I believe I spoke with Eric Boehlert, the conscience and gadfly of American journalism who died last week in a tragic bicycle accident, only once, in 1996. As a young media critic for Salon magazine, Boehlert phoned to interview me about my book “Fools for Scandal: How the Media Invented Whitewater.”
Two things stood out about our conversation: Eric’s diligence — he’d actually read and thought about the book, a rarity — and his personal warmth. He’d done me the great favor of independently fact-checking a few of the book’s more counterintuitive passages — such as one about a savings and loan “investigator” collapsing during a Senate hearing after being confronted with proof she’d manufactured evidence.
