Post by Dan Diamond / Redsky

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Got this book after former Sen. Alan Simpson died last month + just started reading. He spends several pages extolling segregationist colleague Strom Thurmond + blasting a 1992 Post story about Thurmond’s alleged biracial daughter as “crap,” “sludge,” fake news. Just one problem: it was true.

A LIFETIME OF SCRAPPING WITH THE PRESS RIGHT IN THE OLD GAZOO ALAN K. SIMPSON

는 تمح. And You Can Quote Me 155 Allow me to offer a few facts about Strom Thurmond. He devoted almost his whole long life to public service, at great personal sacrifice. He served with extraordinary distinction in the United States Senate beginning in 1954 and continuing to the day I write this in the mid-1990s. He had top seniority on the Armed Services, Judiciary, and Veterans' Affairs committees and served as president pro tem of the Senate from 1981 through 1986. He practiced law and served his community in South Carolina as city attorney, county attorney, and state senator. During World War II, Strom Thurmond was in the Army glider landing in Normandy with the 82nd Airborne Division on D-Day, June 6, 1944. He was decorated for his valor and courage, receiving some of the highest military honors this country can confer. At the time this Post article was printed, Strom Thurmond was the proud father of four children. A senseless tragedy would take away the life of his beloved oldest daughter many months later. Nancy Moore Thurmond was killed by a drunken driver while in the prime of her life, and a fine and dear man grieved. Yes, in the 1940s—fifty years past-Strom and most other Southern politicians embraced segregation. He had long since altered his views on the subject, proving it every day in his deeds and in his Senate votes. Still, his supposed fathering of a black woman's child was too good a story for the Washington Post to resist. There was just one basic and fundamental problem, a problem the Post never acknowledged. The story was not true. The day the story ran in the Post, several senators visited with Strom and shared our loathing of it all. Strom, his head held high, ust raised both hands and said,

EQ The Washington fost Thurmond Paternity Claim Valid, Family Says L.A. Schoolteacher Is Acknowledged as Late Senator's Child December 15, 2003 | 今贝 By Marilyn W. Thompson After decades of denials, the family of the late Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-S.C.) acknowledged yesterday a claim made by a 78-year-old Los Angeles schoolteacher that she is the senator's mixed-race daughter, a charge that had dogged her throughout her otherwise quiet life and shadowed Thurmond during his public career as a leading voice of racial segregation.

apr 27, 2025, 2:20 am • 85 13

Replies

"I am living proof that youth possess a unique capacity to grow and change - that the child who seems hopeless today could go on to change the world."

apr 27, 2025, 1:08 pm • 0 0 • view

He only died just last month??

apr 27, 2025, 2:25 am • 2 0 • view

Bin it.

apr 27, 2025, 11:35 am • 0 0 • view

And even then we all knew what a POS Thurmond was. That the old racist was welcomed in polite society speaks volumes. Biden called him one of his closest friends.

apr 27, 2025, 3:38 am • 2 0 • view

You need to do a better job of deciding what to read. I knew senator Simpson- not worth the time

apr 27, 2025, 3:50 am • 4 0 • view

Part of this job is trying to read (and listen) to everything! Consuming ≠ endorsing

apr 27, 2025, 4:16 am • 2 0 • view

Oh- I was mostly kidding. And appreciate your desire to read up on this history. He and Kennedy were close .

apr 27, 2025, 4:23 am • 3 0 • view

Simpson was a good guy, but he could be pretty obtuse with respect to folks who were on “our side” as opposed to “their side.”

apr 27, 2025, 2:26 am • 1 0 • view

Agree with this though.

The issue is not going to go away. Anyone who seeks to gain the public trust—and journalists say they do—are duty-bound to honor that trust. The reading, listening, and viewing public damn certainly has a right to know if a journalist covering the savings and loan debacle ever received money to speak to a member savings and loan association. Should anyone who is fortunate enough to pick up $20,000 or $25,000 for speaking to a gathered industry group be obligated never to write about the industry again, and be further obligated to disclose the fee? The Big Question.

apr 27, 2025, 2:56 am • 11 2 • view

Ah, Allan Simpson, the sensible voice for fiscal moderation

apr 27, 2025, 2:22 am • 14 0 • view