William Randolph Hearst Warning: You are not logged in. Your IP address will be publicly visible if you make any edits. If you log in or create an account, your edits will be attributed to your username, along with other benefits.Anti-spam check. Do not fill this in! === Move to the right and break with Franklin D. Roosevelt === During the 1920s Hearst was a [[Jeffersonian democrat]]. He warned citizens against the dangers of big government and against unchecked federal power that could infringe on individual rights. When unemployment was near 25 percent, it appeared that Hoover would lose his bid for reelection in 1932, so Hearst sought to block the nomination of [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] as the Democratic challenger. While continuing to oppose Smith,<ref name=":0" /> he promoted the rival candidacy of [[Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines|Speaker of the House]], [[John Nance Garner]], a Texan "whose guiding motto is ‘America First'" and who, in his own words, saw “the gravest possible menace” facing the country as “the constantly increasing tendency toward socialism and communism”.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Rauchway |first=Eric |date=2016-05-06 |title=How 'America First' Got Its Nationalistic Edge |url=https://www.theatlantic.com/politics/archive/2016/05/william-randolph-hearst-gave-america-first-its-nationalist-edge/481497/ |access-date=2023-03-22 |website=The Atlantic |language=en}}</ref> At the Democratic Party Convention in 1932, with control of delegations from his own state of California and from Garner's home state of Texas, Hearst had enough influence to ensure that the triumphant Roosevelt picked Garner as his running mate. In the anticipation that Roosevelt would turn out to be, in his words, “properly conservative”, Hearst supported his election. But the rapprochement with Roosevelt did not last the year. The New Deal's program of unemployment relief, in Hearst's view, was “more communistic than the communist” and “un-American to the core”.<ref name=":0" /> More and more often, Hearst newspapers supported business over organized labor and condemned higher income tax legislation.<ref>{{cite book|first=Ben|last=Procter|title=William Randolph Hearst: The Later Years, 1911–1951 |url=https://archive.org/details/williamrandolphh00benp|url-access=registration|year=2007|publisher=Oxford UP|page=[https://archive.org/details/williamrandolphh00benp/page/248 248]|isbn=978-0195325348}}</ref> Hearst broke with FDR in spring 1935 when the president vetoed the Patman [[Adjusted Compensation Payment Act|Bonus Bill]] for veterans and tried to enter the [[Permanent Court of International Justice|World Court]].{{sfn|Nasaw|2000|pp=511–14}} His papers carried the publisher's rambling, vitriolic, all-capital-letters editorials, but he no longer employed the energetic reporters, editors, and columnists who might have made a serious attack. He reached 20 million readers in the mid-1930s. They included much of the working class which Roosevelt had attracted by three-to-one margins in the 1936 election. The Hearst papers—like most major chains—had supported the Republican [[Alf Landon]] that year.{{sfn|Nasaw|2000|pp=xiv, 515–17}}<ref>Rodney P. Carlisle, "William Randolph Hearst: A Fascist Reputation Reconsidered," ''Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly'' 50#1 (1973): 125–33.</ref> While campaigning against Roosevelt's policy of developing formal diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union, in 1935 Hearst ordered his editors to reprint eyewitness accounts of the Ukrainian famine (the [[Holodomor]], which occurred in 1932–1933).<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Commentary Bk|date=1983|title=The Famine the "Times" Couldn't Find|url=https://www.commentary.org/articles/commentary-bk/the-famine-the-times-couldnt-find/|journal=Commentary|volume=November|pages=n. 3}}</ref> These had been supplied in 1933 by Welsh freelance journalist [[Gareth Jones (journalist)|Gareth Jones]],<ref name="WalesOnline">{{cite news|date=13 November 2009|title=Welsh journalist who exposed a Soviet tragedy|work=Wales Online, Western Mail and the South Wales Echo|url=http://www.walesonline.co.uk/news/wales-news/welsh-journalist-who-exposed-soviet-2069992}}</ref><ref name="SovietArticles">{{cite web|title=Famine Exposure: Newspaper Articles relating to Gareth Jones' trips to The Soviet Union (1930–35)|url=http://www.garethjones.org/soviet_articles/soviet_articles.htm|access-date=7 April 2016|work=garethjones.org}}</ref> and by the disillusioned [[Communist Party USA|American Communist]] [[Fred Beal]].<ref>{{Cite web|last=Mark|first=Brown|date=2009-11-13|title=1930s journalist Gareth Jones to have story retold|url=http://www.theguardian.com/film/2009/nov/13/gareth-jones-story-retold-documentary|access-date=2022-01-02|website=The Guardian|language=en}}</ref> ''[[The New York Times]],'' content with what it has since conceded was "tendentious" reporting of Soviet achievements, printed the blanket denials of its [[Pulitzer Prize]]-winning Moscow correspondent [[Walter Duranty]].<ref>{{Cite web|title=The New York Times Statement About 1932 Pulitzer Prize Awarded to Walter Duranty|url=https://www.nytco.com/company/prizes-awards/new-york-times-statement-about-1932-pulitzer-prize-awarded-to-walter-duranty/|access-date=2022-01-02|website=The New York Times Company|language=en-US}}</ref> Duranty, who was widely credited with facilitating the rapprochement with Moscow, dismissed the Hearst-circulated reports of man-made starvation as a politically motivated "scare story".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Gamache|first=Ray|date=2014|title=Breaking Eggs for a Holodomor: Walter Duranty, the New York Times , and the Denigration of Gareth Jones|url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00947679.2014.12062918|journal=Journalism History|language=en|volume=39|issue=4|pages=208–218|doi=10.1080/00947679.2014.12062918|s2cid=142098495|issn=0094-7679|url-access=subscription}}</ref> In the articles, written by Thomas Walker, to better serve Hearst's editorial line against Roosevelt's Soviet policy the famine was "updated": the impression was created of the famine continuing into 1934. In response, [[Louis Fischer]] wrote an article in ''[[The Nation]]'' accusing Walker of "pure invention" because Fischer had been to Ukraine in 1934 and claimed that he had not seen famine. He framed the story as an attempt by Hearst to "spoil Soviet-American relations" as part of "an anti-red campaign".<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Mace|first=James E.|date=1988|title=The Politics of Famine: American Government and Press Response to the Ukrainian Famine, 1932-33|url=https://shron1.chtyvo.org.ua/James_Mace/The_Politics_of_Famine_American_Government_and_Press_Response_to_the_Ukrainian_Famine_1932_1933_anhl.pdf?|journal=Holocaust and Genocide Studies|volume=3|issue=1|page= 81|doi=10.1093/hgs/3.1.75|pmid=20684118}}</ref> Summary: Please note that all contributions to Christianpedia may be edited, altered, or removed by other contributors. If you do not want your writing to be edited mercilessly, then do not submit it here. 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