Anderson Mucks It Up

Anderson Mucks It Up

Freedom of the press is the country's most precious freedom, well-known muck-raking columnist Jack Anderson told a group of attorneys meeting in Detroit last week at the annual State Bar of Michigan convention.

"If freedom of the press should fail, the government could haul you off in the night and there would be no uproar because no one would know," Anderson told the attorneys while commenting on the recent erosion of press freedoms at the hands of the judiciary.

"The government could investigate your business, the government could violate the law and there would be no outrage because no one would know."

Anderson's voice rose to a near screaming crescendo and then fell to a nearly inaudible whisper as he hammered home points on press freedoms to the resounding silence of the audience.

He said that a government by nature tends to oppress those it has power over, and that a government can never be suppressed.

Citing examples of governmental excess, Anderson read from CIA documents that showed that during 1972, 20 agents were assigned to investigate his muck-raking operation. He also said that the White House, FBI, IRS, and the Pentagon investigated him.