Muckraker Jack Anderson bridged present with past

Investigative journalist Jack Andersonwas in his heyday in the days of my youth, the decade of the seventies thatwas peppered with Watergate and the rise of the journalist as celebrity,a la Bob Woodward.

Anderson, who inherited the Washington Merry-Go-Round column in 1969 from its founder and an original muckraker, Drew Pearson,died yesterday at age 83. He'd worked on the Washington Merry-Go-Round columnsince 1945 or 1947 -- depending on which source you believe. (Wikipedia reports 1945; most news stories report 1947.)

Backin 1977 or '78 I came to feel an affinity for the likes of Jack Andersonwhen I changed my college major to Journalism. Watergate, and Woodward andBernstein were still fresh in our youthful memories. I'd pick up a San FranciscoChronicle on my way to classes to check out Herb Caen and hand off the Sportssection to a journalism classmate while I turned to the news and featuressections.

It would seem that I and many of my classmates chose journalism,as I'm sure many of my generation did back then, because of the likes ofWoodward and Bernsteinand Anderson, with a taste of altruism, to "make a difference" in the world.I'm sure many did. I chose journalism because it seemed to be a career thatwould fit my love of reading, research, and a curiousity and interest ina wide variety of subjects.

I made no claim then or now to be a BobWoodward or Jack Anderson. But I won't deny that maybe I had some dreamsabout being that bold. While my career as a reporter was short-lived, I'vefound I've still clung to the principles of accuracy in my work of what'sbeen a checkered and varied working life some might call a career.

Althoughhe may be lumped together with other investigative journalists, Andersonwas one of them, and one of a kind, the last of an old breed.

Washington Post staff writer Howard Kurtz writes of his experience as an intern with Anderson in the Post: Jack Anderson, Gentleman With a Rake

The AP in the San Francisco Chronicle: Pulitzer-Winning Columnist Anderson Dies

Reuters: Crusading journalist Jack Anderson dies at age 83