Fifty years ago, a senior editor at the Los Angeles Times came into possession of a dangerous piece of gossip, leaked to the paper by the FBI. The Times printed it without fact-checking it, and the life of a famous young actress was destroyed.
In the spring of 1970, the FBI was at the height of its war against radical movements in the United States. The bureau’s unscrupulous director, J. Edgar Hoover, had for years been working to undermine the antiwar movement, civil rights leaders and black militant organizations. Among the latter was the Black Panther Party, a group of self-styled revolutionaries challenging police brutality and white authority through “armed self-defense.
The information was malicious, manipulative and most likely untrue. Certainly the FBI didn’t know if it was accurate and neither did the Times. Seberg and her family always denied it.But in an era when a relationship between a married white woman and a radical African American lover would have been frowned upon in many circles, the assertion was devastatingly effective. The result, as Jon Wiener and Mike Davis put it in their new book, “Set the Night on Fire,” about L.A.
Of all the agency’s Nixon-era excesses, those undertaken as part of Hoover’s counterintelligence program, known as COINTELPRO, seem particularly villainous. In the Seberg case and many others, COINTELPRO operatives went beyond gathering intelligence or arresting lawbreakers to actively spreading false and derogatory information to discredit, divide and disrupt politically disfavored groups.
opinion She chose her life path and paid the price.
opinion Could’ve mentioned in a column about a film star that there’s a feature film called Seberg about exactly this.
opinion Thank you for publishing this. So relevant today as the government morphs into even more of a fascist police state. Also I love Jean Seberg:’(
opinion “Fifty years ago, a senior editor at the Los Angeles Times came into possession of a dangerous piece of gossip, leaked to the paper by the FBI. The Times printed it without fact-checking it, and the life of a famous young actress was destroyed.”
opinion This is relevant to todays issues. It focuses light on the abuse of power.
opinion Did anybody else feel this was a nice little attempt to 'self report' this terrible decision that the Times made - & how many people remember? More like look at us self tattle, so everything we say now MUST be true, and we can push our slanted agenda forward? usetobereputiable
opinion This story should be turned into a movie, perhaps with Scarlett Johansson playing the role of Jean Seberg, as the likeness is rather uncanny
opinion Proof that we Americans shouldn’t believe everything we hear.Hold MSM accountable. When they use “White House Staffer”, “Inside Source”, etc....these are ways that keep us from confirming reports. Maybe it’s true, but we need to require more from media before making a judgement
opinion
opinion too bad for karen
opinion And it worked so well they've been doing it ever since
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