how did john seigenthaler from attorney general

by Dr. Ismael Krajcik 5 min read

Was John Seigenthaler involved in the Kennedy assassination?

John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s. For a short time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven. John Seigenthaler moved to the Soviet Union in 1972, and returned to the United States in 1984.

Why did Robert Seigenthaler resign as Attorney General?

John Seigenthaler: -Uh- When the phone rang, uh, two o'clock, I was in a motel, was wakened, it was the Attorney General, told me the Freedom Riders were coming down and - uh - he said they were coming from Nashville. He asked me if I -if I knew them.

What happened to John Seigenthaler?

As special assistant to the Attorney General, Seigenthaler initially served as the intermediary between the federal government, the Freedom Riders, and white segregationist state officials. His task was to convince the Freedom Riders to cease their direct action and accept a "cooling off" period, while ensuring their physical safety from mob violence.

Who is Frank Seigenthaler?

May 28, 2020 · John Seigenthaler was a journalist, and political figure during J. F. Kennedy's presidential term. He was a witness and victim during the attack on the freedom bus in Alabama by white extremists while trying to help young women who are being beaten.

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What did John Seigenthaler do?

John Lawrence Seigenthaler (/ˈsiːɡənθɔːlər/; July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as a prominent defender of First Amendment rights. Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean in 1949, resigning in 1960 to act as Robert F.

What happened to John Seigenthaler in Montgomery?

As the Freedom Riders arrived in Montgomery, Alabama, they were attacked by a mob of Klansmen, and John was knocked unconscious as he attempted to rescue two women being beaten. He had seen the mob, parked his car at the curb just outside the bus station and rolled down the car windows.Dec 29, 2014

Who is John Siegenthaler?

John Michael Seigenthaler (/ˈsiːɡənθɔːlər/; born December 21, 1955) is an American news anchor and a member of the George Foster Peabody Awards board of jurors. He is well known as a former weekend anchor and correspondent for both NBC and MSNBC.

Who is Seigenthaler Freedom Riders?

Seigenthaler, who died in 2014 at age 86, left the newspaper for politics for a few years. He served as special assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy during the 1961 Freedom Rides, during which he was attacked in Alabama.Mar 17, 2018

Who was president of the United States at the time of the Freedom Rides?

Robert KennedyKennedy won election as President of the United States. Robert Kennedy had given a speech expressing the administration's support of civil rights to a Southern white audience a few days after the start of the Freedom Rides on May 6.

Why did Robert Kennedy send to Birmingham?

Robert Kennedy sent his Assistant Attorney General, Burke Marshall, to Birmingham to mediate negotiations between the campaign and white southern business leaders. An agreement came that May to desegregate lunch counters and other places of business.Sep 12, 2021

Did Kennedy support the Freedom Riders?

Attorney General Robert Kennedy sent 400 federal marshals to protect the Freedom Riders and urged the Interstate Commerce Commission to order the desegregation of interstate travel.

Did the Freedom Riders succeed?

The Riders were successful in convincing the Federal Government to enforce federal law for the integration of interstate travel.

What was the deal that the attorney general and the governor of Mississippi have in terms of dealing with the Freedom Riders?

Behind the scenes, the Kennedy administration arranged a deal with the governors of Alabama and Mississippi, where the governors agreed that state police and the National Guard would protect the Riders from mob violence.

What was Seigenthaler's reaction to the Communications Decency Act?

In his November 29, 2005 USA Today editorial, Seigenthaler criticized Congress for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects ISPs and web sites from being held legally responsible for content posted by their customers and users:

Why did Brian Chase post a false biography?

On December 9, Brian Chase admitted that he had posted the false biography because he believed Wikipedia to be "some sort of joke website". After confessing, Chase was fired from Rush Delivery. He presented a letter of apology to Seigenthaler, who successfully interceded with Rush Delivery to reinstate Chase.

What did Jimmy Wales say about Wikipedia?

The incident raised questions about the reliability of Wikipedia and other websites with user-generated content that lack the legal accountability of traditional newspapers and published materials. In a December 13, 2005 interview, co-founder Jimmy Wales expressed his support for Wikipedia policy allowing articles to be edited by unregistered ...

Why was Seigenthaler's biography removed from Wikipedia?

The following day, this biography was removed by a Wikipedia editor due to copyright violation and was replaced with a short original biography.

When did Seigenthaler and Wales appear on CNN?

Congress has enabled them and protects them. On December 5, 2005, Seigenthaler and Wales appeared jointly on CNN to discuss the matter. On December 6, 2005, the two were interviewed on National Public Radio 's Talk of the Nation radio program.

What is the law that protects online companies from libel?

Federal law also protects online corporations – BellSouth, AOL, MCI, Wikipedia, etc. – from libel lawsuits. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996, specifically states that "no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker.".

Who was the author of Wikipedia assassination?

Author of Wikipedia character assassination takes responsibility. On November 29, 2005, Seigenthaler described the incident in an op-ed in USA Today, of which he had been the founding editorial director. In the article, he included a verbatim reposting of the false statements and called Wikipedia a "flawed and irresponsible research tool".

What was Seigenthaler's job?

In theory, Seigenthaler’s task was to work with the Alabama authorities to get the Freedom Riders to safety; in practice, he saw a woman being attacked outside the Montgomery bus station and saw no choice but to intervene.

Why did Ethel Kennedy go to Nashville?

Ethel Kennedy made the trip to Nashville this week to pay her respects to her late husband’s fallen lieutenant. The work of most of his days, however, was not at the Camelot round table but in the Tennessean newsroom, where he presided over a powerful daily at a time when dailies were, well, powerful.

Who said journalism is the first rough draft of history?

And he loved it all. If journalism really is the first rough draft of history—the phrase is Philip Graham’ s—then it requires at least a few practitioners with an epic sensibility and an appreciation of the possibilities of political life.

Was Seigenthaler a Catholic?

Born in Nashville, in 1927, Seigenthaler was raised as a Roman Catholic and approached the world with a peculiar ly Catholic sense of tragedy and of possibility. He knew the world was fallen but believed deeply in redemption, in progress, and in the duty of every soul to try to make the world at least a little better.

Who was the reporter for the Nashville Tennessean?

As a reporter for the Nashville Tennessean in the nineteen-fifties, as an aide and adviser to Robert Kennedy in the Justice Department , and as editor and publisher of the Tennessean from the sixties into the nineties, Seigenthaler was courageous and canny, fearless and tireless.

Was John Seigenthaler a civic fairy tale?

It would be easy to romanticize such a life, to treat the story of John Seigenthaler as a kind of civic fairy tale. Yet long before his death, Seigenthaler bridged the worlds of journalism and of public service in ways that made him an inspiration not in retrospect but in real time.

Who was the reporter for Ebony magazine?

Simeon Booker, a reporter for Ebony magazine, was on the line, calling for the Attorney General. As often happened in those days, Booker got John Seigenthaler, then Robert F. Kennedy’s administrative assistant, who died last week at eighty-six. It was May, 1961, and Booker was with the Freedom Riders, civil-rights activists who were protesting ...

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Overview

Hoax

The author of the hoax article was later identified as Brian Chase, an operations manager of Rush Delivery, a delivery service company in Nashville, Tennessee. On May 26, 2005, Chase created a biographical article about John Seigenthaler that contained, in its entirety, the following text:
John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s. For a short time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations o…

Detection and correction

In September, Victor S. Johnson Jr., a friend of Seigenthaler's, discovered the article. After Johnson alerted him to the article, Seigenthaler emailed his friends and colleagues about it. On September 23, 2005, colleague Eric Newton copied Seigenthaler's official biography from the Freedom Forum website into Wikipedia. The following day, this biography was removed by a Wikipedia editor due to copyright violationand was replaced with a short original biography. New…

Anonymous editor identified

On November 29, 2005, Seigenthaler described the incident in an op-ed in USA Today, of which he had been the founding editorial director. In the article, he included a verbatim reposting of the false statements and called Wikipedia a "flawed and irresponsible research tool".
An expanded version was published several days later in The Tennessean, a daily newspaper in Nashville, Tennessee, where Seigenthaler had served in various capacities from beat reporter to …

Reactions

In his November 29, 2005 USA Today editorial, Seigenthaler criticized Congress for Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects ISPs and web sites from being held legally responsible for content posted by their customers and users:
Federal law also protects online corporations – BellSouth, AOL, MCI, Wikipedia, etc. – from libel lawsuits. Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, passed in 1996, specifically states t…

See also

• Bertrand Meyer § Wikipedia hoax

External links

• Is an Online Encyclopedia, Such as Wikipedia, Immune From Libel Suits? by Prof. Anita Ramasastry on Writ
• John Seigenthaler, "Wikipedia, WikiLeaks, and Wiccans": 49-minute presentation at Vanderbilt University, October 21, 2011, C-Span Video Library
• "Snared in the Web of a Wikipedia Liar" by Katharine Q. Seelye of The New York Times