James Deakin, 77; critical reporter made Nixon’s ‘enemies list’
James Deakin, 77, a longtime White House correspondent whose critical reporting put him on President Nixon’s “enemies list” and earned angry rebukes from President Lyndon B. Johnson, died Sunday of liver cancer in a nursing home near his home in Barrington, R.I., said his son, David Deakin.
Deakin covered the White House from 1958 to 1980 for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He wrote several books, including a critical report about lobbying and Johnson, titled: “Lyndon Johnson’s Credibility Gap.”
One of Deakin’s best known books was “Straight Stuff: the Reporters, the White House and the Truth.” In it, he argued that the news media were a permanent, resident critic of government, not an adversarial enemy dedicated to its destruction.
Born in St. Louis in 1929, Deakin earned his bachelor’s degree from Washington University in that city. After retiring from the Post-Dispatch, he taught journalism at George Washington University in Washington, D.C., from 1981 to 1987.
Start your day right
Sign up for Essential California for news, features and recommendations from the L.A. Times and beyond in your inbox six days a week.
You may occasionally receive promotional content from the Los Angeles Times.
