Earl Butz, so long…

Earl Butz, the former Secretary of Agriculture in the Ford administration, who resigned over racist comments he made aboard a plane trip after the Republican convention, died on Saturday at 98. He also was convicted and did jail time for misstating his speaking income in 1978.

Butz’s remarks were reported by John Dean in Rolling Stone, but Dean did not name Butz. It fell to Tony Schwartz, then at New Times, to call up every person he could on that flight, until he identified Butz as the source of the comments. Schwartz had gone to my high school (his younger brother was in my class) and as I was starting in journalism he was always kind to talk or see me. I may have even visited him at New Times (can’t remember anymore).

In the follow-up to this brouhaha, Schwartz took a job as a columnist at Dorothy Schiff’s New York Post. Schwartz’s first column was a personal about how strange it was to be a (gossip) columnist. The following week the Post was purchased by Rupert Murdoch. As is Mr. Murdoch’s way he promised not to change the Post –except he said, that any columnist working for him is not going to apologize for being a columnist. Schwartz left shortly thereafter.

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