Education
He returned to Lehigh, this time majoring in English and journalism, became the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and graduated magna cum laude in 1950.
He returned to Lehigh, this time majoring in English and journalism, became the editor-in-chief of the student newspaper and graduated magna cum laude in 1950.
Background Whitten started his education at Lehigh University, majoring in civil engineering. However, after three semesters he left school, did a stint in the United States. Army and moved to Paris to become a poet. Journalism Whitten then moved to Mexico and again to Paris, continuing to try to be a writer, before shifting back to journalism in order to support his new family.
Whitten began his reporting career working for Radio Free Europe from 1951 to 1957.
He was an investigative reporter at the Washington Post beginning in 1969, and shared the "Washington Merry-Go-Round" column with Jack Anderson there. In 1972 he was arrested with Hank Adams for removing boxes of documents from the Bureau of Indian Affairs after the Trail of Broken Treaties protest led to the occupation of the BIA offices, but the case was quickly dismissed.
