FBI watched Studs Terkel for decades, file shows

[November 17, 2009]  CHICAGO (AP) -- An FBI file released to a New York media outlet shows the agency kept watch on the late Chicago author Studs Terkel for decades.

It also shows that Terkel once applied for a job with the FBI but was turned down.

The file was obtained by the NYCity News Service under the Freedom of Information Act and posted on its Web site over the weekend. The news service says the FBI refused to release the entire file.

Terkel was an avowed liberal who supported the civil rights movement and opposed the Vietnam War. He also was blacklisted during the McCarthy era, when studios refused to hire actors, writers, directors and others suspected of having pro-communist sentiments.

Terkel died last year at age 96.

[Associated Press]

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