John Seigenthaler

John Lawrence Seigenthaler (; July 27, 1927 – July 11, 2014) was an American journalist, writer, and political figure. He was known as an avid supporter of First Amendment rights.

Career
Seigenthaler joined the Nashville newspaper The Tennessean in 1949. He resigned in 1960 to be Robert F. Kennedy's administrative assistant. He rejoined The Tennessean as editor in 1962. He became publisher in 1973. He became chairman in 1982. He retired as chairman emeritus in 1991.  Seigenthaler was also founding editorial director of USA Today from 1982 to 1991.

Wikipedia incident

On May 26, 2005, an unregistered Wikipedia user created a five-sentence biographical article about Seigenthaler that contained false and defamatory content. The false statement in Seigenthaler's Wikipedia article read:

John Seigenthaler Sr. was the assistant to Attorney General Robert Kennedy in the early 1960s. For a brief time, he was thought to have been directly involved in the Kennedy assassinations of both John, and his brother, Bobby. Nothing was ever proven.

When he found out about this, Seigenthaler directly talked to Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who removed the false claims. As Seigenthaler later wrote: "For four months, Wikipedia depicted me as a suspected assassin before Wales erased it from his website's history" on October 5.

Honors
In April 2014, the Shelby Street Bridge was renamed the John Seigenthaler Pedestrian Bridge in his honor. While reporting for The Tennessean in the 1950s, Seigenthaler once prevented a suicidal man from jumping off the bridge.

Death
Seigenthaler died of complications from colon cancer on July 11, 2014, at the age of 86. He was surrounded by his family in his home.

References

Other websites
John Seigenthaler Chair of Excellence in First Amendment Studies 
A Word on Words  official website
Civil Rights & the Press 
Booknotes interview with Siegenthaler on James K. Polk, January 18, 2004. 
 Oral History Interview with John Seigenthaler Sr.  at Oral Histories of the American South

Category:1927 births
Category:2014 deaths
Category:American activists
Category:Journalists from Tennessee
Category:Cancer deaths in Tennessee 
Category:Deaths from colorectal cancer
Category:Writers from Nashville, Tennessee