Abstract
By the late 1940s press criticism had become a part of mainstream debates. The Hutchins Commission Report, Free and Responsible Press confirmed many of the observations made by Seldes about press practices and freedom. Publishers themselves began to acknowledge the public’s disgruntlement with them, although they attributed it to the public’s lack of knowledge about the press’s commercial and political constraints rather than failures of their behalf. Increasing numbers of journalists were also publicly critical of the press including A.J. Liebling, Don Hollenbeck, Max Lerner and the Neiman Scholars who also made similar suggestions to Seldes about subscription-based journalism. Yet, Seldes was not generally a part of these new conversations. Hysteria about communism undermined his credibility and general fear and apathy among his subscribers led to the closure of In Fact.
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Notes
- 1.
Harold Ickes to George Seldes April 26, 1945. Harold L. Ickes, secretary of the Interior for Roosevelt wrote: “In Fact serves again to emphasize that the American people desire the facts and admire hard hitting reporting.” Seldes Collection. Harry Truman to George Seldes April 27, 1940, Philadelphia. Senator Truman had written to Seldes saying “I believe you are on the right track … and I hope you are successful.” Seldes Collection.
- 2.
Eleanor Roosevelt contacted Seldes for content as did Theodore Dreiser and the author Taylor Caldwell.
- 3.
Columnist Drew Pearson also applauded Seldes: “The job you are doing is one of the best in the nation when it comes to awakening the American public.” George Seldes, News They Won’t Print (In Fact Brochure).
- 4.
Eric Sevareid, CBS’s Director of News, also substantiates Seldes’ claim that many well-placed journalists supported him. Sevareid wrote to Seldes on August 5, 1947: “I noticed the item in your paper the other day and I felt much pleased. I would be happy to think that I was even the direct cause of that minor furore.” Seldes Collection.
- 5.
Seldes published a leaked report by Joseph Kennedy advising that the British had fascists in the government and this is how he initially came to the attention of the FBI.
- 6.
In Fact also received favourable mentions in publications like Daily Worker, the CIO News, American Federationist, Labour Gazette and Daily and The Independent.
- 7.
Helen Jean Williams. 1947. An Evaluation of Criticisms of the Daily Press in George Seldes’ In Fact, MA Thesis. University of Minnesota: 2.
- 8.
In Seldes’ correspondence there are letters from a range of publications including the Denver Post thanking Seldes for giving them an idea.
- 9.
Dreiser to Seldes on October 24, 1940. Dreiser Collection.
- 10.
Dreiser to Seldes, November 18, 1943. Dreiser Collection.
- 11.
Upton Sinclair wrote to Seldes on May 2, 1945: “I wish that I could give you a complete and unreserved endorsement of In Fact.” Seldes Collection.
- 12.
Upton Sinclair to Seldes August 7, 1947. Seldes Collection.
- 13.
In his endorsement of In Fact in promotional material Villard wrote that George Seldes “will give us the truth at any cost and that we who are trying to be free and liberal journalists will profit therefrom.” In Fact promotional material. Seldes Collection.
- 14.
Dewey, John. 1947. George Seldes and “FACT.” New Leader; July 12; 30, 28; ProQuest pg. 12. Dewey declared that it was his hope that his statement would “receive wide publicity, as any more complete distortion of my position could not be produced by even the most expert of those who systematically call falsity by the name of fact.”
- 15.
1941 In Fact Annual Report noted the publication was a not-for-profit venture. Seldes Collection.
- 16.
Evans, H. 1999. What a century! Columbia Journalism Review 37(5), 27–37. Retrieved from http://search.proquest.com/docview/230343111/
- 17.
N.W. Ayers and Sons Directory of Newspapers and Periodicals 1945. Philadelphia, Penn. NW Ayer & Son Inc.
- 18.
Seldes, George. 1941. Witch Hunt: The Techniques and Profits of Redbaiting. New York. Modern Age Books; 295.
- 19.
Jackson, Joseph Henry. 1940. The Bookman’s Daily Notes. Seldes lunges at redbaiters and loses his balance. San Francisco Daily Chronicle. November 14.
- 20.
Seldes’ literary agent Nannine Joseph to Seldes July 29, 1942. Seldes Collection.
- 21.
Rogers, Charles E. 1944. “Facts and Fascism by George Seldes.” Journalism Quarterly 21 (1); 69.
- 22.
Letter dated June 16, 1944. Seldes Collection.
- 23.
Investigation of Concentration of Economic Power. Final Report and Recommendations of the Temporary National Economic Committee 77th Congress 1st Session. 1941; 173. https://books.google.com.au/books?id=_SsUAwAAQBAJ&pg=PA173&lpg=PA173&dq=Temporary+National+Economic+Committee+and+13+families+who+run+America&source=bl&ots=17PxIrXxV9&sig=ACfU3U0fR9gpT26fKSDKDJ14HUAKAChD4g&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwjFqq67yMTjAhVanI8KHeaRDuwQ6AEwBXoECAYQAQ#v=onepage&q=Temporary%20National%20Economic%20Committee%20and%2013%20families%20who%20run%20America&f=false
- 24.
Seldes George. 1947. One Thousand Americans. New York: Bono and Gaer; 232.
- 25.
Bird, George. 1943. Review of One Thousand Americans by George Seldes, in Journalism Quarterly (December); 335.
- 26.
Lewis Gannet New York Herald Tribune January 15, 1948.
- 27.
New York Herald Tribune Weekly Book Review on March 7, 1948.
- 28.
Lynd, Robert S. 1948. Review of 1000 Americans by George Seldes. Public Opinion Quarterly Spring; 138.
- 29.
Seldes to Mr Brown, editor of Editor and Publisher, December 22, 1949.
- 30.
Bartlett, F. 1950. International Affairs (Royal Institute of International Affairs 1944) 26(3); 449–450. doi:10.2307/2607792.
- 31.
Leiserson, Avery. 1950. Book review of The People Don’t Know by George Seldes. Public Opinion Quarterly 14 (1); 156–157.
- 32.
Vance Earl E. 1950. Book review of The People Don’t Know by George Seldes. Journalism Quarterly; March 1.
- 33.
The publication was so affordable that one citizen wrote to J. Edgar Hoover suggesting it was not possible for a publication to say afloat at this price and so it must be subsided by the Communist Party.
- 34.
October 22, 1947, Seldes wrote to a Union Secretary claiming that members were libelling Seldes and his publication and asking him to take action to “nail the liars.” Seldes Collection.
- 35.
Rabbi Benjamin Schultz criticized Seldes in his regular column in the New York World Telegraph and on October 24, 1947, Seldes wrote to the New York Board of Rabbis complaining that Schultz was smearing him and insisting upon a public correction.
- 36.
Seldes wrote to a subscriber in December 1947 saying “as a rule I don’t waste my time answering persons who are so frightened or stupid that they cancel subscriptions or fail to renew.” Seldes Collection.
- 37.
December 15, 1955.
- 38.
April 9, 1941, Redacted Letter in the FBI file.
- 39.
The letter in the FBI file notes that In Fact was seen as a “miniature edition of the Daily Worker.”
- 40.
Guttenplan, D.D. 2012. American Radical: The Life and Times of I.F. Stone. Evanston, Illinois, Northwestern University Press. Seldes amended this figure to 10,000; 285.
- 41.
Seldes, George. 1953. Tell the Truth and Run. New York: Greenberg Publisher; 271.
- 42.
This commission was convened by Henry Luce and chaired by Robert Hutchins and its goal was to explore the role of the media in a modern democracy.
- 43.
Seldes wrote in The People Don’t Know (1949); 1, that the Commission had found that newspapers can “debase and vulgarize mankind. They can endanger the peace of the world.”
- 44.
Letter Ernest Samuels to Robert Hutchins April 27, 1946. Seldes Collection.
- 45.
In Fact July 29, 1946.
- 46.
Seldes hits and runs after talk to SDX, Editor and Publisher. April 26, 1947.
- 47.
Ghiglione, Loren. 2011. CBS’s Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism. Columbia University Press, New York; 124.
- 48.
Letter from Seldes to John Knight December 29, 1944. Seldes Collection.
- 49.
New York Times Company Holdings, Arthur Hayes Sulzberger MSSCOL17882 Box 68. Collection, New York Public Library August 28, 1956.
- 50.
Emery, Edwin. 1972. The Press and America: an interpretative history of the Mass Media 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall; 716. Emery lists Casper S. Yost’s Principles of journalism (1924), Herbert Bruckers’ The Changing American Newspaper (1937) and Silas Bent’s Newspaper Crusaders (1939); The Press Today (1930) by Oswald Garrison Villard, The Conscience of the Newspaper (1925) by Leon N. Flint, William G. Bleyer’s Main Currents in American Journalism (1927) and Interpretations of Journalism (1937) edited by Frank L. Mott and Ralph D. Casey.
- 51.
Edwin Emery 1972; 713. Others in this popularizing category included Oswald Garrison Villard’s Some Newspapers and Newspapermen (1923) and Harold Ickes’ America’s House of Lords (1939).
- 52.
Gannett, Lewis. 1947. Books and Things. New York Herald Tribune Wednesday, December 10.
- 53.
Schiffrin Anya. 2018. Fighting disinformation with media literacy—in 1939 Columbia Journalism Review October 10, https://www.cjr.org/innovations/institute-propaganda-analysis.php
- 54.
Ghiglione, 2011; 119.
- 55.
This is the figure in the letter, so Seldes was clearly imagining that the publication was widely distributed beyond just subscribers.
- 56.
Letter from Seldes to Upton Sinclair, May 26, 1945. Seldes Collection.
- 57.
December 10, 1947.
- 58.
Ghiglione, 2011; 119.
- 59.
Lerner, Max. 1947. The six deadly press sins. PM December 12. Bieneke Archives.
- 60.
New York Herald Tribune March 27, 1947.
- 61.
Seldes, 1987. Witness to a Century. New York: Ballantine Books; 308.
- 62.
Seldes, 1953. Tell the Truth and Run; 268.
- 63.
Seldes, George. 1939. Columnists from Left to Right. Progressive Weekly. January 21.
- 64.
Ghiglione, 2011; 172.
- 65.
In Fact November 30, 1942.
- 66.
Ghiglione, 2011; 129.
Bibliography
Blanchard, Margaret A. 1978. Press Criticism and National Reform Movements: The Progressive Era and the New Deal. Journalism History 5:2. Summer. 33–55.
Emery, Edwin. 1972. The Press and America: An Interpretative History of the Mass Media, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice-Hall.
Ghiglione, Loren. 2011. CBS’s Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism. New York: Columbia University Press.
Jensen, Carl. 2002. Stories that Changed America: Muckrakers of the 20th Century. New York: Seven Stories Press.
Seldes, George. 1953. Tell the Truth and Run. New York: Greenberg Publisher.
Seldes, George. 1943. Facts and Fascism New York: In Fact Inc.
Seldes, George. 1949. The People Don’t Know. New York: Gaer Associates.
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Fordham, H. (2019). Investigative Journalist. 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_8
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