How six conservative media moguls hindered America and Britain from entering World War II
How six conservative media moguls hindered America and Britain from entering World War II
âA landmark in the political history of journalism.ââMichael Kazin, author of What It Took to Win: A History of the Democratic Party
As World War II approached, the six most powerful media moguls in America and Britain tried to pressure their countries to ignore the fascist threat. The media empires of Robert McCormick, Joseph and Eleanor Patterson, and William Randolph Hearst spanned the United States, reaching tens of millions of Americans in print and over the airwaves with their isolationist views. Meanwhile in England, Lord Rothermereâs Daily Mail extolled Hitlerâs leadership and Lord Beaverbrookâs Daily Express insisted that Britain had no interest in defending Hitlerâs victims on the continent.
Kathryn S. Olmsted shows how these media titans worked in concertâincluding sharing editorial pieces and coordinating their responses to eventsâto influence public opinion in a right-wing populist direction, how they echoed fascist and antiâSemitic propaganda, and how they weakened and delayed both Britainâs and Americaâs response to Nazi aggression.