- 25 Oct 2003 22:51
#231370
William Randolph Hearst is the name of a multi-millionaire who sought to
help the Nazis in their psychological warfare against the Soviet Union.
Hearst was a well-known US newspaper proprietor known as the 'father' of
the so-called 'yellow press', i.e., the sensationalist press. William Hearst
began his career as a newspaper editor in 1885 when his father, George
Hearst, a millionaire mining industrialist, Senator and newspaper
proprietor himself, put him in charge of the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
This was also the start of the Hearst newspaper empire, an empire which
strongly influenced the lives and thinking of North Americans. After his
father died, William Hearst sold all the mining industry shares he inherited
and began to invest capital in the world of journalism. His first purchase
was the New York Morning Journal, a traditional newspaper which Hearst
completely transformed into a sensationalist rag. He bought his stories at
any price, and when there were no atrocities or crimes to report, it
behoved his journalists and photographers to 'arrange' matters. It is this
which in fact characterises the 'yellow press': lies and 'arranged' atrocities
served up as truth.
Hearst's lies made him a millionaire and a very important
personage in the newspaper world. In 1935 he was one of the richest men
in the world, with a fortune estimated at $200 million. After his purchase
of the Morning Journal, Hearst went on to buy and establish daily and
weekly newspapers throughout the US. In the 1940s, William Hearst
owned 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, 2
world news services, one business providing news items for films, the
Cosmopolitan film company, and a lot of others. In 1948 he bought one of
the US's first TV stations, BWAL TV in Baltimore. Hearst's newspapers sold
13 million copies a day and had close to 40 million readers. Almost a
third of the adult population of the US were reading Hearst newspapers
every day. Furthermore, many millions of people throughout the world
received information from the Hearst press via his news services, films
and a series of newspapers that were translated and published in large
quantities all over the world. The figures quoted above demonstrate how
the Hearst empire was able to influence American politics, and indeed
world politics, over very many years on issues which included opposition
to the US entering the Second World War on the side of the Soviet Union
and support for the McCarthyite anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.
William Hearst's outlook was ultra-conservative, nationalist and
anti-communist. His politics were the politics of the extreme right. In 1934
he travelled to Germany, where he was received by Hitler as a guest and
friend. After this trip, Hearst's newspapers became even more reactionary,
always carrying articles against socialism, against the Soviet Union and
especially against Stalin. Hearst also tried to use his newspapers for overt
Nazi propaganda purposes, publishing a series of articles by Goering,
Hitler's right-hand man. The protests of many readers, however, forced
him to stop publishing such items and to withdraw them from circulation.
After his visit to Hitler, Hearst's sensationalist newspapers were filled with
'revelations' about the terrible happenings in the Soviet Union - murders,
genocide, slavery, luxury for the rulers and starvation for the people, all
these were the big news items almost every day. The material was
provided to Hearst by the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's political police. On the
front pages of the newspapers there often appeared caricatures and
falsified pictures of the Soviet Union, with Stalin portrayed as a murderer
holding a dagger in his hand. We should not forget that these articles
were read each day by 40 million people in the US and millions of others
worldwide!
http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/S ... node4.html
help the Nazis in their psychological warfare against the Soviet Union.
Hearst was a well-known US newspaper proprietor known as the 'father' of
the so-called 'yellow press', i.e., the sensationalist press. William Hearst
began his career as a newspaper editor in 1885 when his father, George
Hearst, a millionaire mining industrialist, Senator and newspaper
proprietor himself, put him in charge of the San Francisco Daily Examiner.
This was also the start of the Hearst newspaper empire, an empire which
strongly influenced the lives and thinking of North Americans. After his
father died, William Hearst sold all the mining industry shares he inherited
and began to invest capital in the world of journalism. His first purchase
was the New York Morning Journal, a traditional newspaper which Hearst
completely transformed into a sensationalist rag. He bought his stories at
any price, and when there were no atrocities or crimes to report, it
behoved his journalists and photographers to 'arrange' matters. It is this
which in fact characterises the 'yellow press': lies and 'arranged' atrocities
served up as truth.
Hearst's lies made him a millionaire and a very important
personage in the newspaper world. In 1935 he was one of the richest men
in the world, with a fortune estimated at $200 million. After his purchase
of the Morning Journal, Hearst went on to buy and establish daily and
weekly newspapers throughout the US. In the 1940s, William Hearst
owned 25 daily newspapers, 24 weekly newspapers, 12 radio stations, 2
world news services, one business providing news items for films, the
Cosmopolitan film company, and a lot of others. In 1948 he bought one of
the US's first TV stations, BWAL TV in Baltimore. Hearst's newspapers sold
13 million copies a day and had close to 40 million readers. Almost a
third of the adult population of the US were reading Hearst newspapers
every day. Furthermore, many millions of people throughout the world
received information from the Hearst press via his news services, films
and a series of newspapers that were translated and published in large
quantities all over the world. The figures quoted above demonstrate how
the Hearst empire was able to influence American politics, and indeed
world politics, over very many years on issues which included opposition
to the US entering the Second World War on the side of the Soviet Union
and support for the McCarthyite anti-communist witch-hunts of the 1950s.
William Hearst's outlook was ultra-conservative, nationalist and
anti-communist. His politics were the politics of the extreme right. In 1934
he travelled to Germany, where he was received by Hitler as a guest and
friend. After this trip, Hearst's newspapers became even more reactionary,
always carrying articles against socialism, against the Soviet Union and
especially against Stalin. Hearst also tried to use his newspapers for overt
Nazi propaganda purposes, publishing a series of articles by Goering,
Hitler's right-hand man. The protests of many readers, however, forced
him to stop publishing such items and to withdraw them from circulation.
After his visit to Hitler, Hearst's sensationalist newspapers were filled with
'revelations' about the terrible happenings in the Soviet Union - murders,
genocide, slavery, luxury for the rulers and starvation for the people, all
these were the big news items almost every day. The material was
provided to Hearst by the Gestapo, Nazi Germany's political police. On the
front pages of the newspapers there often appeared caricatures and
falsified pictures of the Soviet Union, with Stalin portrayed as a murderer
holding a dagger in his hand. We should not forget that these articles
were read each day by 40 million people in the US and millions of others
worldwide!
http://www.etext.org/Politics/Staljin/S ... node4.html
Last edited by Ixa on 25 Oct 2003 22:57, edited 2 times in total.