European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - October 19, 1987, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 10 the stars and stripes monday october 19. 1987 columns James j. Kilpatrick Trust me journalism is not to be trusted if. Los time carried a Chuck or the other Day by Jack Smith inthe Trade. A Chuck Jer i a funny or a Hollo. This was tilled a inc new that stil in fake and it Call with a few famous Linth Carico Hrascs. Smith told the talc for example of Plainfield teachers College somewhere in new England. In inc fall of we a joker on the new York Herald Tribune began chronicling its successful football season. Every weekend the scores were routinely reported Pla infield teachers 12. Scott 0 Pat infield 24, Chesterton 0 Plainfield 27, Winona j. Trouble was there was no such institution As Plain Field teachers College. It never existed. Another fabrication involved reports of rainfall in Southern California. Stringers for the cos Angeles times got 75 cents for each locality reporting. An entrepreneurial fellow in Orange count began collecting for precipitation in Liz Ard Rock Buzzard Flats and other Ham tils too Small to appear on a map. Car ried away Smith himself created Smith Flats 1.2 inches. He never put in for his 75 cents. \ third yarn involved a couple of gentlemen who were variously named Plange welder and Victor Frisbie they turned up its otherwise unidentified face sin photographs or in Man on Lac Streel interviews. Jolly Good show commented Mhz Gen. Victor Frisbie australian Fusiliers and to Tio. T thought about dear old Buz Ard Flats and Cion fris Bie in Reading excerpts from Bob Wood Ward s new Book about inc Cia is the Foremost practitioner in America of what is known As Trust me his Book Marks a Peak in his a personal word. 1 am now in my 47lh year As a professional Newspaperman ours is a wonderful Craft and 1am proud of it but i despise Trust me journalism. Borrowing from that memorable cartoon in the new yorker i say it s spinach and t say the hell with Casey director of the Cia had a Mouth like a Mousetrap he was about As Republican As a can Girt. Woodward is the Star reporter for a newspaper. Hie Washington Post whose democratic liberalism runs pervasively from Page i to the television reviews. Woodward asks us to take his word to Trust Himin recounting More than tour inter views with Casey in which Casey spilled Jim Fain his most sensitive secrets. Can his account of what Casey said be checked with Casey no Way. Casey died in May. Woodward s Book opens with a dra Matic account of president Reagan s mental and physical failings in the Days immediately after the assassination at tempt in 1981. Reagan was a cult Bicker than the Public knew. Senior aides were in Cal on protecting this terrible who were these senior aides six Yea after the fact Why cannot their names he revealed Woodward will not Trust read ers to know Hii sources but he asks read ers to rust him that i the sources a Island 2 he has quoted them accurately. At random we arc treated in Wood Ward s Book to a Cia european source another High level palestini an a colleague of adm. John poin Dexter some democrats and so on. Woodward is not alone in the Trust my department. His colleagues on the Post regularly attribute stories to senior administration officials senior officials some officials informed sources government sources or just Plain Newsweek Magazine re lies upon one senior Reagan aide who says things the new yorker leans toward a prominent Washington Tor a " a longtime Reagan it on Southern senator and another demo cratic staff in july the Post ran a piece Abii i i. Col. Oliver North who was then embroiled in the Iran Contra hear Ings. This was a paragraph " North fantasizes and mixes things up As he always has says a High ranking . Official who worked closely with him Over the past several this was a shot from ambush. It was unworthy of a great newspaper. I would agree of course that on cer Tain rare occasions reporters must make use of a source that cannot be identified bin i would insist that this is a last resort and not a first one. Constant Reliance upon Trust me journalism docs our profession no Good and i suspect in docs us much harm Plainfield teachers and were the harmless creatures of City room joke stars. We can chuckle atthe yarns and Tell them with pleasure at a press club bar. But those of us who have devoted our lives to news papering should think it Over. When the rain Falls on Buzzard rats in Falls upon us All. The opinions it pail to he column and Cid Doyon tit ii a Tea re seem my of the Quinora and Ira m no try to q0 considered As no vhf ring we Vert of to sufi and Liipa 01 Pmj urn my Seal full government literary giants preoccupied Fri s Hoover Here s a belated thank you to j. Edgar Hoo ver now happily tapping the harps of Angels he suspects of flying on their left wings. Not a noted literary critic the Fri director must have possessed hidden gifts. He is the Only person Ever to place me in the company of great writers. I was unaware of this Honor until new yorker and nation articles disclosed that Hoover s Fri kept Exten Sive files on such literary giants As Ernest Hemingway William Faulkner and Carl Sandburg. Herbert Mitgang and Natalie Robins obtained the Fries of More than 100 authors and found that j. Edgar filled reams with their lives loves and letters. In the la the investigations or the file. They were merely silly. But 1 was saddened Over the pettiness if it All ind the thought of How humiliating it Mil have been for my Friend to feel he had to write that memo
