an apology, the charges were deleted from Seigenthaler's file, and he was given the 1976 Sidney Hillman Award for "courage in publishing."

Seigenthaler was named the first editorial director of USA Today in May 1982. Seigenthaler was "one of America's most thoughtful and respected editors," Gannett president Allen Neuharth said in announcing his selection. During Seigenthaler's tenure at USA Today, he often traveled between Nashville and Washington to fulfill his duties at both newspapers.

The publication of author Peter Maas' 1983 book Marie: A True Story brought Seigenthaler under scrutiny again over the probe into a pardon case involving former Tennessee governor Ray Blanton. Marie Ragghianti was the administrator of Pardons and Paroles before being fired after refusing to release prisoners who had bribe Blanton's aides. The Tennessean's initial support for Blanton had been put into question. However, editors and journalists had expected that Ragghianti's alleged broken affair with Blanton's chief counsel, T. Edward Sisk, was the source for her allegations.

The John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies was established in 1986, honoring Seigenthaler's "lifelong dedication to free expression values."

Seigenthaler announced his resignation in December 1991 from The Tennessean, just months after making a similar announcement at USA Today.

"It is my hope that this center at Vanderbilt University will help foster appreciation and appreciation for those values that are so important in a democratic society," Seigenthaler founded the First Amendment Center at Vanderbilt University on December 15, 1991. The center functions as a forum for discussion of First Amendment topics, including freedom of expression, press freedom, and religious liberation.

Seigenthaler received the Elijah Parish Lovejoy Award in 1996 as well as an honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Colby College.

Seigenthaler was appointed to the National Commission on Federal Election Reform in 2001, shortly after the 2000 presidential election. He was also a member of the Constitution Project on Liberty and Security.

After finding that USA Today reporter Jack Kelley had fabricated some of his stories, USA Today's Seigenthaler, along with veteran journalists Bill Hilliard and Bill Kovach, joined the probe in 2002.

Vanderbilt renamed the 57,000-square-foot (5,300 m2) building that houses the Freedom Forum, First Amendment Center, and the John Seigenthaler Center in 2002. Seigenthaler was dubbed "the best advocate of the First Amendment" by USA Today and Freedom Forum founder Allen Neuharth at one point.

In April 2014, the Shelby Street Bridge was renamed the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in honor of his patron.

Seigenthaler also chaired the selection committees for the John F. Kennedy Library Foundation's Profiles in Courage Award and the Robert F. Kennedy Memorial's Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Award, as well as a book review program on Nashville public television station WNPT's A Word on Words.

An unregistered Wikipedia user wrote a five-sentence biographical article about Seigenthaler that contained inaccurate and defamatory information on May 26, 2005. The Wikipedia article containing the incorrect information in Seigenthaler's Wikipedia article read:

When he was alerted of the article's existence, Seigenthaler contacted Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who denied the false assertions. "For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspect assassin before Wales obliqued it from his website's history," Seigenthaler later wrote.

According to Seigenthaler, the fakehoods that had been posted on Wikipedia were later revealed on Answers.com and Reference.com. Later, he wrote an op-ed on USA Today, "And so we live in a universe of new media with incredible opportunities for worldwide communication and study, but populated by volunteer vandals with poison-pen intellects." Congress has approved them and shields them," a reference to the indemnity offered by federal law to content-controlled media like newspapers and television is a reference.

"The Seigenthaler case marked a pivotal moment in Wikipedia's history and resulted in the formulation of measures to shield individuals from defamation," a scholar who specializes in the study of biographies, including digital life narratives.

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