A MODERN-DAY MUCKRAKER REVIEW 50 YEARS OF EXPOSES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000201250001-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 19, 2012
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: February 17, 1985
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

STAT
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA
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PHILADELPHIA INQUIRE
17 February 1985
A modern-day"m
David Haward Bain
On the surface, it would seem as if
the present generation of-.investiga-
tive reporters-has something in com-
mon with those of the century's turn
- the muckrakers, of-whomLincoln
_Steffens, Ida :Tarbell, Upton.Siuclair
and. Ray Standard Baker .were the
most famous:
But with the exception of a few -
Seymour Hersh and Howard Kohn
come to mind, though there are oth-
ers - today's reporters give the ap-
pearance-of simply fulfilling-
assign-ments, getting the facts.-The ' effect
imparted by their-lives and =work is
one of calculation rather than cru-
sade: One could hardly say that about
Steffens, who was called the _Colum-_
:'bus-of muckrakers and whose book
The =Shame of the `Cities :exposed
-shocking Tealities of governmental
-corruption. Or of Ida Tarbell,-whose
-research on John D. Rockefeller and
Standard Oil won 'her many?enemies.
Yesterday's_ muckrakers were ;=the
champions of the-downtrodden,.-and
;
.today we have.no better . possessor:of1
their mantle than a New Jersey:iour-
nalist, `Fred J.jCook, who celebrates,
with Maverick, a half-century in the
.reporting business.-_'.' .?-
"Fred- Cook was--not discreet,"'. !
-writes Studs Terkel in his -introduc-
tion. "He was naive enough and stub-
born, enough and skilled enough to
come up with some of the-.most im-
portant stories of our epoch" -:--" - '- -1
Born in the seaside resort town of
Point Pleasant, N.J., in 1911, Cook
attended Rutgers and got his first job
.-as a reporter--on-the Asbury-Park
Evening News.-He covered the ship--.
-wrecks of the Morro Castle and Mo-
hawk and witnessed the burning of
"the ;-dirigible Hindenburg, which'.'
closed the era of the great airships.-:
His persistence in trying to keep an,
Ocean County mob murder case open I
angered local officials who appeared 1
to have been paid off. One of Cook's
older colleagues told him to "play
along and - stop making enemies
when it Ln't necessary," but Cook
learned that independence bad :its
advantages in future years.
What's more, as he watched seem-
ingly clear-cut cases being decided
an favor of the defendants -it was
during Prohibition, and.-there was a
lot of money to be made when au-
thorities looked the ' other way -
? Cook saw-in at rural New'7ersey
1-1-county "the : skeleton- of the system -
exposed" Understanding7bow -the
system worked, -when, the culi report-, -
er matured and graduated to -larger !:issues, he recognized'the similarities
in. how justice -was-distorted
--~-Cook took over the editorship of a
-.small weekly paper, ;the_3dew-Jersey
-Courier,' in 1936, moved'-on-_to the
Asbury Park Press.18 months later,
and went to the New: York World
-Telegram during World War II:It was
'there, in the early '5Os, that be made
a -name for himself covering the Jer-
-sey -rackets beat, by. breaking the
story about mob kingpin Joe Adonis,
whose influence reached--from his
`bomein Bergen County-tocover the
-Whole Mate... --
:Another story exposed . how .some 1
New York labor-officials had organ-
ized employee kickback-schemes-at
the major downstate.race tracks. But
=these and other investigative pieces,!
'-:as zexplosive- as they; were;=often
-turned -soft =during their editing..
Cook perceived that politicians-and
:those with wealth -had inordinate,
influence with the newspaper's con-
;.servative.publisher.. When .the liber-
al weekly magaiine ;The--Nation
asked him to become a contributor,
Cook began what would become a 25-
year relationship
It was "a kind of catharsis for me,"
' be recalls. "When I became 'frustrat-
ed at having a perfectly good story
killed at the paper, 1 found an outlet
by -telling it the way-it should have
been -told in The Nation"-
Of -course, by writing free-lance
pieces for The -Nation and another
magazine, Saga, Fred Cook's days on .
the World-Telegram were numbered.
Having its _ star _reporter's name ap-
pearing in the 'left-leaning Nation
ground on the newspaper's ultracon-
servative management -The break-
ing point came in 1959 when Cook
and his reporting partner told a TV
interviewer that a city official had
offered a bribe if they would stop
investigating his cronies. Hauled be-
fore a grand jury, Cook's intimidated
partner recanted. Both were fired.
Perhaus Fred Cook had the last
exposes
laugh. The World-Telegram no long-
er exists. . And Cook adapted to the
free-lancer's life with-vigor.
" .. ,
-Over the years Cook never desisted
in "stirring things -tip." One:article
helped deflate the falsely heroic Im.
age of a 'key FBI informant, the
:.".counterspy" Boris Morros.-.Others
ire-examined the facts of-two major
espionage cases of the early:'S0s
those of New Dealers William_:Rem-
ington and Alger Hiss. Cook found
ample evidence of persecution.., -
Both defendants had-been-accused
of espionage in that witch-hunting
era by -witnesses with questionable
credentials and characters; both had
been cleared of the charges but later
convicted -of perjury by blatantly .
partial courts. Both, according to
-Cook's trenchant-analyses;-had been
the subject of dirty tricks-and repres-
sion of -witnesses by the :FBI. His
articles, and a 1958 book, The Unfin-
ished Story of Alger. Hiss, remain per-
suasive to this day although the rep
utations of both defendants remain
- under a cloud. The basic -facts, and -
Cook's arguments, are skillfully pre-
sented in the present memoir. -
Such unfashionably -critical views ?
about the FBI could hardly have es-
caped J: Edgar Hoover's attention
nor could Cook's series : of articles
over-the.years-on-FBI-excessex the.!
bureau's incorrect boasts of a 97? per- -
cent conviction record, its virtual
denial that organized crime :even ex-
:? isted, its shabby civil-rights: record,-
its stockpiling of personal data to
keep congressmen -(and.?reporters) '
in-line. By the time 'his 1964 book,
The FBI Nobody Knows, appeared,
Cook's mail was being regularly in-
tercepted and opened, and neighbors
and friends were being visited by.
agents.:: .
Cook's articles on the CIA s maneu-
+. ' vets in Laos, Burma, Iran, Guatema-
la, and the Bay of Pigs and U-2 snv
plane disasters, and on the awesome
Dower of military related industries
over American daily
life,
all as }
eared years
before
these
matters
iltere into
full public awareness.
-And at the same time that Cook ious t-
e3wit behemoth government insti-
tutions, hie oun time to write about
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201250001-4
 Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19 CIA-RDP90-00965R000201250001-4
individuals caught up in Kafka ue
predicaments that destroyed their
lives and landed t em to pnson.-
ln 1974, Cook's wife of 38 years died
needlessly from a prescribed dose of 3
Coumadin, a blood thinner.-Ratber
than sue a -doctor and hospital for
malpractice, the author wrote a mov-
ing book titled Julia's Story: The _
Tragedy of an Unnecessary Death,
which, Cook recalls here, brought in
a pile of letters from people with
similar stories. }
For the last several years. Cook has
focused his ire upon the big oil com-
panies, which he says began a cam-
paign in 1978 to drive gasoline and
heating oil prices through the roof.
His series of Nation articles, his book
The Great Energy Scam (1983) and
his brief summary in Maverick offer
what seems to be proof that .the
"great Iranian oil crisis" that result-
ed in obscene profits for the oil in-
dustry. and a steep decline for -the .~
nation's economy, was simply fraud-
ulent. Even last winter's 20-cent
jump in beating oil, occurring as it
did during a worldwide oil glut, ,is
touched on here. "If the federal gov-
ernment ever acts to curb the greed
of the all-powerful oil combine,"
Cook says, "1 will be the most amazed
man in the world."
Would that we had more champi-
ons for the underdog in the mold of
Fred J. Cook May his witty and forth-
right memoirs bring further confu-
sion to his enemies and more cour-
age to us all.
MAVERICK -
Fifty Years of
Investigative Reporting
Fred J. -Cook -
G.P..Putnam's. 320 pp. $18.95
2,
David Haward Bain's most recent
book is "Sitting in Darkness: Amen }
-cans in the Philippines" (Houghton
Mifflin).
, Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2012/01/19: CIA-RDP90-00965R000201250001-4