Lucianne Goldberg

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Lucianne Goldberg : biography

April 29, 1935 –

Goldberg was subpoenaed to testify before a Maryland grand jury that was contemplating indicting Tripp for having made the recordings. Under Maryland law, knowledge that such recordings were illegal was a necessary element of the crime. Goldberg explained that she had given Tripp incorrect advice, telling her it was legal to make secret recordings. Charges against Tripp were later dropped.

Liberal filmmaker Michael Moore later set up a webcam focused on the windows of Goldberg’s Manhattan apartment, that he called "I See Lucy Cam". Moore’s project did not violate New York State’s laws. Claiming that Goldberg did not respect the privacy rights of other people, Moore wrote, "`[s]he believes in keeping an eye on persons who are a threat to the country. So do we.’"

Later career

Goldberg was a prominent presence on the conservative website, Free Republic in the late 1990s, posting under the name "Trixie". She and other conservatives, including Matt Drudge, left the site when the webmaster, in Goldberg’s words, "let all the Y2K, gun-nut, Jew-baiting crazies take over [the forum] and flame the plain-old conservatives. She then founded her own website, Lucianne.com, and for a time, was a nationally syndicated talk radio host whose show featured a Washington correspondent.

Early life and education

She was born Lucianne Steinberger in Boston, Massachusetts, to Dr. Raymond Leonard and Lucy Jane (Moseley) von Steinberger. She grew up in Alexandria, Virginia, outside of Washington, D.C., where her father was employed as a government physicist, and her mother was a physiotherapist. She attended high school in Alexandria, leaving at age 16 to begin working. She married her high school sweetheart, William Cummings; the couple separated after three years of marriage and later divorced.

Career

Aide for Democrats

She worked as a general clerk in the promotion department of the Washington Post from 1957 to mid-1960, quitting to take a job as a press aide in Lyndon Johnson’s unsuccessful 1960 campaign for president. After John F. Kennedy won the Democratic nomination, she got a position at the Democratic National Committee followed by a spot on Kennedy’s Inaugural Committee. She has said she served on Kennedy’s White House staff, but according to the Washington Post, her name does not appear on any staff records. In response, she explained that she worked in the Old Executive Office Building doing opposition research, then worked out of the National Press Club building in public relations.

Public relations firm

In 1963, she opened up her own, one person public relations firm, Lucianne Cummings & Associates. She received national media attention in 1965 when she attempted to sell a handwritten note from Jackie Kennedy to Lady Bird Johnson through an auction house for $1000 ($ in today’s dollars). She had come into possession of the note when acting as a messenger for Kennedy in 1960. Upon hearing of the auction, the First Lady became irate, and demanded that the note be returned to the White House. Cummings apologized and returned the note, then found out the next day that her income tax returns were going to be audited by the Internal Revenue Service.

In 1966, she married Sidney Goldberg, who was then the executive editor of the North American Newspaper Alliance (NANA), a subsidiary of United Features Syndicate. She took the name Goldberg upon her marriage and worked for the Women’s News Service, also a subsidiary of United Features Syndicate.

Conservative activism and Watergate era

In 1970, Goldberg and her friend Jeannie Sakol founded an organization called the "Pussycat League" to oppose the women’s liberation movement, and in 1971 she and Sakol published Purr Baby Purr, a critique of feminism.

During the 1972 presidential campaign, she joined the press corps covering Democratic candidate George McGovern claiming to be a reporter for the Women’s News Service, though she was on leave of absence from that position. In actuality, Goldberg was being paid $1000 a week – $ in today’s dollars – to spy on McGovern and those traveling with him on the campaign’s planes. When recruited, she was told U.S. President Nixon himself had approved the spying, which was to include traditional political intelligence and information on personal habits: "’They were looking for really dirty stuff,’ [she] said. ‘Who was sleeping with whom, what the secret service men were doing with the stewardesses, who was smoking pot on the plane – that sort of thing. I was told to send it all along.’" Goldberg’s role as a reporter-spy came to light in the Watergate hearings that led to the resignation of Nixon.