Tales from the Attic: How I almost went to work for the National Enquirer

Sam Smith- It was the 1960s, I was in my 20s and a member of what was known as the underground press. You just did things differently back then. For example, I turned down job offers from both the Washington Post and James Reston of the NY Times. I gave Reston the name of my friend and ex-roommate, Jim Sterba, then with the Washington Star. Sterba went on to cover Vietnam for the New York Times and become foreign editor at the Wall Street Journal. Neither fate would have pleased me much. Besides, both the Times and the Post would probably have fired me shortly over something I said or wrote. 

It was a time for trying different things. I even seriously considered working for the National Enquirer. A friend at Congressional Quarterly called with news that a mutual acquaintance -- a deputy editor at the tabloid -- was looking for a Washington column. The Enquirer was willing to pay $800 a week -- an enormous sum at the time albeit some of it was intended for loosening lips.

My friend's scheme was brilliant. Four of us would write under a single pseudonym. For five hours, we sat in the dark, dignified dining hall of the Mayflower Hotel discussing the project with the tabloid's chief editor, a small, dapper Englishman who moved from national politics to the importance of dog stories in perfect segue. We returned to broach the subject with their publisher, Nelson Pointer. Pointer pointedly responded that they could either work for Congressional Quarterly or for the Enquirer but not for both. The scheme disintegrated. I did get paid $100 for a one paragraph item the Enquirer published, but afterwards I felt a little tawdry and never submitted anything else.

After that, the establishment press pretty much left me alone, except that quite a few years later Jack Limpert, editor of the Washingtonian magazine, came up to me at a party and said, "Sam, if we were to name you a Washingtonian of the year, would you say anything outrageous?" I sort of smiled and he excused himself and I never heard from him again.