An enterprising Washington Post report by Joe Stephens (1/23/10) uses the Freedom Of Information Act to uncover the close and creepy relationship between folksy far-right broadcaster Paul Harvey and longtime FBI director J. Edgar Hoover. The documents Stephens uncovered show Harvey as just the kind of journalist that Hoover liked: sycophantic (“If the Republic has survived, history will record that it was largely due to your vigilance”) and servile (“For a number of years, you have been kind enough to send me your daily copy,” an assistant FBI director noted to Harvey in 1957).
On its side, the Bureau appeared to view Harvey as a cracked though useful tool: Despite “a history of emotional instability,” said one 1952 memo, Harvey had become “very effectively anti-Communist.” The broadcaster “devoted entire shows to Hoover’s heroism,” the article notes.
Perhaps the most interesting part of Stephens’ story is how Harvey and the Bureau got acquainted in the first place, a McCarthy Era “meet-cute” story: Harvey had been interrogated in 1951 (during the Truman administration) after jumping the fence at the Argonne nuclear laboratory in Illinois, hoping to demonstrate lax security at the federal facility, but instead being apprehended within seconds. The telling thing is that Harvey had written the script for his stunt beforehand, indicating that he planned to lie to his audience about what had happened:
I hereby affirm the following is a true and accurate account…. My friend and I were driving a once-familiar road, when the car stalled…. We started to walk…. We made no effort to conceal our presence….
Suddenly I realized where I was. That I had entered, unchallenged, one of the United States’ vital atomic research installations…. Quite by accident, understand, I had found myself inside the “hot” area…. We could have carried a bomb in, or classified documents out.
This combination of mendacity and right-wing politics would serve Harvey well throughout his career. See Extra!: “The Right of the Story: Paul Harvey Peddles Tall Tales—With a Conservative Kick” (9–10/97) by Dan Wilson.
And that’s … the rest of the story.
Thank you for this excellent post. I wrote about being forced to listen to Harvey in the 1980’s, with my bullshit meter going off the scale. I linked to you, also.
Here are some of the Bush administration’s clumsy attempts at passing off propaganda as news.
http://kmareka.com/2010/01/24/paul-harvey-and-j-edgar-hoover/
Were they both able to wear the same size shoes & dresses?
We can not underestimate the impact he had on so many sincere people. With his down to earth Walton’s Mountain style, he changed otherwize good progressive candidates into conservatives in the conservative sense. I know I saw it, I lived it, and was almost drawn in myself. That is the danger of it all. I was so nieve.