29-10-2012, 12:56 AM
(This post was last modified: 06-11-2012, 04:47 PM by Nathaniel Heidenheimer.)
how did they differ or share similarities during the key period in which the remnants of big city machines , and their press drum beaters, could still play a key role in the moving the nation right or left?
I am not here trying to make more of this relationship than it was. Rather I have lately come to see the transition from machine to TV politics as an important one in understanding the Democrats from 1960 and those who might beused to destroy the possibility of an emerging left-liberal coalition.
-------
"On October 18, after the Roosevelt campaign train had left Albany without him, Kennedy received a letter from Joe Willicombe, William Randolph Hearst's secretary, with a check for $25,000 'for radio campaigning.' Kennedy wrote to thank Hearst for funneling his campaign contribution through him. Well aware that while Hearst thought Roosevelt would make a better president than Herbert Hoover, he feared him as too much of a progressive and an internationalist. Kennedy inserted himself between the two, claiming that whatever happened in the future, he would remain Hearst's ally, defender, and liaison to Roosevelt" --p. 182 The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw.
IMO Nasaw was overly cautious in his biography of Hearst. This is a better book. Given what the Hearst Press, exemplified by Walter Winchell, did in the period immediately after WWII this is an interesting connection to note between JFK's dad and Hearst. Of course Joseph K was an official fundraiser for FDR, still. There are many things Joe Kennedy had in common with Hearst but one should be careful. Joseph K's way was to find the perfect place to stand to serve as a valve. Long term question: the evolution of political machines into 1960 when they are lost into TV lamp... on purpose. http://www.amazon.com/The-Patriarch-Rema...1594203768
I am not here trying to make more of this relationship than it was. Rather I have lately come to see the transition from machine to TV politics as an important one in understanding the Democrats from 1960 and those who might beused to destroy the possibility of an emerging left-liberal coalition.
-------
"On October 18, after the Roosevelt campaign train had left Albany without him, Kennedy received a letter from Joe Willicombe, William Randolph Hearst's secretary, with a check for $25,000 'for radio campaigning.' Kennedy wrote to thank Hearst for funneling his campaign contribution through him. Well aware that while Hearst thought Roosevelt would make a better president than Herbert Hoover, he feared him as too much of a progressive and an internationalist. Kennedy inserted himself between the two, claiming that whatever happened in the future, he would remain Hearst's ally, defender, and liaison to Roosevelt" --p. 182 The Patriarch: The Remarkable Life and Turbulent Times of Joseph P. Kennedy by David Nasaw.
IMO Nasaw was overly cautious in his biography of Hearst. This is a better book. Given what the Hearst Press, exemplified by Walter Winchell, did in the period immediately after WWII this is an interesting connection to note between JFK's dad and Hearst. Of course Joseph K was an official fundraiser for FDR, still. There are many things Joe Kennedy had in common with Hearst but one should be careful. Joseph K's way was to find the perfect place to stand to serve as a valve. Long term question: the evolution of political machines into 1960 when they are lost into TV lamp... on purpose. http://www.amazon.com/The-Patriarch-Rema...1594203768