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hearst.txt
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1996-01-29
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147 lines
1.5
Hearst did not invent
the techniques of the
yellow press, but he
gave jaundice to
journalism by his
example. His pioneering
lay in reducing popular
crusades to the level of
a travelling circus. By
lowering public taste,
he raised circulation.
"What we're after is the
'gee-whizz' emotion,"
one of his staff said. On
this formula Hearst
founded what became, by the Thirties, the world's biggest
publishing empire. Notorious as an instigator of the
Spanish-American War of 1898, he was a failed politician
in the Progressive Era, an Anglophobe until 1917, a pro-
Nazi in the Thirties, an anti-Red in the Forties. Hearst
championed populist reforms in his early days and
changed most of the world's newspapers. For better or
worse, he was the first great press lord who rose on the
irresistible combination of patriotism, populism and pap.
His life inspired one masterpiece - Orson Welles' Citizen
Kane
@
2.4
A chain of more than 20 Hearst newspapers in this country
makes the charge this morning that "through its Comintern
in Moscow and its puppet organisations in the United
States, Soviet Russia is taking an aggressive part in the
Presidential campaign in America - on the side of the New
Deal."
Yesterday afternoon, acting on advance knowledge of this
charge, a statement was issued at the White House, signed
by Mr. Stephen Earle, one of President Roosevelt's
secretaries, that "the President does not want and does not
welcome the vote or support of any individual or group
taking orders from alien sources."
The statement speaks of a "certain notorious newspaper
owner" and describes articles attempting to make it appear
that Mr. Roosevelt "passively accepts support of alien
organizations hostile to the American form of government"
as "conceived in malice and born of political spite." The
American people, it says, will not permit their attention to
be diverted by "fake issues, which no patriotic, honourable,
or decent citizen would purposely inject into American
affairs."
The charges of the Hearst newspapers are based on a
report appearing in the July issue of the Communist
International written by Mr. Earl Browder, who is the
Communist candidate for the American Presidency. Mr.
Browder, they say, is only a titular candidate, and is
"campaigning obliquely for Mr. Roosevelt's re-election."
The same sort of accusation was made yesterday by Father
Coughlin in a speech at Des Moines, Iowa, to his National
Union for Social Justice. He challenged Mr. Roosevelt to
repudiate the support of "Earl Browder and the Communist
Party" declaring that Mr. Browder is "publicly urging" his
fellow-members "to vote for Mr. Roosevelt, and Mr.
Roosevelt grins and likes it."
Our Correspondent at The Hague telegraphs that Mr. Hearst
arrived in Amsterdam on Saturday after a tour round
Europe. In a statement to the Press he said that he had
dropped Mr. Roosevelt because Mr. Roosevelt had broken
his promises.
@
2.5
The political ambitions of Mr. William Randolph Hearst
were again frustrated on Saturday, when the Convention of
the Democratic Party of New York State unanimously
adopted Mr. Alfred E. Smith as the party's candidate for
the Governorship of New York at the coming election.
Despite the employment of the full power of his great
newspaper organization, Mr. Hearst's campaign for
nomination failed signally, and at the last moment he
withdrew.
Apart from the sweeping defeat of Mr Hearst, who had
been generally credited with Presidential aspirations, the
outstanding feature of the Convention was the adoption as
a plank in the party's election programme of an
amendment of the Volstead Act enforcing the Prohibition
Amendment to the Constitution in such a way as to permit
the sale of beer and light wines. This is the first time since
the coming of the prohibition laws that a modification has
been officially sponsored by either political party in any
State.
@
2.7
Mr. William Randolph Hearst, the American newspaper
proprietor, in a broadcast from his home at San Simeon,
California, on Saturday night, replied to Mr. Churchill's
recent broadcast to America, in which he invited the
United States to join France and Great Britain in a
concerted drive against dictatorships. In the course of his
address Mr. Hearst said:-England is now afraid that the
domination which she and France have exercised over
Europe since the execution of the Versailles Treaty will be
jeopardized. England is also disturbed about her great
interests in the Orient. Singapore is not safe. Japan is
menacing Hong-Kong. England's Navy cannot be in several
places at once; England's Army cannot be both at home and
abroad. England wants other navies and other armies.
England needs help. And where should she turn for help
except to good old Uncle Sam, so sought after when he is
needed, so scoffed at and scorned in all intervening times.
English propaganda is again flooding the United States;
English soft soap is again being poured over Uncle Sam's
devoted head, lathered into his ears and eyes. There is a
great deal of sense in the mood and attitude of the
majority of Americans and a great deal of wisdom in
America's policy of attending to its own affairs and
keeping free from entangling foreign alliances... In failing
to do so she would be repeating those serious mistakes
which involved her in the World War.
It is no part of the duty of this English-speaking nation,
the United States of America, to support the British Empire
in her ambitious schemes to dominate Europe, absorb
Africa, and control the Orient. The United States is not
merely a collection of disloyal colonies. America is no
longer a land to be exploited like India and Africa.
Perhaps even Germany wants peace when she offers
England peace and the limitation of armaments, while the
German navy is held at one-third the size of England's.
Perhaps England does not want that kind of peace and
security? But if she does not actually and earnestly want
peace and security, why did she, betray Czechoslovakia?
If England only wants peace to prepare for war, she has
gained that by the sacrifice of Czechoslovakia, but she has
certainly not gained the faith of the rest of the world in
her faithful and zealous comradeship. Even innocent and
confiding America is beginning to realize that Communistic
France and Imperial England are not altogether idealistic
and altruistic democracies like our own.