Columnist Art Buchwald's 'Sick' Humor Didn't Amuse the FBI
For nearly two decades, the FBI tracked Pulitzer Prize-winning newspaper columnist Art Buchwald, compiling a 239-page dossier on his activities.
Its conclusion: Although Buchwald’s humor wasn’t amusing to the FBI’s longtime director, J. Edgar Hoover, who apparently requested the investigation, Buchwald hadn’t committed any crimes, according to CBS News. The network obtained Buchwald’s FBI file under a Freedom of Information Act request after he died in 2007.
“Buchwald’s columns—including one in which he suggested Hoover didn’t exist and was a phantom named after the vacuum cleaner company—apparently rankled the FBI boss,” CBS writes, noting that Hoover frequently referred to the columnist as a “sick comic.”
Hat tip: Changing Channels (Miami Herald).
