During the years covered in these papers, Robert Fleming served as a political reporter for the Milwaukee Journal and as Washington Bureau Chief for the American Broadcasting Company. His main interests were politics and freedom of the press. These interests prompted him to spearhead investigations of the career of Senator Joseph R. McCarthy during the early 1950s, and to maintain membership in the Freedom of Information Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters during the sixties. By 1958, he had moved to Washington, D.C., where he substituted for Edward P. Morgan in his news program on ABC. As Washington Bureau Chief for ABC during the early 1960s, he participated actively in all the activities of the National Association of Broadcasters. By 1966, he had become Deputy Press Secretary at the White House.
In his beginning years as a reporter he took a leave of absence to study the problem of freedom of information as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University from November, 1949 to July, 1950. He later returned to Wisconsin and his position at the Journal, where he spent the major portion of his time in probes of Senator McCarthy. McCarthy had criticized the Journal for being the Wisconsin version of The Daily Worker, and the Journal responded with a series of articles by Fleming publicizing the results of his investigations. He began by comparing McCarthy's past income with his income tax statements, attempting to prove that the senator had filed fraudulent returns. Other subjects Fleming examined were McCarthy's war record, his sources of financial support, his charges of communism against specific individuals, and his Senate conduct in general. In addition to the Journal, other national papers as well published Fleming's articles. Both the investigations and the articles ended with McCarthy's sudden death in 1957.
