Newspaper Article: a Reporter at Large

ratc. (H thirteen ncw witm-svs lmtlttl
throu|;h the mail or Wllll the h-Ilp of
the lrrcgulars :I's\i\ting Garnvin, nearly
all haveiturnrd out to have criminal
records or to have been under psychi-
atric care.
The "mailbag," at all of the unso-
licited tips and ollcfl to testify are rallcd
around the ,l)i\tn'ct Attorney’: office,
has led to one arrest. \Villiam Turner,
the Rampant at-all writer (and a lur-
mer employee of the F.ll.l.), ran across
an a|l_urtymou.\ letter alleging that a
‘Calilomian named Eugene Bradley had
once made inflammatory comment; rm
President Kennedy. Checking thmuglt
a file he keeps on right.-wing extremistt,
Turner found an Erlgar-lingene Brad-
ley, who raised funds for a radio pro-
gram called "20rh Century ke'lorma-
tion llour," and who happened In have
been in Texas on the day of the assas-
sination-—tbough in-El Paw, not in
l)all:t.\. On the basis of this informa-
tion, Garrison, who at the time was
in Los Angeles raising lurid! himself,
tel:-phoned his nflice in New Orleans
and ordered Assistant District Attor-
ney Alcock to issue a warrant for
,llradley'a arrest, charging him with
llllil-thell.reported' concern among the
staff members; there was nmiong in
the files 0n Bradley except the anony-
tnouvlettcr, and n0"om: in the office
-
had even heard nl Bradley as a buspect.
The warrant was issued anyway, and
llradley was arrested in Lot Angelcs
‘and then released in his own recogni-
rance. \Vhcn Garrison returned to
,N¢W'()flC-‘U15, he remarked that he
saw little prospect of llra1J'le)"s_ ever
being extra-lited by (.iow-.rnnr Reagan.
Alter leaving Garrison’: stafi, \'i'_fili_ain
i
,Gurvich said, “jim has :t plifva-play
-about national headlines. llc believes
that everyone reads the headlines eon-
cerning arrests and charges hut few
people read denials or correcting state-
ments." i
TllE principal consideration ‘oper-
ating to restrain a duly elected
district attorney from making indis-
criminate arrests and chargis-—a5idc
from normal ethical consideratims—is
‘fear ofiexposure by the press if sup-
porting proof should not be _iort1icom-
ing; Yet, despite__cogent evidence oi
tnalleasance on G_.1rrison's part report-
ed by a number of journalists, public-
_opinion polls indicate that tbe're has ac-
tually been a substantial increase‘in the
v
number of people, not only in Louisi-
ana but throughout the country, who
share Garrison’: belief in a conspiracy.
If in fact his ease is based on§
little more than wild rumoni
_._.___._-___ ._._.. t.~
“ii;ortsplracy' to kill President Kenncdyal
3".
I
and the unsub_\tanti:|tcd testi-
tthm_\‘ of unst.thlt' witncsscs,
tshy has lltc prcss lvcen so
inctlcctive in checking Gar-
rison? ln his-study of the
late Scnator Joseph ll. Mc-
Carthy, Richard ll. Rovcrc
demonstrates how a certain
lrind ol ilcmagogue, when he
is a.\‘\-ulcd by the prest, can turn the
hostile criticism to his"own advantage.
Such a dctnagogue builds his political
base on the systematic t:xploitation of
inchoatc fears, and scts about organiz-
ing a popular flight from reality. To
him, evcn the most vocal censure, how-
ever atlvcrse its ostensible ctlect, repre-
sents usclul publicity, for the more rig-
orously he is Jl$\.1llllC(l-ll)‘ the press, the
more prominently he figures in the
-apopular imaginatioit. A lalsccliarge has
to be r‘cpt':tlt'tl if it is to be rct'utctl, and
ll' the charge happens to be more ap-
pealing than the truth it is entirely
possililti that it, rather than its t'cfu'ta-
tion, will win general crcdcncc. This
is especially likely to occur if the tlt'IIl-
agogue's charge tillers a more or lets
plausible explanation of disturbing
events, and if its refutation dc-pends on
the word of government oflicials, since
the people most apt to acct-pt conspira-
torialinterpretations of history are those
who are most suspicious‘of both com-
plexity and authority. As Rnvere points
out with regard to l\|cCai'tliy, the dem-
agogttc soon learns that "the penalties
for a really ;n|daci_ous tncnd.\cit_\' are not
as severe‘ as the ':wr:rage politician it-ars
them to lie, that, in fact, there may be
no penalties at all, but only profit."
ln a sense, the man who exploits
ptiptllnt’ lcars builds his reputation on
the. prcstigc V
of his :ttlvc|‘&'tric§. The
more impressive the list of tlt‘(t':t(lt\l‘§ he
can cite, the more important his cliargcs
appear tn be. “\Vhy are tliey _tr_\‘ing to
destroy mu?" the demagogue asks. But
the sunfst bcuefitln: derives from being
publicly criticized .is'tlie “right “to re-'
ply"—.-a right that is greatly enhanced
by the demands of day-to-day report-
ing, which cause the press to locus more
directly ‘on the individual under attack
than mt the general issue at staltc. ll
the demagoguc is chalh-ngcd on radio
or television, he can demand “equal
time'_' to“ rcspo‘nd._ r\Ittl, of course, his
reply need not restrict itseli to a defense
of his original position. lndeed, to ob-
fuscate the issue further and mizigate
the attack on hitn, the tleinagogue may
strike out in an Illlr\gt‘Il\t‘t' tlitYerent-dii-
rection. For he_ is, typically, concerned
not with substantive issues but with
-
i
ways of manipulating the
emotions of the electorate.
One way Garrison has re-
-]_]_.,
any _
1-,-g _, ___,
4
sp-imlctl to .\tt_1t“\\ nude on
ll|\ ll\t'\-N that there \A'.'t\ a
co|t\pir.tt'_\' t-\ hill l"tc\itlt"nt
l'§cnnctl_\‘ has been by talk-
ing about a seeortd (\\t\spir.'\\')'
that grew out of the first _
nnc—-a (‘nt\§'\it’:t\‘_\‘ of secre-
'
cy. dedicated to mnccaling
the truth ahout thc'as\tssir\ation. :\t
in a speech he gave last lkccmber
in New Mexico jocularl_\‘ cntitlcd
"The Rise oi the Fourth Rcklt, or.
llow to Conceal the Truth .-\l'\-int an
I\.\.\.1\\itt.1tinn \\'irhout Rcall_\' Trying,"
(.i;trrison oltcn sccms more deeply 'prc=-*--—-~
occupicd with exposing an insidious
misprision on the part of tnleral au-
tlmritics than with mtableshiog the facts
oi the :ts\a\\in;ttirm itself. To be sure,
such an nhse.\~ional concern with gov-
ernmcntal suppression is not a new
lphenuint-non, nor is it ht'n..sas~ination i\,<\lL‘. 'l”l.e politic.\l-si\‘iolo-
;
gist Edward Shils has piinrcd to a high.
|l7 suggestive link between the general-
ii/.ctl [ear of secrecy and the Populist
tradition in .~\tm-rica. ln his book “'l'he...j.
/liormcnt of Secrecy," he argues that
la rt-pugnance toward sr\~rec_\‘ is so deep-
ly ingrained in :\mer"ic.ut political life
lthztt even in matters involvingi national
lsecurity secrecy is tolerated only as a
int-ct-ssary evil. To esploit um b-ar'oi
gaecrecy, a truly Machi.1\1-llian politician
i
‘could he expected to portray himself as
lengagcd in a lilc-and-death struggle to
‘wrest secrets from some powerful 'Elite
;that controls the government and the
‘news media, and to interpret all criti-
cism levelled against him as part of a
plot to conceal the dark truth irom the
populace.
'l'he first full-scalc criticism of Gar-
rison came in the last we-tlr of April,
l967, in the sntrrrdny Etv-u§'r_g Parr,
when, in an article cntitlml “A Plot to
Kill Kennedy? Rush to judgment in
New ()rleans,"J;unes Pbclan revealed
that tlu: crucial part of RtLw\'s testi-
mony-—the section incriminating city
Shaw—-was contradicted by a state-
ntent Russo had made earlier to :\.\sist-
ant District .-\ttorm-_v Sciambra. 'l'he
day l’lielan's story appcarul, a hold
headline in the New ()rlc.ar.$ tall":-
Irrnr announced, “.\lO('.\'TL\‘(3 F.\‘l-
nsxcs l.I.\'KS cm to ‘riot’ l‘ROllE.”._
The article under this hcad, which im-
plied that the C.l..-\. was attempting to
block C.1rvison's etiortg because hir-
mer agents were involved in the con-
spiracy, had been prepared by several»
Starr:-Item reporters, including llttkr:
May and Ross Yockev, who at the
time were working t;lu§cl_\‘ with Gar-
rison on the investi;:ttiort_ \\'hether
by design or by accident, the charge!
against the C.l..-\. et?e~:ti\cZ_\' u\'et'~
shadowed the Phelan_st\‘q~, at in
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