Abstract
By 1940 Seldes realized that he needed to be independent if he was going to critique the daily press and galvanize the public to protest the corruption of the daily news. He launched his subscription newsletter In Fact, one of the first of its kind, and drew heavily on public records to expose the transfer of public assets to private ownership, misleading advertising and the anti-labour behaviour of corporations. Seldes also sought to promote the newsletter through sensational exposes, which would guarantee republication in other newspapers and by soliciting public endorsements from high-profile writers and journalists who had influence with his target audience. Seldes also entered into several conflicts with editors, public broadcasters and publishers as he criticized them for lying or suppressing the news, which created further controversy. He attacked conservatives and liberals alike, and even as he drew praise for attacking the commercial press, he was criticized for his intemperate and moralizing tone and ridiculed for claiming to write only factually.
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Notes
- 1.
Letter from Laetitia Bolton of Modern Age Books May 9, 1938, to Seldes stating that the book had been ignored by all the New York Dailies and weekly reviews with the exception of the Saturday Review of Literature, The New Republic and The New Yorker. Seldes Collection.
- 2.
Johnson, Gerald W. 1938. Freedom of the Newspaper Press Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science 200: 64. The expansion of the labour press during this period played a crucial role in counterbalancing the strongly anti-labour position of most of the daily newspapers, which saw more than 1200 daily newspapers out of 1900 oppose the 1936 election of Franklin D. Roosevelt.
- 3.
Bekken, Jon. 1988. ‘No Weapon So Powerful’: Working Class Newspapers in the United States. Journal of Communication Inquiry 12: 111. The 1940 American Labour Press Directory listed 628 US labour newspapers and the circulation data for 289 of these indicate a circulation of more than 6 million.
- 4.
Seldes, George. 1953. Tell the Truth and Run. New York: Greenburg; 261.
- 5.
Seldes, George. 1941 The Facts Are … A Guide to Falsehood and Propaganda in the Press and Radio. New York: In Fact Inc.; 127.
- 6.
Guttenplan, D.D. 2009. American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 285.
- 7.
Guttenplan. 2009; 284. Bransten was the husband of PM writer Ruth McKenney and he was a financial supporter of the New Masses.
- 8.
Seldes, George. 1987. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books; 347.
- 9.
Seldes. Witness to a Century; 347.
- 10.
Seldes counselled non-intervention in a European war, which is interesting given his strong anti-fascist position and his disgust with the Allies over their refusal to assist Spain. This position, however, was consistent with his experiences in the First World War in which he felt that he and the rest of America had been deceived into fighting not for freedom but for the protection of big business interests and European imperialism. Moreover, those of Seldes’ critics who believed that he was a communist also claimed that he changed his position on the war after the invasion of Russia in June 1941.
- 11.
This included the suppression of research that demonstrated the link between cancer and cigarettes. Seldes had first heard of this link when he was working in Germany.
- 12.
In Seldes’ papers there are dozens of letters from people asking Seldes to investigate issues. For example, Shaemas O’Sheel wrote to Seldes on August 31, 1943, asking Seldes to expose W. Phillip Simms “whose stuff in Scripps Howard Chain is as poisonous as Peglers’. … Please tackle him George, let us know who he is, whose work he’s doing.”
- 13.
Seldes never revealed the names of those who provided him with tips because he believed they would have lost their jobs if it were publicly known that they were helping a publication that the Martin Dies Committee had labelled red.
- 14.
Interview with the author December 10, 1990, Hartland Four Corners, Vermont.
- 15.
Seldes appears to have actively courted controversy by going out of his way to supply politicians with material that helped them further their various causes. He supplied material about tobacco and freedom of the press to Harold Ickes for his debate with Publisher Frank Gannett for their November 1939 debate about press freedom and he supplied information to Senator Paul Badger on the National Association of Manufacturers.
- 16.
In Fact, November 8, 1943.
- 17.
Mott, Frank. Review of The Facts Are by George Seldes, in Journalism Quarterly (December 1943); 335.
- 18.
Rogers, Charles E. 1944 (Book Review) Journalism Quarterly; Mar 1, 1944; 21, 1; ProQuest; 65.
- 19.
In Fact, January 13, 1941.
- 20.
Schudson, Michael. 1978. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. Basic Books Inc. New York; 147. In explaining international news for domestic audiences who often had no context for the information an interpretative approach was “essential to understanding.”
- 21.
Schudson, 1978; 151. The increasing complexity of America’s public life meant facts were not sufficient to aid understanding and in 1933 the American Society of Newspaper Editors encouraged its members to set aside more space for the interpretation and explanation of issues.
- 22.
Guttenplan 2009; 284.
- 23.
Brown, Pamela. 1989. George Seldes and the Winter Solider Brigade: The Press Criticism of In Fact 1940–1950. American Journalism; 86.
- 24.
Teel. Leonard Ray. 2006. The Public Press 1900–1945: The History of American Journalism. Westport Connecticut: Praeger; 140.
- 25.
Seldes, Witness to a Century; 100.
- 26.
Seldes, Witness to a Century; 349.
- 27.
James wrote to Sulzberger on February 17, 1948: “I am not trying to present a balanced picture. I am agin [sic] the guy [Seldes]. Sulzberger Papers, New York Public Library. New York.
- 28.
James wrote to Sulzberger on November 3, 1939, suggesting that Seldes’ book was not worth reviewing. Sulzberger Papers, New York Public Library. New York.
- 29.
James to Sulzberger. February 17, 1948. It should be noted that both William Shirer and Heywood Broun also attacked the Times, with Heywood Broun in Broun’s newsletter Nutmeg disparaging both publisher and editor. He wrote in his column on June 17, 1939, that both were inferior to their predecessors.
- 30.
In a memo to Sulzberger dated May 23, 1940, James said that he was going to monitor In Fact and on September 12, 1941, James noted: “This is swell. In Fact is now on cheaper paper. I hope the reason is the obvious one.”
- 31.
November 20, 1947. James organized an internal review of the newspapers’ coverage of Federal Trade Commission (FTC) reports and reported to Sulzberger that the New York Times had printed more FTC news than any other newspaper in the country. Lewis Wood who had conducted the review attached an addendum to the report noting that the FTC had recognized this and that privately the FTC thought that “Seldes’ allegations against the Times are silly.”
- 32.
Seldes to James November 29, 1945, Sulzberger Papers, New York Public Library.
- 33.
March 21, 1941, New York Public Library.
- 34.
September 22, 1941.
- 35.
July 30, 1942.
- 36.
Taylor S.J. 1990. Stalin’s Apologist: Walter Duranty. The New York Times’ Man in Moscow. Oxford. Oxford University Press; 279. Duranty noted that this was James’ standard response to anyone who felt their work had been suppressed by the Times.
- 37.
Letter from Seldes to James dated September 14, 1942: “I have many letters which you have written to many persons.” Seldes Collection.
- 38.
February 1, 1944, Letter to James from Seldes. Seldes Collection.
- 39.
Woltman, Frederick. 1943. The camouflaged Communist Press. American Mercury November; 580.
- 40.
Woltman, 1943, 587. American Mercury took a hard line against anything they perceived as communist and editor of the Nation Freda Kirchwey wrote to Seldes on December 4, 1944, noting that she didn’t like the way the Mercury rode hard the anti-communist line.
- 41.
October 20, 1943, Internal memo James to Salzburger New York Times File, New York Public Library.
- 42.
In an article entitled “Tribune Checks Files on Former Aids Turned Foes” William Fulton attacked William Shirer, Edmond Taylor, Jay Allen and Seldes, and Fulton described the last as a communist.
- 43.
According to Seldes, McCormick removed Seldes’ name from the honour roll in the London office of the Tribune.
- 44.
Seldes left the Tribune of his own accord in 1928. His place was filled and when he wished to rejoin the organization there was no vacancy. Because of this he has felt a very severe animosity towards the Tribune. I will say that while he was with the Tribune he was a truthful, conscientious reporter and only went to pieces afterwards.” (October 7, 1947).
- 45.
On October 7, 1947 McCormick wrote to (Helen) Jean Williams stating that “while he (Seldes) was with the Tribune he was a truthful, conscientious reporter and only went to pieces afterwards.” Two years later on July 14th 1949 McCormick wrote to Jean Williams again stating: “In the days when Seldes was with the Tribune he was a reliable correspondent, but after he left us he found it more profitable to become a professional liar.”
- 46.
Letter McCormick to Peter Day, December 8, 1943, McCormick Collection I-62 Box 8 Folder 13.
- 47.
In the article entitled “Colonel McCormick as Press Lord” by George Seldes published in The Gazette and Daily York, PA. April 13, 1955. Seldes recalled how he and his colleagues would speak to McCormick as one would to a child because he seemed unable to grasp the complexities and significance of European politics.
- 48.
Seldes admitted reluctantly supporting PM but only because the rest of the press was so bad. He added that outside the Manchester Guardian and the Frankfurter Ze Tung “I know of no newspaper owner who has permitted his paper to uphold the general welfare rather than personal desires.”
- 49.
Ghiglione, Loren. 2011. CBS’s Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism. New York: Columbia University Press; 37.
- 50.
Chicago Tribune January 15, 1947, “Seldes Lies and Vilifies, House Told.”
- 51.
Seldes later claimed that it was he who supplied evidence to the CIO, which enabled them to mount a campaign against Dies and which ultimately led to his withdrawal from politics.
- 52.
Investigation of Un-American Propaganda Activities in the United States. Report of the Special Committee of Un-American Activities, House of Representatives 78th Congress, 2nd Edition, March 29, 1944: 47–48.
- 53.
Seldes, Witness to a Century 1987; 395.
- 54.
Lewis was also a friend to McCarthy.
- 55.
In Sokolsky’s article in the New York Tribune on November 6, 1939, he referred to The Socialist Review article entitled “Seldes, Lord of the Gutter–about the gentle art of Plagiary” and called Seldes “a holier than thou person of a Leftist persuasion given over to moralising about the motives and conduct of other human beings.”
- 56.
June 26, 1940.
- 57.
May 6, 1943, Seldes to Executive Board of Newspaper Guild. Seldes Collection.
- 58.
Guild Reporter April 15, 1944.
- 59.
There were several letters from individuals specifically noting their letters were not for publication.
- 60.
Conservative commentator Westbrook Pegler in a letter to Seldes on February 24, 1939, wrote: Seldes, like “bulldozing clergy, Klux, Catholics, Chambers of Commerce and Jews,” you “insist that you should be the judge of the prominence and emphasis on a given story and I think you have a hell of a lot of nerve citing to me as an example of objectivity the Guild Reporter.”
- 61.
Seldes, Treason of the Times, The New Republic, September 7, 1938.
Bibliography
Guttenplan, D. D. 2009. American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone. New York: Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
Mott, Frank. review of The Facts Are by George Seldes, in Journalism Quarterly (December 1943):335.
Schudson, Michael. 1978. Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers. New York: Basic Books Inc.
Seldes, George. 1938. Lords of the Press. New York: Julian Messner, Inc.
Seldes, George. 1987. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books.
Seldes, George. 1935. Freedom of the Press. Indianapolis: The Bobbs-Merrill Company.
Seldes, George. 1943. Facts and Fascism New York: In Fact Inc.
Woltman, Frederick. 1943. The Camouflaged Press. American Mercury. 57. November.
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Fordham, H. (2019). Independent Publisher. In: George Seldes’ War for the Public Good. Palgrave Studies in the History of the Media. Palgrave Pivot, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-30877-3_7
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