Citizendia

George Seldes (November 16, 1890 – July 2, 1995) was an influential American investigative journalist and media critic. Events 534 - A second and final revision of the Codex Justinianus is published Year 1890 ( MDCCCXC) was a Common year starting on Wednesday (link will display the full calendar of the Gregorian calendar (or a Common Events 310 - Pope Miltiades is elected 626 - In fear of assassination Li Shimin ambushes and kills his rival Year 1995 ( MCMXCV) was a Common year starting on Sunday. Events of 1995 The United States of America —commonly referred to as the Investigative journalism is a type of reporting in which reporters deeply investigate a topic of interest often involving crime Political corruption, or some other Scandal

Contents

Early years

Seldes was born in Alliance, New Jersey. The Alliance Colony was a Utopian community that was founded in Alliance New Jersey on May 10 1882 The writer and critic Gilbert Seldes was his younger brother. Gilbert Vivian Seldes ( January 3, 1893 – September 29, 1970) was an American Writer and cultural Critic. When he was nineteen, he went to work at the Pittsburgh Leader. In 1914, he was appointed night editor of the Pittsburgh Post. As a young journalist, he was influenced by the investigative journalism of Lincoln Steffens. Joseph Lincoln Steffens ( April 6 1866 &ndash August 9 1936) was an American journalist and one of the most famous and influential

World War I

In 1916, Seldes moved to London where he worked for United Press. London ( ˈlʌndən is the capital and largest urban area in the United Kingdom. When the United States joined the First World War in 1917, Seldes was sent to France where he worked as the war correspondent for the Marshall Syndicate. World War I (abbreviated WWI; also known as the First World War, the Great War, and the War to End All This article is about the country For a topic outline on this subject see List of basic France topics. At end of the war, he obtained an exclusive interview with Paul von Hindenburg, the supreme commander of the German Army, but the article was suppressed and never appeared in the American press. Paul Ludwig Hans Anton von Beneckendorff und von Hindenburg ( known universally as Paul von Hindenburg ( ( October 2, 1847 &ndash August 2

In the interview, Hindenburg acknowledged the role that America played in defeating Germany. "The American infantry," said Hindenburg, "won the World War in battle in the Argonne. The Meuse-Argonn Offensive, also called the Battle of the Argonne Forest, was a part of the final Allied offensive of World War I (and known as the Grand " But American newspaper readers never read those outstanding words. Seldes and the others were accused of breaking the Armistice and were court martialed. An armistice is a situation where the warring parties agree to stop fighting A court-martial (plural courts-martial) is a Military court. These military courts can determine Punishments for members of the Military subject They were also forbidden to write anything about the interview.

Seldes himself believed that the suppression of the interview proved to be tragic. Instead of hearing straight from the mouth of Germany's supreme commander that they were beaten fair and square on the battlefield, another story took hold — the Dolchstoss (or "stab-in-the-back"), the myth that Germany did not lose in battle but was betrayed at home by "the socialists, the Communists and the Jews. The stab-in-the-back legend ( German:, literally "Dagger stab legend" refers to a social Myth theory popular in Germany in the period after Socialism refers to a broad set of economic theories of social organization advocating state or collective ownership and administration of the Means of production and distribution Communism is a Socioeconomic structure that promotes the establishment of an egalitarian, classless, stateless Society based " This was the central lie upon which Nazism was founded. Nazism, which was a short name for National Socialism (Nationalsozialismus refers primarily to the Ideology and practices of the National Socialist German

"If the Hindenburg interview had been passed by Pershing's censors at the time, it would have been headlined in every country civilized enough to have newspapers and undoubtedly would have made an impression on millions of people and became an important page in history," wrote Seldes in Witness to a Century. John Joseph "Black Jack" Pershing, GCB ( September 13, 1860 – July 15, 1948) was an officer in the United States Army "I believe it would have destroyed the main planks on which Hitler rose to power, it would have prevented World War II, the greatest and worst war in all history, and it would have changed the future of all mankind. Hi and welcome to Wikipedia! Please understand that this article is frequently vandalized and vandalism is reverted immediately World War II, or the Second World War, (often abbreviated WWII) was a global military conflict which involved a majority of the world's nations, including "

Lenin and Mussolini

Seldes spent the next ten years as an international reporter for the Chicago Tribune. The Chicago Tribune is a major daily Newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, and owned by the Tribune Company He interviewed Lenin in 1922, but the Soviet government did not like Seldes's reports, and he was expelled from the country the following year. The Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR was a constitutionally Socialist state that existed in Eurasia from 1922 to 1991

The Chicago Tribune sent him to Italy where he wrote about Benito Mussolini and the rise of fascism. Italy (Italia officially the Italian Republic, (Repubblica Italiana is located on the Italian Peninsula in Southern Europe, and on the two largest Fascism is a totalitarian nationalist and corporatist ideology Seldes investigated the murder of Giacomo Matteotti, the head of the Italian Socialist Party. Giacomo Matteotti ( 22 May 1885 – 10 June 1924) was an Italian socialist politician The Italian Socialist Party ( Partito Socialista Italiano, PSI was a democratic socialist / social democratic political party founded in Genoa His article implicated Mussolini in the killing, and Seldes was expelled from Italy.

In 1927, the Chicago Tribune sent Seldes to Mexico, but his articles criticizing American corporations concerning their use of that country's mineral rights were not well received. The United Mexican States ( or commonly Mexico (ˈmɛksɪkoʊ () is a federal constitutional Republic in North America. Mineral rights, mining rights, oil rights or drilling rights, are the rights to remove Minerals Oil, or sometimes Water Seldes returned to Europe but found that increasingly his work was being censored to fit the political views of the newspaper's owner, Robert McCormack.

Freelance

Disillusioned, Seldes left the Tribune and went to work as a freelance writer. In his first two books, You Can't Print That! (1929) and Can These Things Be! (1931), Seldes included material that he had not been allowed to publish in the Tribune. His next book, World Panorama (1933), was a narrative history of the interbellum period.

In 1934, Seldes published a history of the Roman Catholic Church, The Vatican. This was followed by an exposé of the global arms industry, Iron, Blood and Profits (1934), an account of Benito Mussolini, Sawdust Caesar (1935), and two books on the newspaper business, Freedom of the Press (1935) and Lords of the Press (1938). He also reported on the Spanish Civil War for the New York Post. The Spanish Civil War was a major conflict in Spain that started after an attempted Coup d'état committed by parts of the army against the government of The New York Post is the 13th-oldest Newspaper published in the United States and generally acknowledged as the oldest to have been published continually

On his return to the United States in 1940, Seldes published Witch Hunt, an account of the persecution of people with left-wing political views in America, and The Catholic Crisis, where he attempted to show the close relationship between the Catholic Church and fascist organizations in Europe.

Publication of In fact

From 1940 to 1950, Seldes published a political newsletter, In fact, which at the height of its popularity had a circulation of 176,000. One of the first articles published in the newsletter concerned the link between cigarette smoking and cancer. Seldes later explained that at the time, "The tobacco stories were suppressed by every major newspaper. For ten years we pounded on tobacco as being one of the only legal poisons you could buy in America. "

As well as writing his newsletter, Seldes continued to publish books. These included Facts and Fascism (1943), 1000 Americans (1947), an account of the people who controlled America, and The People Don't Know (1949) on the origins of the Cold War. Cold War is the state of conflict tension and competition that existed between the United States and the Soviet Union (USSR and their respective allies from the

Blacklisted

In the early 1950s, Seldes came under attack from Joseph McCarthy, who accused him of being a communist. Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14 1908 – May 2 1957 was an American politician who served as a Republican U Seldes was blacklisted and found it difficult to get published. However, he continued to write books: Tell the Truth and Run (1953), Never Tire of Protesting (1968), Even the Gods Can't Change History (1976) and Witness to a Century (1987).

In 1981, Seldes appeared in Warren Beatty's Reds, a film about the life of journalist John Reed. Warren Beatty (born Henry Warren Beaty; March 30 1937 is an American Academy Award - and Golden Globe -winning Actor, producer Reds is a 1981 film starring Warren Beatty and Diane Keaton. It centers on the life of John Reed, the Communist, journalist John "Jack" Silas Reed ( October 22, 1887 &ndash October 19, 1920) was an American Journalist, Poet Seldes appears as himself, commenting on the historical events depicted in the film.

Seldes died in 1995 at age 104. A delegation of journalists attended the memorial service at his home in Vermont and read from his books. [1]

Asked how to say his name, he told The Literary Digest "Nine persons out of ten mispronounce our name. The Literary Digest was an influential general-interest weekly Magazine in the early 20th century United States, published by Funk and Wagnalls If it had an n instead of an s as the final letter there would be no difficulty. The name is pronounced like Selden with the last letter an s": SEL-duhss. (Charles Earle Funk, What's the Name, Please?, Funk & Wagnalls, 1936. )

Bibliography

External links

See further

Alternative media are media (newspapers radio television movies Internet etc
© 2009 citizendia.org; parts available under the terms of GNU Free Documentation License, from http://en.wikipedia.org