How Journalists Covered the Rise of Mussolini and Hitler
Reports on the rise of fascism in Europe was not the American media's finest hour
By John Broich, The Conversation
smithsonian.com
December 13, 2016
How to cover the rise of a political leader whos left a paper trail of anti-constitutionalism, racism and the encouragement of violence? Does the press take the position that its subject acts outside the norms of society? Or does it take the position that someone who wins a fair election is by definition normal, because his leadership reflects the will of the people?
These are the questions that confronted the U.S. press after the ascendance of fascist leaders in Italy and Germany in the 1920s and 1930s.
A leader for life
Benito Mussolini secured Italys premiership by marching on Rome with 30,000 blackshirts in 1922. By 1925 he had declared himself leader for life. While this hardly reflected American values, Mussolini was a darling of the American press, appearing in at least 150 articles from 1925-1932, most neutral, bemused or positive in tone.
The Saturday Evening Post even serialized Il Duces autobiography in 1928. Acknowledging that the new Fascisti movement was a bit rough in its methods, papers ranging from the New York Tribune to the Cleveland Plain Dealer to the Chicago Tribune credited it with saving Italy from the far left and revitalizing its economy. From their perspective, the post-WWI surge of anti-capitalism in Europe was a vastly worse threat than Fascism.
Ironically, while the media acknowledged that Fascism was a new experiment, papers like The New York Times commonly credited it with returning turbulent Italy to what it called normalcy.
Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-journalists-covered-rise-mussolini-hitler-180961407/#iUJKsKdvr59oGFvf.99
ymetca
(1,182 posts)In our new "noospheric" age, agit-prop is a much more diverse and relativistic phenomenon. If Mr. Trump attempts to control the Beast, the Beast will likely devour him.
That being said, I am still marveling at just how "normalized" political corruption has become. Ayn Rand's wet dream appears to be coming true. Yet, in a world where everyone is just in it for venal self-aggrandizement, one wonders how long before our mutual lack of respect for each other will implode our system of governance.
None of us can fully imagine a world in which all our "isms" are worthless appendages of a bygone age. No more Capitalism. No more Communism, Socialism, etc. Just a vast, interwoven global web of ever-changing interest groups having neither flag nor faith in common, with "just machines making big decisions". Trump and Putin are just the latest last-ditch efforts to resurrect the Dying God of Law and Order.
In store for us appears to be a wild amalgam of voodoo technologies constantly rewiring the human psyche, creating constant waves of mass discontent, and wildly gyrating social norms.
Sort of "Building the Perfect Beast", as Don Henley once sang...