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RIP Joe McGinniss

The well-known journalist, true-crime author, and provocateur Joe McGinniss died Monday, March 9th at the age of 71.


Here's an obit with the basics, from the grey lady.


McGinniss first found a spot in the public spotlight with The Selling of the President, his account of Richard Nixon's 1968 campaign. As the title suggested, the book played against the series of Theodore White campaign chronicles.


As my contribution to the marking of McGinniss' death I'll share one detail from the book that I personally find amusing. McGinniss is telling the story of Nixon's men trying to round up a six-person panel of 'ordinary people' to ask Nixon questions on a television show, a political infomercial if you will.


McGinniss himself made a suggestion, "I suggested a psychiatrist I knew: the head of a group that brought Vietnamese children wounded in the war to the United States for treatment and artificial limbs."


Roger Ailes (the executive producer of the campaign's television programs) called this psychiatrist, Herb Needleman by name, and Needleman agreed to participate in the program.


So Ailes called his boss, Len Garment, to tell him the panel was complete and describe each of its members. Ailes then hung up and turned to McGinniss and said, "You're not going to believe this but Nixon hates psychiatrists."


"What?"


"Nixon hates psychiatrists. He's got this thing, apparently. They make him very nervous."


Well, maybe I've been too harsh in my thoughts on the psychiatric profession all these years....
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