George Seldes

George Seldes [ ˈsɛldiːz ] (born  November 16, 1890 in Alliance Colony ( New Jersey , USA ), †  July 2, 1995 ) was an American journalist , author and propaganda critic.

Life

George Seldes was the son of Jewish refugees from Russia. At the age of 19 he began working as a journalist and foreign correspondent for various US newspapers; Among other things, he was the Berlin correspondent of the Chicago Tribune and interviewed various famous personalities, including Paul von Hindenburg after the end of the First World War and Lenin in 1922. In 1923, however, he was expelled from the Soviet Union along with three fellow journalists , as reports there were personal Letters had been depicted and sent to Italy . After he reported there on the murder of the socialist Giacomo Matteotti and suspected Mussolini of being involved in this murder, he was also expelled from Italy. In 1927 he went to Mexico as a reporter for the Chicago Tribune , where he criticized the use of national mining rights by US companies. In the following years he wrote several books that dealt with questions of censorship and the control of opinion through government and corporate propaganda .

In the 1950s he was suspected of being a communist by Joseph McCarthy , and it was difficult for him to find a publisher for his publications. He remained active as a journalist well into old age; he died at the age of 104. In 1981 he received the George Polk Award for his life's work and was also a board member of the press association Fairness & Accuracy in Reporting .

The author Gilbert Seldes is his younger brother, the actress Marian Seldes his niece.

Works

• Even Gods Can't Change History. The Facts Speak for Themselves . Stuart, Secaucus NJ 1976, ISBN 0-8184-0233-4 .
• Freedom of the Press . Da Capo Press, New York 1971 (reprinted from Indianapolis IN 1935 edition).
• Iron, Blood and Profits. An Exposure of the World-wide Munitions Racket . Harper, New York 1934.
• Never Tire of Protesting. 1968
• One Thousand Americans . Boni & Gaer, New York 1947.
• The People Don't Know. The American Press and the Cold War . Gaer, New York 1949.
• Sawdust Caesar. The Untold History of Mussolini and Fascism . AMS Press, New York 1978, ISBN 0-404-56197-7 (reprint of the New York 1935 edition); the original 1935 edition on archive.org
• Tell the truth and run. 1953
• The People Don't Know. 1949
• Witch Hunt. The Technique and Profits of Redbaiting . Modern Age Books, New York 1940.
• Witness to a Century. Encounters with the noted, the notorious and the SOB’s . Ballantine Books, New York 1987, ISBN 0-345-33181-8 .
• You Can't Print That! The Truth behind the News 1918-1928 . Payson & Clark, New York 1929.
• Can These Things Be! , New York 1931; archive.org

literature

• Who Was Who in America , Volume XII 1996–1998 ( ISBN 0-8379-0229-0 )
• Rick Goldsmith (Director): Tell the Truth and Run. George Seldes and the American Press . Goldsmith Productions, Berkeley CA 1998 (video cassette, VHS, 111 min.)