Nosey By Nature

Here's an article that originally appeared in the January 22nd issue of right-wing mentalist magazine The Weekly Standard. In it, contributor Richard Carlson describes how he worked part-time for private detective Harold (Hal) Lipset in San Francisco during the 1960s as a sideline to his full-time job as a reporter in an "investigative team" for the ABC-owned KGO-TV station. Choice quotes:

On some of the cases with Hal, I could only guess about the end game. None of your business, Hal would sometimes say if I asked. I once was assigned by Hal to tail a fellow when he left the Palace Hotel downtown in the morning, follow him, and photograph him. I never found out what it was for.

I shook his hand again, always important. I was learning that most people will help you if you just ask them. Beyond that, many folks are natural-born snitches, willing to tell on someone else to a stranger.

Carlson became a U.S. ambassador and director of the Voice of America. He is now vice chairman of the Foundation for the Defense of Democracies in Washington, D.C.