VAB: Malek’s Jews
I’m done reporting on the Fred Malek/Washington Nationals/Peter Henle & Harold Goldstein story that I started on July 1st, and my item in the Forward is up. The story revolves around Malek’s hope to buy the Washington Nationals and Malek’s scarred record as the man charged by Nixon to list the Jews in the Bureau of Labor Statistics, two of whom — Henle and Goldstein — were subsequently reassigned.
Some Value-Added Blogging:
First, the major things we’ve added to the record:
1) Goldstein and Henle both feel — similarly to their colleagues and friends — that they were reassigned because of their standing-up to then-President Richard Nixon’s meddling with statistics, not because of Malek’s list of Jews. The entire problem with Goldstein started when he disagreed with Nixon’s assessment of a .2% drop in unemployment.
2) Henle’s role in the affair, which appears to have gone previously unreported. Where reporting at the time simply noted that Henle often disagreed with Nixon, it appears that no one else then or since reported Henle’s sending a memo defending Goldstein. All those knowledgeable of the incident whom I interviewed recalled the sending of the memo as a key element leading toward his reassignment.
3) The Anti-Defamation League supported Malek when the Jew-counting was first reported, in 1988, as well as in the current go-round.
4) As part of Nixon’s retaliation for Goldstein’s actions, he cancelled the BLS’ monthly press conferences. Democratic Senator William Proxmire of Wisconsin (took a while to get that correct spelling) launched Joint Economic Committee hearings to replace the press conferences.
A correction to the Forward story:
The following sentence should read with the bold words added:
The assignment came after Goldstein, in a March 1971 press conference, disagreed with Nixon’s optimistic position, saying that a drop in the unemployment rate from 6.2% to 6% was only “marginally significant.”
Finally, some links to additional previous posts with more information:
- Interview with Janet Norwood, Former Commissioner of the BLS.
- Peter Henle
- Harold Goldstein
Also, check out the Forward story for comment from Slate’s Timothy Noah, who says he’s still pissed at Malek, even if Henle and Goldstein aren’t.
July 21st, 2005 at 4:58 pm
With the upcoming Supreme Court confirmation in the news you might want to do a piece on Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas who almost (?) became the first Jewish Chief Justice.
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The story below is interesting. The “missing” FBI file referred to is available at this library:
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Did the FBI Try to Blackmail Supreme Court Justice Abe Fortas
By Marc Stein
A controversial FBI file that reportedly contains allegations of homosexual conduct by Abe Fortas, an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in the 1960s, is missing, according to the FBI. Never proven, the allegations may have been made as a way for the FBI to threaten Fortas with exposure, encourage his resignation, or prevent his appointment as Chief Justice.
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