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MORTON MINTZ, WHO DIED ON MONDAY at 103, is a name that may not be familiar to many younger readers. He was the great investigative journalist of his era. He was not a Woodward/Bernstein-style investigator. Mort went after the evils of capitalism, when that brand of muckraking was out of fashion.
One of his most important contributions was helping to spare Americans the mutilations of the drug thalidomide. In July 1962, he wrote an extensive profile of Frances Kelsey, the FDA pharmacologist who had withstood industry pressures to allow thalidomide in the United States, despite evidence from Europe that the drug, marketed as a morning sickness medication for pregnant women, had caused thousands of birth defects. His piece catalyzed a movement for stronger drug regulation, culminating in new FDA legislation signed by President Kennedy that October.
When I reported for work at The Washington Post in 1974, as the youngest writer on the national staff, I was put into a four-desk carrel with three great journalists a decade or two my senior. They were Bill Greider, later the Post’s national editor, Jack MacKenzie, who covered the Supreme Court, and Mort Mintz.
On my first day on the job, Mort asked if I could do him a favor. Mort was covering the effort to keep alive a government entity called the Renegotiation Board. During World War II, when there was crash production of supplies for the military, defense contractors profited handsomely from cost-plus contracts. The Renegotiation Board was created to conduct audits after the fact.
If profits turned out to be excessive, the contractor had to repay the government. The Board saved taxpayers tens of billions of dollars. Miraculously, it had survived from the early 1940s into the 1970s.
But now Nixon appointees at the Board and their defense contractor allies were on the verge of shutting it down. Mort had developed some sources on the Board, who kept him apprised of the infighting, and he had a major piece about to run in the next day’s Post. He had gotten hold of a staff list of the Board with phone numbers, and he had devised a plan to protect his sources.
Bob, he said, you and I are going to divide up this list. You call each number, and you say, “Hello, this is Bob Kuttner from The Washington Post. I’m doing a story on the Renegotiation Board. Can I talk with you?” They will of course say no. Try to keep them on the phone for a little while, then call the next one. That way, Mort continued, when my story runs tomorrow and they interrogate the staff to find the treacherous leaker who talked to the Post, there is a record that they all did.
I don’t recall if my jaw literally dropped, but I was gobsmacked by Mort’s ingenuity. I must have made 60 phone calls. I still smile when I imagine the meeting where the whole staff is asked, “Who’s the SOB who talked to the Post?” Working with Mort was like having a world-class personal journalism coach. To this day, one of the things I teach young reporters is the importance of protecting sources.
Mort remained the scourge of some of the most evil industries, including pharmaceuticals, tobacco, and the auto companies. One of his notable scoops, in 1966, was on GM’s campaign to intimidate Ralph Nader. The result was congressional hearings and an apology and financial settlement of $425,000 from GM that funded the first “Nader’s Raiders.” He also helped expose and drive out an early IUD, the Dalkon Shield, which caused infertility.
Mort embodied the spirit of the great muckraking journalists of nearly a century earlier. It is to the disgrace of modern American journalism that most of what passes for investigation today is taking leaks and counter-leaks about political maneuvering rather than probing the deeper politics of capitalism. If journalism were doing its job, Mort Mintz would be remembered as one of many, not as a special hero. |
