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rangerrebew

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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
« on: December 20, 2016, 06:12:19 pm »
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

image: http://thumbs.media.smithsonianmag.com//filer/12/31/1231652b-8531-4350-9d5f-98093eb8edbe/bundesarchiv_bild_146-1969-065-24_munchener_abkommen_ankunft_mussolini-wr.jpg__800x600_q85_crop.jpg
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler
Benito Mussolini and Adolf Hitler (Wikimedia Commons)
By John Broich, The Conversation
smithsonian.com
December 13, 2016
 

How to cover the rise of a political leader who’s 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 Italy’s 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.



Read more: http://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-journalists-covered-rise-mussolini-hitler-180961407/#DcjtdfRyqsgq4k6z.99
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Offline Idaho_Cowboy

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Re: 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
« Reply #1 on: December 20, 2016, 06:14:58 pm »
The leftist media have always loved tyrants. Hitler, Mussolini, Stalin, Gorbachev, Fidel, Che, Mao, Obama... 
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Offline Hondo69

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Re: 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
« Reply #2 on: December 25, 2016, 02:35:57 pm »
Hitler was Time magazine's man of the year in 1938, Stalin made it twice in 1939 & 1942.  Time brushed off criticism stating their choice was the "most impactful" person in those particular years.
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Offline endicom

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Re: 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
« Reply #3 on: December 25, 2016, 03:08:07 pm »
The 'anti-Duranty' covered this era well: http://www.garethjones.org/german_articles/german_articles.htm

You'd hardly know it from his writings but Jones considered himself socialist. But so did a lot of people at that time.

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Offline bigheadfred

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Re: 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
« Reply #4 on: December 25, 2016, 03:23:00 pm »
Quote from: endicom on December 25, 2016, 03:08:07 pm
The 'anti-Duranty' covered this era well: http://www.garethjones.org/german_articles/german_articles.htm

You'd hardly know it from his writings but Jones considered himself socialist. But so did a lot of people at that time.

There s some interesting reading. Thanks for the link.
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Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: 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
« Reply #5 on: December 25, 2016, 03:36:33 pm »
Quote from: Hondo69 on December 25, 2016, 02:35:57 pm
Hitler was Time magazine's man of the year in 1938, Stalin made it twice in 1939 & 1942.  Time brushed off criticism stating their choice was the "most impactful" person in those particular years.

Time has been pretty consistent in that explanation over the years.

The fact is that the nazis did manage to keep a pretty tight lid on info leaving Germany at that time. Lord knows many Americans went to the Olympics and came back with glowing stories of the wonderful things Hitler was doing for Germany. Much of the world agreed with various parts of the nazi ideology until they started invading neighbor after neighbor. Great Britain was still openly debating whether to adopt fascism in the 1950s.

All Hitler did was gave voice to a lot of different emotions and ideals that a lot of people all over the globe already felt or believed. My great grandfather was a Jew who declared that he was a Christian to make it easier for him to immigrate to the USA in 1912.

Also there's the fact that left and right weren't nearly as divided then as we are now. Prior to WWII there was very little in the way of (open) anti war sentiment.  They existed but they were generally pretty quiet and more often than not, Republican.
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Offline endicom

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Re: 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
« Reply #6 on: December 25, 2016, 03:53:52 pm »
Quote from: bigheadfred on December 25, 2016, 03:23:00 pm
There s some interesting reading. Thanks for the link.


You're welcome.

He saw and reported the reality of the situation in the USSR. He shared a plane ride with Hitler. Lots of stuff.
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Offline bigheadfred

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Re: 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
« Reply #7 on: December 25, 2016, 03:55:53 pm »
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She asked me name my foe then. I said the need within some men to fight and kill their brothers without thought of Love or God. Ken Hensley

Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: 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
« Reply #8 on: December 25, 2016, 04:31:06 pm »
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Offline bigheadfred

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Re: 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
« Reply #9 on: December 25, 2016, 04:43:21 pm »
Quote from: Cripplecreek on December 25, 2016, 04:31:06 pm
They were debating socialism vs fascism not that I see a huge difference.

Coming out of WWII there was probably a more pronounced difference. Maybe not so much now.
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She asked me name my foe then. I said the need within some men to fight and kill their brothers without thought of Love or God. Ken Hensley

Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: 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
« Reply #10 on: December 25, 2016, 04:55:40 pm »
Quote from: bigheadfred on December 25, 2016, 04:43:21 pm
Coming out of WWII there was probably a more pronounced difference. Maybe not so much now.

British novelist Nevil Shute wrote about the debate in the 30s. I'm not sure which side he came down on but I think he preferred fascism since he angry about government not backing his attempt to start an airplane company. He was very critical of British socialism in later books.
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Offline endicom

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Re: 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
« Reply #11 on: December 25, 2016, 05:54:47 pm »
Quote from: bigheadfred on December 25, 2016, 04:43:21 pm
Coming out of WWII there was probably a more pronounced difference. Maybe not so much now.


The Mystery of Fascism, including footnotes, is a good short read: http://www.la-articles.org.uk/fascism.htm
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Offline dfwgator

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Re: 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
« Reply #12 on: December 25, 2016, 06:03:10 pm »
The Left had no problem with Hitler until he invaded their beloved Soviet Union.
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geronl

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Re: 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
« Reply #13 on: December 25, 2016, 09:51:11 pm »
Stalin murdered more people than Hitler between 1938 and 1941, why is he excluded from this....

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Offline bigheadfred

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Re: 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
« Reply #14 on: December 25, 2016, 10:09:48 pm »
Quote from: geronl on December 25, 2016, 09:51:11 pm
Stalin murdered more people than Hitler between 1938 and 1941, why is he excluded from this....

Fascism. Not Communism. Besides, dead men tell no tales.
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She asked me name my foe then. I said the need within some men to fight and kill their brothers without thought of Love or God. Ken Hensley

Offline Hondo69

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Re: 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
« Reply #15 on: December 26, 2016, 07:54:03 am »
Quote from: Cripplecreek on December 25, 2016, 03:36:33 pm
Time has been pretty consistent in that explanation over the years.

The fact is that the nazis did manage to keep a pretty tight lid on info leaving Germany at that time. Lord knows many Americans went to the Olympics and came back with glowing stories of the wonderful things Hitler was doing for Germany. Much of the world agreed with various parts of the nazi ideology until they started invading neighbor after neighbor. Great Britain was still openly debating whether to adopt fascism in the 1950s.

Good points.  I find it interesting that so many people and so many governments were sucked into Hitler's spiel about hope and change.  Even German Jews were in many cases the very last the face the reality of Nazism.

Hitler had a nice little Good Cop - Bad Cop scheme working.  While he and other Nazi leaders were out there making speeches about the wonders of fascism, the SS was doing their dirty work on the side.  Hitler always had a ready excuse at hand to explain away the jack boot tactics of the SS.  Many people, including global leaders, were predisposed to swallow it all in hook, line and sinker.

After the utter devastation of WWI any viable "good news" coming out of Germany was all the proof they needed to look the other way.
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Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: 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
« Reply #16 on: December 26, 2016, 11:36:46 am »
Yup.

The Reichstag fire wasn't about the Jews it was blamed on the communists and it was used to create more laws and seize greater control. Hitler went long periods without mentioning the Jews because he realized he could substitute "Greedy bankers" or "Dishonest businessmen" with Jews and other nazis would feed the propaganda in the beerhalls and street corners about the "Greedy Jewish Bankers and businessmen".

Its your basic top down, bottom up, inside out Alinsky propaganda methods which actually predate both Alinsky and the Nazis. Those propaganda methods come from the Wilson era progressives of America and guys like Edward Bernays who was himself Jewish and no antisemite.

In his 1965 autobiography, Bernays recalls a dinner at his home in 1933 where Karl von Wiegand, foreign correspondent of the Hearst newspapers, an old hand at interpreting Europe and just returned from Germany, was telling us about Goebbels and his propaganda plans to consolidate Nazi power. Goebbels had shown Wiegand his propaganda library, the best Wiegand had ever seen. Goebbels, said Wiegand, was using my book Crystallizing Public Opinion as a basis for his destructive campaign against the Jews of Germany. This shocked me. ... Obviously the attack on the Jews of Germany was no emotional outburst of the Nazis, but a deliberate, planned campaign.
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rangerrebew

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Re: 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
« Reply #17 on: December 26, 2016, 10:08:50 pm »
Quote from: Cripplecreek on December 25, 2016, 03:36:33 pm

All Hitler did was gave voice to a lot of different emotions and ideals that a lot of people all over the globe already felt or believed. 


That's exactly what Obama did.

That's exactly what Trump did.

The big difference was Hitler had already told the world in Mein Kampf what he planned to do and was ignored or politicians played ostrich.  He did not fool Churchill one bit but the allied countries wanted to wait until there was a world war until they pushed back.
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Offline Victoria33

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Re: 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
« Reply #18 on: December 26, 2016, 10:37:00 pm »
Quote from: Hondo69 on December 25, 2016, 02:35:57 pm
Hitler was Time magazine's man of the year in 1938, Stalin made it twice in 1939 & 1942.  Time brushed off criticism stating their choice was the "most impactful" person in those particular years.
@Hondo69

Time always chooses the person who affected the year more than others.  That is affected, good or bad, for the year.
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Offline Cripplecreek

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Re: 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
« Reply #19 on: December 26, 2016, 10:41:07 pm »
Quote from: Victoria33 on December 26, 2016, 10:37:00 pm
@Hondo69

Time always chooses the person who affected the year more than others.  That is affected, good or bad, for the year.

It hasn't even always been a person. Sometimes its a group of people (the tea party was under consideration in 09) Sometimes its an issue like global warming.
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Offline Hondo69

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Re: 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
« Reply #20 on: December 28, 2016, 03:03:56 pm »
Before the U.S. officially entered the war in late 1941, factions of every stripe had no shortage of followers throughout the country.  There were Communists, Socialists, Fascists, and pro-Nazi groups - many of them touting one form of Isolationism or another.

One of the primary reasons for the prominence of these groups was the fallout of WWI which left many European countries experimenting with various government styles in hopes of repairing the widespread devastation.  A group calling themselves Communist, for example, did not trigger an immediate negative reaction like we would expect today.  Public sentiment was different then, more along the lines of, "that could be an interesting experiment".

Prominent Americans including authors, actors and notables such as Charles Lindbergh did not shy away from speaking their minds regarding these governmental "experiments".  Today we would call them activists, which has a somewhat negative connotation, but in the 1930's many were regarded more along the lines of deep thinkers.

Within this context publications such as Time magazine and many others can be somewhat forgiven for taking a non-judgemental view of Fascism or Nazis.  They didn't have the advantage we have today of looking back through history, being armchair quarterbacks.

-----

But they did have all the clues.  These leaders of Fascism and Communism told us exactly who they were long before they ever rose to power.  Mein Kampf wasn't exactly a closely guarded secret and Hitler detailed exactly what his plans entailed for his National Socialist party.  Mussolini was a journalist before he ever rose to power and plenty of examples were provided of his beliefs.

The list goes on, but the main point being these people told us exactly who they were long before they ever rose to power.  We can chose to either believe them at their word, or look the other way.

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