A.J. Liebling Takes On William Randolph Hearst, The Man and The Legend

Read the two chapters on Hearst from Liebling's collection of essays The Press.

Liebling wrote "The Man Who Changed The Rules" in The New Yorker on the occasion of Hearst Sr.'s death in 1951. In it he considers Hearst's career.

Ten years later he wrote "A Look At The Record" (in The New Yorker again, I think) as a review of W.A. Swanberg's biography of Hearst, and as a retrospective. Here he muses on Hearst's career again, but also on the way it is being remembered, or recreated, by a biographer who admires "the great man" and by the official media, always ready to celebrate -- itself!

Please do the following things for this assignment.

• Read Liebling's two essays very carefully -- all groups. NOTE: This is the file Liebling on Hearst.pdf
• Read Lee Cooper, "Hearst Once Held Vast Real Estate", New York Times August 15, 1951, p. 20 - Group One.
• Read Burton Crane, "Hearst Built Corporate Empires in Newspapers, Magazines, Radio and Real Estate", New York Times August 15, 1951, p. 21 - Group Two
• Read the unsigned editorial "Career of Hearst Marked by Power, Increased Wealth, Crusading and Controversy", New York Times August 15, 1951, p. 20 - Groups Three
• Read the front page obituary by Gladwin Hill, "William Randolph Hearst Dies at 88 in California." NYT August 15, 1951, p. 1 - All Groups

Discuss two related but distinct issues in your 350-400 word essay on these pieces. First, Liebling's view of Hearst, reality vs myth. Second, the way Liebling uses Hearst as a way of continuing his critical analysis of American journalism as a whole, in the 1940s to the early 1960s, the period bracketed by these essays.

Email to your group and to me. Print out, and bring to class

• the two Liebling essays;
• the four articles from The New York Times listed above;
• your HW assignment.