Ever since Franklin Roosevelt was President, the inside dope of Washington Columnist Drew Pearson has often been flatly contradicted by the White House—and by the facts. Once President Truman publicly called him an "s.o.b."* Last week Columnist Pearson, who has less respect for facts than Walter Winchell, set a record even for him; he provoked a bristling White House denial a day before his column saw print. Burden of the column: "It will be vigorously denied," but President Eisenhower "apparently suffered a mild relapse" on his way to the Minneapolis airport during his mid-October Western campaign trip.
Pearson's column went out as usual to his 650 papers three days before publication date, which was the very day of Ike's long-promised "head-to-toe" physical examination at Walter Reed Hospital. Soon Presidential Press Secretary James C. Hagerty's phone began jangling with queries from editors. One of them supplied him with the full Pearson text. When he saw it, Hagerty called a press conference and spent 45 angry minutes taking apart "the most amazing document of falsehood that I have ever''seen." To any of some 80 newsmen who covered the President's trip, the column seemed a distorted mess that the simplest checking would have proved false. Apart from "absolutely and categorically" denying that Ike had suffered "the slightest relapse of any kind," Hagerty ticked off ten errors, obvious to all, in the sketchy framework on which Pearson rested his report. Samples:
¶ Pearson: "Ike was hustled into his plane, the Columbine, without bidding goodbye to local dignitaries." The facts: Ike bade goodbye to state and local Republican leaders and 20 motorcycle police, shook hands with about 30 persons.
¶ Pearson: "At the next stop, Seattle, Ike . . . closeted himself in his suite for 24 hours, seeing no one but his family and physician." The facts: far from being closeted, the President visited with local candidates and leaders, addressed 125 members of the party's state finance committee at the hotel—and shook hands with all of them.
Pearson would not back down. Said he: "My story was carefully checked, and I believe it to be true." While running a story on Hagerty's press conference, many of Pearson's regular outlets pointedly omitted his offending column. Typical explanation (by New York's Daily Mirror): "The facts did not substantiate" what Pearson wrote. The Portland Oregon Journal felt "impelled" to explain that Pearson's report was "utterly false" and "an unconscionable smear."
* This week the Satevepost begins a four-part autobiographical series entitled "Confessions of an S.O.B." Author: Drew Pearson, who wrote hopefuly: "While I may be an s.o.b., I hope I am not a heel."