Thomas Whiteside (April 21, 1918 – October 10, 1997) was an American journalist.[1][2]
Born in Berwick-Upon-Tweed, he lived in Toronto, Canada before moving to the United States in 1940.[3]
Whiteside studied at the University of Chicago. During World War II, he worked for the Office of War Propaganda, compiling reports on Axis propaganda. His work appeared in Newsweek, The New Republic, and The New Yorker.[4]
Whiteside was instrumental in publicizing the damage of Agent Orange.[5] According to Senator Hart, Whiteside's reporting on Agent Orange was the catalyst for the Congressional hearings regarding the chemical.[6] By the end of the hearings, the Surgeon General had announced restrictions on its use, both domestically and in Vietnam.[1][7] He led the charge in other revealing reporting, such as on the change in the tomato plant; his January 16, 1977 article on Tomatoes[8] led to a Washington Post article for the broader public about ethylene gas being used on tomatoes sold to grocery stores to simulate ripening.[9] His report covering the police violence against journalists and anti-war demonstrators alike at the 1968 Democratic Convention in Chicago[10] continues to be relevant to reporters putting themselves in harm's way to tell the public not present at an event what truly happened.[11]
Most of Whiteside's published books are non-fiction works, with an activism focus. He does have one science fiction work, however: Alone Through the Dark Sea.
Published books
The Relaxed Sell: A Humorous Account of Advertising in the U.S.A., Oxford University Press, 1954
The Big Puff, Constable, 1955
The Tunnel Under the Channel, Simon and Schuster, 1962
Computer Capers: Tales of Electronic Thievery, Embezzlement, and Fraud, Ty Crowell Co., 1978, ISBN 978-0690017434, first printing. Second printing, 1979, ISBN 9780451617538. Third printing, ISBN 9780283985188.
The Pendulum and the Toxic Cloud: The Course of Dioxin Contamination, Yale University Press (September 10, 1979), ISBN978-0-300-02283-4[5]
The Blockbuster Complex: Conglomerates, Show Business, and Book Publishing, Wesleyan University Press, 1981, ISBN978-0-8195-5057-6[13]
New Yorker articles
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "The Relaxed Sell", 26 May 1950.[14]
Where Are They Now?: "The Amphibious Pen", 09 February 1951.[15]
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "No Lobster Men from Neptune", 22 February 1952.[16]
The Talk of the Town: "After Ball Points, What?", 04 April 1952.[17]
That Was New York: "Better and Better.", 08 May 1953.[18]
Profiles: "The Communicator. Profile of Sylvester L. Weaver Jr." part one, 08 October 1954.[19]
Profiles: "The Communicator. Profile of Sylvester L. Weaver Jr." part two, 15 October 1954.[20]
Profiles: "Holy Smokestacks, What a Mess", 16 March 1956.[21]
The Talk of the Town: "Adjustment", 17 January 1958.[22]
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "Getting There First With Tranquility.", 25 April 1958.[23]
Profiles: "A Powerful Sense of His Duty", 05 December 1958.[24]
Profiles: "The Time is Twenty-One After.", 28 August 1959.[25]
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "The Selling Season: We'll Think About it, Dave", 17 June 1960.[26]
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "II - The Selling Season: The Massest Medium", 24 June 1960.[27]
The Talk of the Town: "Horwitt's Horologe", 13 January 1961.[28]
The Talk of the Town: "Testing Ringdoves", 07 April 1961.[29]
A Reporter at Large: "The Tunnel in the Chalk" part one, 10 November 1961.[30]
A Reporter at Large: "The Tunnel in the Chalk" part two, 70 November 1961.[31]
Comment: On Times Magazine's article on Robert J. Shriver, Peace Corpsman No. 1-A, 29 December 1961.[32]
Profiles: "The One-Ton Pencil", 09 February 1962.[33]
The Talk of the Town: "Telstar", 27 July 1962.[34]
The Talk of the Town: "In Homage", 21 September 1962.[35]
Annals of Migration: "Something Wrong with the Island.", 01 November 1963.[36]
A Reporter at Large: "A Cloud of Smoke", 22 November 1963.[37]
The Talk of the Town: "Brian Epstein, Beatle Man", 20 December 1963.[38]
The Talk of the Town: "Sister", 06 March 1964.[39]
Comment: On the wording of Kent Cigarettes' advertisement on the back of the Times, 06 March 1964.[40]
Annals of Business: "The Soap Conflict", 11 December 1964.[41]
The Talk of the Town: "Pad 19", 26 March 1965.[42]
The Talk of the Town: regarding a visit to Cape Kennedy to watch Roy Neal's CBS Broadcast of the launch, 26 March 1965. [43]
The Talk of the Town: "Heliport", 24 December 1965.[44]
Annals of Espionage: "An Agent in Place." part one, 18 March 1966.[45]
The Talk of the Town: "Anti-Heliporters", 25 March 1966.[46]
Annals of Espionage: "An Agent in Place." part two, 25 March 1966.[47]
Onward and Upward With the Arts: "Standups", 24 November 1985.[94]
Annals of Business: "C.E.O., T.V.", 28 June 1987.[95]
Annals of the Cold War: "I - The Yellow-Rain Complex", 03 February 1991.[96]
Annals of the Cold War: "II - The Yellow-Rain Complex", 10 February 1991.[97]
Columbia Journalism Review
"Corridor of Mirrors: the television editorial process, Chicago", Winter 1968-1969. Reprinted December 20, 2021.[10][98]
Unpublished papers
Columbia University Libraries has a collection of papers once belonging to Whiteside. The bulk of it is professional in nature: research, photographs, and notes for his articles and books. There are, however, personal papers, dating from 1940 through 1995 as well.[3]
