Newsmaker - Patricia Beard

Patricia Beard's Newsmaker: Roy W. Howard, the Mastermind Behind the Scripps-Howard News Empire from the Gilded Age to the Atomic Age is a fascinating look into journalism and the role of the media in 20th century America. A friend lent me the book to illustrate how the media and politics can be intertwined in America, but it is also a fascinating insight into how a highly successful publisher achieved his success, and it is a great whirlwind tour of 20th century world history.

Beard's biography follows Roy Howard throughout his life from very humble beginnings to becoming one of the top executives of the United Press, one of the dominant news bureaus in the 20th century. Beard's sources mainly came from Howard's fastidiously maintained diary and his numerous confidential memos to his colleagues, as well as the articles and editorials that he published throughout his life. One reason I found this book so fascinating was because it showed me how a very successful and powerful publisher lived his life. I was struck by how all-consuming his work became - his entire adult life seemed to focus on networking, talking to political actors and gathering information for the next big "scoop". That's not to say that he didn't seem to live a very glamorous life - he was constantly traveling and being wined and dined by foreign dignitaries and powerful individuals - but he worked in publishing for his entire adult life and was working in his office up to the day he died.

Thanks mainly to Howard's constant travels, the book also offered an enjoyable and unique review of many of the key historical events in the 20th century. I learned some new history, particularly about the ongoing American relationship with the Philippines, which I had never learned about in school. The book also gave a behind-the-scenes view of how many key political figures collected information, discussed it and made decisions based on it, because Howard frequently brought information from his overseas travels back to the US and discussed his findings with presidents, generals and statesmen. Howard would frequently have dinner with Presidents Hoover and Roosevelt, and I found those encounters fascinating to read about. Howard also conducted interviews with the Emperor of Japan, Hitler and Stalin prior to WWII and his descriptions of these meetings opened a completely new view onto some of the greatest dictators in history for me.

Perhaps most disturbing, however, was reading about the role that Howard and his news agency played in American politics. I believe Beard published her biography prior to 2016 and the public's new obsession with fake news and the integrity of the media, but I still thought that she down-played the significance of the United Press' role in defining American political opinions. The United Press frequently backed candidates running in the presidential elections and local newspapers would support candidates running for mayor or governor. Howard's World-Telegram in New York City played a significant role in negotiating union strikes in the city. Howard personally tended to dictate the UP's presidential endorsements and his opinions often became the opinions of the UP. Furthermore, many of the articles that Beard included in the biography had clear bias and did not seem to me to be unbiased, factual reporting. Perhaps most frightening, at the height of his career, Howard was considered to be a sort of "ambassador-at-large" for the United States during his travels overseas - he would advocate with foreign leaders for America's interests, and he would bring certain foreign leaders' demands back to the US and advocate for those as well. But Howard was never formally given any authority by the US government to act this way, although it was known that he had a wealth of contacts and this behavior was tolerated by the federal government. If Roy Howard was able to play such a defining role in American politics in the 20th century, I cannot imagine what today's top press executives are able to do today. Perhaps that is what frightens me most about Beard's biography of one of the most powerful men of the last century.