In this photo taken Aug. 1, 1972, Sen. Thomas Eagleton, center rear, has his head down as he listens to presidential hopeful Sen. George McGovern's announcement that Eagleton is stepping aside as vice-presidential running mate, at a Washington news conference. A family spokesman says, McGovern, the Democrat who lost to President Richard Nixon in 1972 in a historic landslide, has died at the age of 90. According to the spokesman, McGovern died Sunday, Oct. 21, 2012 at a hospice in Sioux Falls, surrounded by family and friends. (AP Photo, File)
Author Reading: Mark Feldstein Last month the L.A. Times discovered, through a FOIA request, that J. Edgar Hoover had at one point placed LAT reporter Jack Anderson on a black list. He was to be surveilled, but never acknowledged; snooped on, but never to have his queries answered. Hoover's correspondence revealed that he believed Anderson had been sent to Washington to bring him down. According to Mark Feldstein's "Poisoning the Press," Richard Nixon felt much the same way about Anderson. Later, so would Thomas Eagleton, George McGovern's running mate and the subject of a Jack Anderson hit piece that ended up being egregiously wrong. (Anderson accused Eagleton of profligate drunk driving, and later had to retract his claims.) According to Feldstein, Anderson's legacy is the ever more contentious relationship between media and politicians. Though depending on if its your man in the White House, that relationship sometimes appears a little too cozy. Dec. 28 at the National Portrait Gallery, Eighth and F streets Northwest. Phone: 202/633-1000. Web: http://npg.si.edu/exhibit/reagan
