The Newspaper Axis

This book explains how six isolationist media barons in the United States and Great Britain shaped the political culture of their respective nations on the eve of and during World War II. Together, William Randolph Hearst's newspaper chain, Lord Rothermere's Daily Mail, Lord Beaverbrook's Daily Express, Robert McCormick's Chicago Tribune, Joe Patterson's New York Daily News, and Cissy Patterson's Washington Times-Herald reached a staggering sixty million people by the late 1930s, and even more during the war that followed. Often dismissed by historians and foreign policy scholars because of their sensationalist, tabloid treatment of the news, these media lords and their newspapers had massive influence on public opinion at a critical time in world history. As Hitler built up his military and invaded his neighbors, these press lords worked together to pressure their governments to dismiss and ignore the fascist threat. They met the greatest crisis of the twentieth century not by urging collective action against tyranny but by spinning conspiracy theories, warning of race suicide, or even embracing fascism. They imagined a white nation and then constructed its enemies-not the Nazis, or even the Japanese, but the warmongers" among their fellow citizens who wanted to resist rather than appease the aggressors. As they fought against resistance to fascism, they helped lay the foundation for the nationalist, racist, and anti-Semitic Right that we live with today"--