[4] Seigenthaler began his career in journalism as a police beat reporter in The Tennessean city room[5] after his uncle encouraged an editor about his talent.

[4] Seigenthaler gradually established himself on the staff among the heavy competition that included future standout journalists David Halberstam and Tom Wicker.

[5] Less than a year later, on October 5, 1954, Seigenthaler again made national news for saving a suicidal man from jumping off the Shelby Street Bridge in Nashville.

[8] In July 1957, Seigenthaler began a battle to eliminate corruption within the local branch of the Teamsters, noting the criminal backgrounds of key employees, along with the use of intimidation in keeping news of certain union activities quiet.

[5] Frustrated by the leadership of Tennessean publisher Silliman Evans Jr., Seigenthaler resigned in 1960 to serve as an administrative assistant to incoming attorney general Robert F. Kennedy.

On April 21, 1961, Seigenthaler was the only other Justice Department figure to witness a meeting between Kennedy and Martin Luther King Jr.[citation needed] During the Freedom Rides of 1961, Seigenthaler was sent in his capacity as assistant to Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights John Doar[10] to be chief negotiator for the government, in its attempts to work with Alabama Governor John Malcolm Patterson.

After several days of refusing to return calls, Patterson finally agreed to protect the Riders, but their state trooper escort disappeared as soon as they arrived in Montgomery on May 20, 1961, leaving them unprotected before the waiting white mob.

One example of the paper's resurgence came following a Democratic primary in August 1962, when The Tennessean found documented evidence of voter fraud based on absentee ballots in the city's second ward.

[9] Seigenthaler's friendship with Kennedy became one of the focal points of Jimmy Hoffa's bid to shift his jury tampering trial from Nashville.

The following year, Seigenthaler led a fight for access to the Tennessee state senate chamber in Nashville after a resolution was passed revoking the floor privileges of Tennessean reporter Bill Kovach.

Seigenthaler had read an early version of the book, leading to Jacqueline Kennedy threatening a lawsuit over inaccurate and private statements.

[20] Remaining focused on the cause of civil rights, Seigenthaler then supported Tennessee Bishop Joseph Aloysius Durick in 1969 during the latter's contentious fight to end segregation, a stance that outraged many in the community who still believed in the concept.

On May 5, 1976, Seigenthaler dismissed Jacque Srouji, a copy editor at The Tennessean, after finding that she had served as an informant for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) for much of the previous decade.

The controversy came to light after Srouji testified before the Energy and Environment Subcommittee of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, which was investigating nuclear safety.

FBI Deputy Assistant Director Homer Boynton told an editor of The New York Times to "look into Seigenthaler", whom he called "not entirely pure."

The attorney general issued an apology, the allegations were removed from Seigenthaler's file, and he received the 1976 Sidney Hillman Prize for "courage in publishing".

[33] The publication of author Peter Maas' 1983 book, Marie: A True Story, again put Seigenthaler under scrutiny over the investigation of a pardon scandal involving former Tennessee governor Ray Blanton.

Marie Ragghianti was the head of the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles before being fired after refusing to release prisoners who had bribed Blanton's aides.

However, editors and reporters had believed that Ragghianti's alleged broken affair with Blanton's chief counsel, T. Edward Sisk, motivated her claims.

[citation needed] On May 26, 2005, an unregistered Wikipedia user created a five-sentence biographical article about Seigenthaler that contained false and defamatory content.

Nothing was ever proven.When alerted of the article's existence, Seigenthaler directly contacted Wikipedia co-founder Jimmy Wales, who removed the false claims.

According to a scholar specializing in biographies, including digital life narratives, "The Seigenthaler case became a formative moment in Wikipedia's history, and led to the development of policies to protect individuals from defamation.