Lords of the Press PDF
Preview Lords of the Press
LORDS OF THE PRESS GEORGE SELDES . v T,-40RII)S OF T :F E, PR S - S 19 New York JULIAN MESSNER, Inc. PUBLISHED BY JULIAN MESSNER, INC. 8 WEST 40TH STREET, NEW YORK COPYRIGHT 1938 BY GEORGE SELDES PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA BY MONTAUK BOOKBINDING CORPORATION, NEW YORK TO THE AMERICAN NEWSPAPER GUILD and others interested in a free press Contents PART I LORDS OF THE PRESS CHAPTER PAGE i. The House of Lords . . . g 2. Patterson-Lord of Tabloidia . . . 20 g. Power of the Middle West . . 41 4. Little Lord Northcliffe . 65 5. California Press and Landlord . . . 71 6. Lord Howard and His Empire 76 7. The Light That Failed 87 8. A Jewish Press Lord 103 g. Lord Baltimore 1o8 i 0. The American Thunderer 112 i i. The Sun Grows Cold 142 12. Stern's Fight for Liberalism 155 13. Special Interests in Chicago 177 14. The Herald Tribune, Cuba and Fascism . . . . 186 15. Gannett: Chain Lord 203 16. Boston: Brahmins, Bourgeoisie and Boobs . . . 214 17. Farewell: Lord of San Simeon . . . 227 18. Annenberg 240 1g. Northwest: Liberal Despite the Press . 242 20. Speaker in the House of Lords 254 21. Post-Dispatch, or Absentee Landlordism . . . . 264 22. William Allen White: Anti-Press Lord . . . . 272 PART II SERVANTS OF. THE LORDS Journalistic Noblesse: Foreign Correspondents . 283 The Washington Galley Slaves 294 vii Vlll CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE 3. The Plutogogues 3o3 4. The Wages of Reaction 316 5. 1936 and the Columnists 331 6. From Reds to Riches 343 7. "Treason" on the Times 355 8. Freedom for Newspapermen 370 PART III BATTLES OF THE LORDS 1. Let Newspapermen Run the Newspapers . . . 381 2. Subsidy: Weapon for a Free Press 384 3- Ten Tests for a Free Press 386 4- Investigate the Press Lords . . . . 394 Labor Must Fight the Press Lords 399 5. Index 403 PART I LORDS OF THE PRESS CHAPTER i The House of Lords ONCE every year the American Newspaper Publishers Asso- ciation, the House of Lords of our press, meets in secret. No one cares to spy on it, no newspapermen are present, no photographers interrupt, no representatives of a yellow journal harass or intimidate the members . It would be use- less. If a reporter found out what plans are discussed, what plots are made, what schemes proposed, no newspaper would publish the disclosures, sensational as they might be . Noth- ing is sacred to the American press but itself. And yet these secret meetings of our organized publishers rank among the most important actions against the general welfare of the American people ever taken (legally) by any small national group in our time. But since the press pub- lishes the news, true or false or half-way, about everything in the world except itself, the American public knows noth- ing about what the rulers of public opinion annually de- cide for it. Only rarely do the millions learn or sense the truth about the activities of this group of leaders. In the repudiation of the press in the 1936 election there was a symptom of the universal suspicion and growing anger of the public, but this awakening was made possible by the fact that millions were already pledged to the party the majority of newspapers attacked, and the radio was used extensively, and there were other means of breaking the press offensive. In social, rather than political, issues there is no means by which the public can defeat the dictation of the press. 3 4 LORDS OF THE PRESS The publishers' meetings are secret because their actions cannot bear the light of publicity. Three hundred and sixty days in the year the publishers speak editorially for open covenants openly arrived at, whether in international rela- tions or in the advertising business, but every April they lock the doors and make a hypocritical paradox out of their own ideals. We know that in the open meetings they approve annually of "freedom of the press as the bulwark of our civilization," and that in the closed meetings they discuss ways and means of fighting labor and their own employees who demand higher wages or perhaps better light or decent toilet arrange- ments. We do know that in the open meetings they pledge themselves to honesty and truth and the whole bagful of tricks in the ethical code of their profession, and they also discuss the cost of paper, the ways to increase advertising and gain circulation, and other purely materialistic subjects which are necessary if any press, free or kept, is to survive. But it is somewhat of a shock to learn that in the closed ses- sions they defend the employment of child labor, they take united action against a Congressional measure which would keep drugmakers from poisoning or cheating the American people, and they gloat over their own strike-breaking de- partment which offers scabs not only to members but to anyone who wants to fight the unions . One of the most recent secret meetings was devoted to nothing but war on the American Newspaper Guild, the association of newspaper workers which offended the pub- lishers when it joined the American Federation of Labor and drove them into hysterics when it later joined the Committee for Industrial ,Organization. In all American business and industry today there is probably no instance of such bitter- ness, such conflict, such hatred, such opposition, and such war to the throat as between the newspaper workers and the newspaper owners. The amusing angle to this story is that the publishers still print that cockeyed falsehood about the THE HOUSE OF LORDS 5 interests of capital and labor being identical. It certainly isn't in their own line. What conspiratorial plans are made to fight labor at the secret sessions we can judge best by what happens. We have seen such united action as an attack on Congress when it considered passing the Wagner Labor Act which is regarded as a Magna Carta of the working people of America. We have watched the press of the country condemn it after it passed. And, moreover, we have seen the publishers openly defy the law, declare it unconstitutional, and, when the Guild took the test case to the Supreme Court and the law was declared constitutional, we have seen the publishers inaugurate a movement to repeal or alter or emasculate this law. We have seen the publishers declare the National Labor Relations Board unconstitutional long before the Supreme Court declared it constitutional. We have seen the publishers unite to fight any and every attempt to increase taxes on the rich and alleviate the burdens of the poor. All sorts of tran- scendental humanitarian poppycock has been invented by the highly paid editorial writers and rich columnists to hide this fundamental conflict of the Haves and Havenots in America. But the fact is becoming known to the public that the press lords of America are the champions of the former while still flying the pre-war flag of "service to the common people." There are of course many men of the highest ideals in the membership. But so far as can be learned they have not been able in the past to gain their points even in the most flagrant cases of violation of journalistic ethics. The La Follette Civil Liberties Investigation Committee has given documentary evidence that four of the biggest newspapers in the country had employed spies or thugs, but no action was taken by the publishers' association . Some years ago one of its members was found guilty in a Federal court of theft. His news service had stolen the news
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