Word: heralds
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Most of the debate focused on the Miami Herald, which had set Hart's downfall in motion by conducting a 24-hour weekend stakeout of his Washington town house and finding him in the company of an attractive young woman. In his first public response to the Herald's charges -- delivered, appropriately enough, before a convention of newspaper publishers meeting in New York City -- Hart blasted the paper's surveillance and said it raised "searching questions" about journalistic responsibility. Much of the public seemed to agree. The Miami Herald's own opinion survey showed that 63% of its readers felt...
Journalists themselves were divided over the Herald's decision to stake out Hart's home on an anonymous tip. "The notion was to put a citizen under surveillance," says Bill Kovach, editor of the Atlanta Journal and Constitution. "To me that is a technique for police, not journalists." A.M. Rosenthal, former executive editor of the New York Times, criticized the Herald's tactics in his op-ed column: "I would not have given such an assignment or allowed one to be made." Yet a Times editorial called the Herald's pursuit of the story "eminently justified," and many others agreed...
Even so, the Herald's decision to conduct a stakeout of Gary Hart's home marked something of a watershed for political journalism. The investigation began with two anonymous telephone calls to Political Editor Tom Fiedler from a woman who claimed that a friend of hers was having an affair with Hart. She cited several long-distance phone calls between Hart and the woman (whom she described but refused to identify), recounted a yacht trip they had taken together, and said the couple planned to rendezvous at Hart's Washington town house that Friday. Fiedler was skeptical. But when several...
...town house and stationed himself across the street. He saw Hart emerge from the front door at 9:30 p.m. with a blond woman whom he had noticed aboard the flight from Miami. His suspicions aroused, McGee kept watch and saw the pair return at 11:17. Three other Herald staffers (Fiedler, Investigative Editor James Savage and a photographer) joined the watch late Saturday morning. They did not see Hart and the woman emerge again until shortly after dark Saturday evening. At that point Hart apparently noticed the surveillance team, and he and his companion re-entered the town house...
...newsmen a lengthier interview and an opportunity to talk to the women if the reporters would delay their story. They refused, fearing that the extra time would give the Hart camp a chance to construct a cover story and possibly hold a press conference to try to discredit the Herald's article in advance...