FREE RESEARCH about FREE MONEY
Overnight, my friend Ellen used her West Coast time to dig into today's Post and forward the clicker from today's edition: a story catching up with Matthew Lesko. The world's loudest, most question-mark-wearing expert at getting free money from the government is making a new infomercial. He raps in this one.
As a newspaper guy, I got to wondering how long the Post had to wait between Lesko profiles. Here was a local guy, instantly recognizable, slightly mysterious, with attention-grabbing getups and topics. But, following modern newspaper tradition, good taste required restraint in coverage. So I hit the archives this morning, looking for Lesko.
And what I found surprised me. My research was by no means complete — in true Lesko fashion, I only used free archive searches — but all findings pointed to today's piece as the first Post story in 25 years to cover Lesko and only Lesko. Past the quarter-century mark, the archive snippets led in profile directions but didn't offer enough to confirm things. Paid archive walls were what they were, and that was okay. On the free side, what turned up along the way this morning was totally worth the look….
Matthew Lesko's previous appearances in The Washington Post
2005. A Style section roundup of Washington's most memorable TV pitchmen leads with Senate Insurance's "Kiss My Bumper" guy but features Lesko.
2003. A Sports story makes the reference, "the Jacksonville Jaguars come into this season surrounded by more question marks than Matthew Lesko."
2002. A Lesko event appears on a community calendar.
2000. Tony Kornheiser's Style column features "Folks You Love to Hate," a lengthy bullet-point insult list. "Matthew Lesko. Here's some Free Money to Change YOUR Life. Now get lost." (The column appears on a Web archive of Tony's Style columns, a must-read for anyone wondering how he got where he did.)
1997. Someone named Matthew Lesko writes a letter to the paper about teenage pregnancy. The Web doesn't let you see enough of the letter to learn if free government money comes up. Your politics may dictate your guess.
1996. The OpEd page publishes a letter from Lesko about free medical information. In following days, the page publishes two responses to him. Snippets show one offering praise and the other unclear.
1995. The boom-era "Fast Forward" technology section reviews Lesko's CD-ROM. Also, a Weekend section column about message boards ("Board Bulletin") writes about Lesko's new forum on CompuServe.
1992. The then-new Reliable Source covers Lesko sending gizzards to members of Congress to "give them some guts." Capitol Police contact Lesko, who assures them of the mailing's safety.
1991. Federal columnist Mike Causey mentions Lesko's V-Day advice: "Federal assistance in tracking down an old flame. His book suggests getting his/her last known address from the U.S. Postal Service (it costs $1); asking Social Security to forward a letter; or calling the federal Inmate Locator Hotline … if you think your significant other is doing time. For gold diggers, Lesko says 47 states will, for a fee, give you a list by Zip code of singles who drive BMWs or Mercedes."
Elsewhere during the year, Lesko appears in Style's TV listings and stars in a Weekend package about free government money. He offers particular advice on getting free public speakers from the government.
1989. A Style story rounds up the players in the market for information about free government money. Later in the year, a personalities column checks on Lesko's "My Favorite Bureaucrat" contest and again for his holiday suggestions on free gifts from the government.
1983. The Federal Report page writes up Lesko's new book about free government information, and Lesko writes a short article for the paper's magazine.
1982. A Style story about getting free money from the government leads with Lesko, who also contributes a sidebar of tips.
1981. In January, the magazine notes Lesko's Something for Nothing book. A month later, the (apparently) now-defunct Living section offers highlights from the book. (Apparently: I'd never heard of this section before.) In October, Lesko and his wife write a column for Style.
1980. Several stories appear to feature Lesko as he starts his publishing business. The snippets are useless. My free luck runs out.
You can decide for yourself whether Lesko has wound up in the Post too often or not enough. There are good cases for both sides. As for this blog, this post marks Lesko's third appearance, following 2005 posts on the launch of his blog and the sale of his question-mark car. I wonder what it's like on the other side.
