This post is a tale of two men. One is William Randolph Hearst, about whom you have probably heard a great deal. The other is George Seldes, about whom you have probably heard little or nothing.
Hearst was the famed newspaper publisher whose life was fictionalized in Orson Welles’ 1941 movie: “Citizen Kane.” However, little is ever mentioned of Hearst’s fascist sympathies.
In a 1935 letter from William A. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt listing numerous instances illustrating that Hearst was an ally of both Hitler and Mussolini. In closing this letter, Ambassador Dodd wrote:
“Under these circumstances, it would seem to me
that Hearst's influence in the United States ought
not to be so great. Personally, I cannot see how
anyone who has watched his career closely the last
two decades can accept any of his interpretations
of international affairs. Yet, as you know, great
masses of the people were herded into propaganda
attitudes the last week in January, and he thus
gave the appearance of representing the majority
opinion in the United States.”
[Full Text of the Letter Here]
Seldes was an investigative journalist who wrote articles that were often censored by the American military and his publishers. During the decade after The First World War he wrote for the Chicago Tribune as an international correspondent. He was expelled from Russia in 1923 for smuggling dispatches out of the country to avoid censorship. He was expelled from Italy in 1925 for writing an article implicating Mussolini in the murder of the head of the parliamentary section of the Italian United Socialist Party. In 1927, he wrote articles that were critical of American corporations’ unfair exploitation of Mexico’s mineral resources. Over time, finding that his work was encountering more and more censorship from the Tribune’s publisher, Robert R. McCormick, Seldes left the paper.
After leaving the Tribune Seldes became a freelance writer and authored numerous books. Two of the most noted of his works were: Freedom of the Press and The Lords of the Press written in the 1930s. These works were critical of the American press, and the latter was particularly critical of William Randolph Hearst.
From 1940 until 1950 Seldes published the political newsletter In Fact, which became a platform for journalists to get exposure for their stories that would not be published by the mainstream newspapers. In Fact consistently brought to light anti-labor and fascist activities of wealthy American industrialists and corporations. FDR ordered the FBI to investigate Seldes and his newsletter. Soon J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men were questioning subscribers to In Fact, particularly those in the military.
After being accused of being a member of the Communist Party during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of the 1950s [a accusation that he vigorously denied], Seldes had difficulty getting his books published until the 60s.
George Seldes lived to be 104 and died in 1995. During the later years of his life he received recognition for his efforts to speak truth to power; but few Americans know of his work or the truths he brought to light. He spent a lifetime trying to protect the public from the abuses of power by men like Hearst; but more often than not, it fell on deaf ears.
In Lords of the Press, Seldes quotes Ernest L. Meyer, his well known contemporary at the New York Post as writing: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."
In Chapter 17 of Lord of the Press Seldes wrote: “The history of Hearst should be a lesson to the other reactionary publishers of America, but it probably will not be. The American people will have to exercise eternal vigilance against the smaller Hearsts in the House of Press Lords.”
Parallels can be drawn between William Randolph Hearst and media moguls of today and the “smaller Hearsts in the House of Press Lords;” but where are our modern day George Seldes?
Hearst was the famed newspaper publisher whose life was fictionalized in Orson Welles’ 1941 movie: “Citizen Kane.” However, little is ever mentioned of Hearst’s fascist sympathies.
In a 1935 letter from William A. Dodd, U.S. Ambassador to Germany, wrote a letter to President Franklin Roosevelt listing numerous instances illustrating that Hearst was an ally of both Hitler and Mussolini. In closing this letter, Ambassador Dodd wrote:
“Under these circumstances, it would seem to me
that Hearst's influence in the United States ought
not to be so great. Personally, I cannot see how
anyone who has watched his career closely the last
two decades can accept any of his interpretations
of international affairs. Yet, as you know, great
masses of the people were herded into propaganda
attitudes the last week in January, and he thus
gave the appearance of representing the majority
opinion in the United States.”
[Full Text of the Letter Here]
Seldes was an investigative journalist who wrote articles that were often censored by the American military and his publishers. During the decade after The First World War he wrote for the Chicago Tribune as an international correspondent. He was expelled from Russia in 1923 for smuggling dispatches out of the country to avoid censorship. He was expelled from Italy in 1925 for writing an article implicating Mussolini in the murder of the head of the parliamentary section of the Italian United Socialist Party. In 1927, he wrote articles that were critical of American corporations’ unfair exploitation of Mexico’s mineral resources. Over time, finding that his work was encountering more and more censorship from the Tribune’s publisher, Robert R. McCormick, Seldes left the paper.
After leaving the Tribune Seldes became a freelance writer and authored numerous books. Two of the most noted of his works were: Freedom of the Press and The Lords of the Press written in the 1930s. These works were critical of the American press, and the latter was particularly critical of William Randolph Hearst.
From 1940 until 1950 Seldes published the political newsletter In Fact, which became a platform for journalists to get exposure for their stories that would not be published by the mainstream newspapers. In Fact consistently brought to light anti-labor and fascist activities of wealthy American industrialists and corporations. FDR ordered the FBI to investigate Seldes and his newsletter. Soon J. Edgar Hoover’s G-Men were questioning subscribers to In Fact, particularly those in the military.
After being accused of being a member of the Communist Party during Senator Joseph McCarthy’s investigations of the 1950s [a accusation that he vigorously denied], Seldes had difficulty getting his books published until the 60s.
George Seldes lived to be 104 and died in 1995. During the later years of his life he received recognition for his efforts to speak truth to power; but few Americans know of his work or the truths he brought to light. He spent a lifetime trying to protect the public from the abuses of power by men like Hearst; but more often than not, it fell on deaf ears.
In Lords of the Press, Seldes quotes Ernest L. Meyer, his well known contemporary at the New York Post as writing: "Mr. Hearst in his long and not laudable career has inflamed Americans against Spaniards, Americans against Japanese, Americans against Filipinos, Americans against Russians, and in the pursuit of his incendiary campaign he has printed downright lies, forged documents, faked atrocity stories, inflammatory editorials, sensational cartoons and photographs and other devices by which he abetted his jingoistic ends."
In Chapter 17 of Lord of the Press Seldes wrote: “The history of Hearst should be a lesson to the other reactionary publishers of America, but it probably will not be. The American people will have to exercise eternal vigilance against the smaller Hearsts in the House of Press Lords.”
Parallels can be drawn between William Randolph Hearst and media moguls of today and the “smaller Hearsts in the House of Press Lords;” but where are our modern day George Seldes?
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