The Anti-Semitic Roots of the “Liberal News Media” Critique

Abstract

Anti-Semitic beliefs that associated Jews, especially New York Jews, with the news media helped create the idea of a “liberal news media.” Anti-Semites around the world have linked Jews with “control” of the news media since the nineteenth century. In the postwar United States, anti-Semitic critiques of the news media were closely linked with Cold War–era anticommunism, Christian conservatism, and reaction to the civil rights movement by white conservatives. Anti-Semites of the postwar period were usually fervent Christian anticommunists who believed that Jews secretly manipulated and masterminded the news in order to promote the civil rights movement, destroy the Christian United States, and pave the way for communist world government.

Notes

1 “What We Believe,” National Christian News 8, no. 9 (1969): 3; Ben Klassen and Austin Davis (revised by Oren Fenton Potito), “Fifty Phoney Arguments: Exposed,” ibid. 10, no. 1 (1971): 1; “The Controllers,” ibid. 16, no. 8 (1977): 1–4; “The Controllers: Part 2,” ibid. 16, no. 9 (1977): 1–4; “The Controllers: Part 3,” ibid. 16, no. 10 (1977): 1–4.

2 Stephen J. Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time (Hamden, CT: Archon Books, 1988), 129–50.

3 David Greenberg, “The Idea of ‘the Liberal Media’ and Its Roots in the Civil Rights Movement,” The Sixties: A Journal of History, Politics, and Culture 1 (December 2008): 167–86.

4 Benjamin R. Epstein and Arnold Forster, The Radical Right: Report on the John Birch Society and Its Allies (New York: Random House, 1967), 60, 64–66.

5 On color-blind and racially coded language, see Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, “The Long Civil Rights Movement and the Political Uses of the Past,” Journal of American History 91 (March 2005): 1233–63; and Darren Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt: Plain-folk Religion, Grassroots Politics, and the Rise of Evangelical Conservatism (New York: W.W. Norton, 2011), 274–75.

6 Tim Kiska, “Nixon and the Media,” in Melvin Small, ed., A Companion to Richard M. Nixon (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 292; “Agnew, on Zionists, His Novel,” New York Times, May 12, 1976, p. 39; Deirdre Carmody, “Zionism ‘in Media’ Decried by Agnew: On TV for First Time since Resignation, He Says US Is Swayed on Mideast,” ibid., May 12, 1976, p. 15.

7 On criticism of the news media by conservatives, see William Gillis, “Say No to the Liberal Media: Conservatives and Criticism of the News Media in the 1970s” (PhD dissertation, Indiana University, 2013).

8 Frederic Cople Jaher, A Scapegoat in the New Wilderness: The Origins and Rise of Anti-Semitism in America (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1994), 1, 6; Leonard Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), viii, x, xviii–xxviii.

9 Stephen D. Isaacs, Jews and American Politics (Garden City, NY: Doubleday, 1974), 49; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 129; Victoria Saker Woeste, “Insecure Equality: Louis Marshall, Henry Ford, and the Problem of Defamatory Antisemitism, 1920–1929,” Journal of American History 91 (December 2004), 882; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 129, 130.

10 On Joseph and Albert Pulitzer and anti-Semitism, see “Filthy Lucre: The Almighty Dollar's ‘Flooence’ in Gotham,” Los Angeles Times, April 28, 1889, p. 12; James McGrath Morris, Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power (New York: Harper, 2010), 260–63; David Nasaw, The Chief: The Life of William Randolph Hearst (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2000), 53, 96, 106; and Denis Brian, Pulitzer: A Life (New York: Wiley, 2001), 129.

11 On the belief that British propagandists and Jews in the news media pushed the United States into World War I, see Colin Holmes, Anti-Semitism in British Society, 1876–1939 (New York: Routledge, 1979), 174, 65, esp. 125; and Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 131. On the Ku Klux Klan and anti-Semitism in the 1920s, see David M. Chalmers, Hooded Americanism: The History of the Ku Klux Klan, 3rd ed. (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1987), 110; Tom Rice, “Protecting Protestantism: The Ku Klux Klan vs. the Motion Picture Industry,” Film History 20, no. 3 (2008): 367; Lisa McGirr, Suburban Warriors: The Origins of the New American Right (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2001), 272; “Solomon Was a Mere Piker in Wiseness,” Fiery Cross, July 13, 1928, p. 5; “New York Papers in Frenzy Print Many Ridiculous Stories,” ibid., July 24, 1924, p. 6; “Newspapers Contradict Own Stories,” ibid., Nov. 23, 1923, pp. 1, 8; “Catholicism and the Press,” ibid., July 4, 1924, p. 8; and “Excessive Propaganda a Boomerang,” ibid., March 29, 1924, pp. 1, 5. On the Searchlight and “Jew-owned” newspapers, see Ezra Asher Cook, Ku Klux Klan Secrets Exposed: Attitude toward Jews, Catholics, Foreigners, and Masons: Fraudulent Methods Used, Atrocities Committed in Name of Order (1922), n.p., http://books.google.com/books?id=eb_71_tTZ0AC. On William Joseph Simmons and New York newspapers, see “Statement of Mr. William Joseph Simmons, of Atlanta, Ga.,” in The Ku-Klux Klan: Hearings before the Committee on Rules, House of Representatives, Sixty-seventh Congress, First Session (Washington, 1921), pp. 67–77, esp. 75. On anti-Semites and criticism of Hollywood, see Rice, “Protecting Protestantism,” 367–80; and “Films Reflect on All Jews,” National Spotlight, December 1, 1975, p. 8.

12 Neil Baldwin, Henry Ford and the Jews: The Mass Production of Hate (New York: Perseus Books, 2001), 59, 119–20, 295; Woeste, “Insecure Equality,” 877, 882, 890; Rice, “Protecting Protestantism,” 372.

13 David Greenberg, Nixon's Shadow: The History of an Image (New York: W.W. Norton, 2003), 48; Matthew Avery Sutton, “Was FDR the Antichrist? The Birth of Fundamentalist Antiliberalism in a Global Age,” Journal of American History 98 (March 2012): 1052–74, esp. 1066; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 130. For more on concerns about Jewish influence in the news media in Britain, see ibid., 65–69, 84–86, 125, 174. The 1970s far right US publication Sons of Liberty sold racist and anti-Semitic books, including a volume titled Jewish Press Control in England, written by Arnold Leese. See “Books for Patriots 1974,” undated advertising insert, Sons of Liberty (Brisbane, California), Ephemeral materials, 1976–, RH WL Eph 2232.2, Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements (Kenneth Spencer Research Library, University of Kansas, Lawrence, Kansas). England's Imperial Fascist League produced a pamphlet in the late 1930s that argued “Jewish Money Power” controlled the news media. See Jewish Press-Control: The London Newspapers (London, 1939).

14 Ronald Modras, “Father Coughlin and Anti-Semitism: Fifty Years Later,” Journal of Church and State 31, no. 2 (1989): 231, 232, 234. Clive Webb, Rabble Rousers: The American Far Right in the Civil Rights Era (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 2010), 2; Greenberg, Nixon's Shadow, 47–48; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 131. Lindbergh was widely denounced after this speech. See Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 130.

15 Frederic Cople Jaher, Scapegoat in the New Wilderness, 2; “What We Believe,” National Christian News 8, 3; Klassen and Davis (revised by Potito), “Fifty Phoney Arguments: Exposed,” 3; “The E.R.A. Trap; Poisoned Bait,” National Christian News 16, no. 2 (1977): pp. 1, 3; On McIntire, Wells, and the Church of the Open Door, see Heather Hendershot, What's Fair on the Air? Cold War Right-wing Broadcasting and the Public Interest (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2011), 102–105, 160; McGirr, Suburban Warriors, 104, 183; and Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 163. On McCarthyism and anti-Semitism, see Greenberg, Nixon's Shadow, 48.

16 On hate sheets, see Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 163; John George and Laird Wilcox, American Extremists: Militias, Supremacists, Klansmen, Communists, and Others (Amherst, MA: Prometheus Books, 1996), 212–13; and Ronald Lora and William Henry Longton, eds., The Conservative Press in Twentieth-century America (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), 381–90. On Gerald L. K. Smith and the Cross and the Flag, see Michael Barkun, Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, revised edition, 1997), 55; Arnold Forster and Benjamin R. Epstein, The New Anti-Semitism (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1974), 19–20; George and Wilcox, American Extremists, 278; and Glen Jeansonne, Gerald L. K. Smith: Minister of Hate (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1988), 127–28.

17 “The Bondage of the Free,” December 1969 mailing, p. 2, Polish Freedom Fighters [Letters 1969–], RH WL Eph 616.1, Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements; Klassen and Davis (revised by Potito), “Fifty Phoney Arguments: Exposed,” 1; “The Controllers,” National Christian News 16, no. 8 (1977), pp. 1–4, esp. 2.

18 Webb, Rabble Rousers, 23; Morris Kominsky, The Hoaxers: Plain Liars, Fancy Liars, and Damned Liars (Boston: Branden Books, 1970), 121–26. For more on anti-Semitic distortions used by the racist Right, see Kominsky, ibid., 117–223. On the Protocols hoax, see Kominsky, ibid., 202–14. Fred Farrel, “For the Lack of Knowledge Our People Will Be Destroyed: Race Is the Important Thing,” Common Sense, January 1, 1971, pp. 1–3, esp. 1; Fred Farrel, “White Majority Enslaved by the Racial Minority Racket: Racial Minority Dynamism Most Powerful Single Factor in American Political Life,” ibid., May 1, 1971, p. 1; “Zionist ‘6,000,000’ Big Lie Disproved: Zionist Plotting to again Drag USA into World War,” ibid., October 1, 1966, pp. 1–2; Fred Farrel, “Calley Thrown to the Wolves; Shame on Alien-controlled Defense Department!” ibid., April 15, 1971, pp. 1–2; “Cover-up for Real Massacre,” Common Sense, April 15, 1971, p. 1.

19 On distortions by hate sheets, see Kominsky, Hoaxers, 7. For an example of identical material used in different anti-Semitic publishers, see “The Octopus (with 1970 calendar),” [1969], Polish Freedom Fighters (Misc.), RH WL Eph 616 file 2, Polish Freedom Fighters [Letters 1969–], RH WL Eph 616.1, Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements; and Oren Fenton Potito, “The Octopus,” National Christian News 8, no. 9 (1969), 1.

20 Webb, Rabble Rousers, 59.

21 Ibid., 22–24, 29, 50–53, 59, 141–42, 159–63. On Bowles, see Webb, 22–24, 29. On Kasper, see Webb, 50–53, 59.

22 Greenberg, “The Idea of ‘the Liberal Media,’” 168–69, 176; Webb, Rabble Rousers, 36–37. On violence against reporters, see Joseph Crespino, In Search of Another Country: Mississippi and the Conservative Counterrevolution (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2007), 138; John Nerone, Violence against the Press: Policing the Public Sphere in US History (New York: Oxford University Press, 1994), pp. 157–58; Greenberg, “Liberal Media,” 177.

23 Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, xi, 178, 186, 192; Daniel K. Williams, God's Own Party: The Making of the Christian Right (New York: Oxford University Press, 2010), 219; Gil Troy, Moynihan's Moment: America's Fight against Zionism as Racism (New York: Oxford University Press, 2013), 177. In the early 1950s the Richmond News Leader warned the Anti-Defamation League to not stir up trouble in the South. See Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 190–93.

24 “Modern ‘Thinking’” (cartoon), Common Sense, May 1, 1971, p. 1.

25 Jenkin Lloyd Jones, “New York City: A Triumph of Liberalism,” Human Events, February 22, 1975, p. 9; “Sodom on the Hudson” quoted in Turn the Beat Around: The Secret History of Disco (New York: Faber and Faber, 2005), 237; quoted in Jefferson Cowie, Stayin’ Alive: The 1970s and the Last Days of the Working Class (New York: New Press, 2010), 323.

26 Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, 53–55, 58. New York was also seen as the locus of liberal, Jewish political power. In the 1960s and 1970s New York's senior senator was Jacob K. Javits, a Jewish man, and in 1974, Arthur Beame became the first Jewish mayor of New York City. See ibid., 19. Also see Frank Mankiewicz and Tom Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism,” Washington Post, December 30, 1969, p. A15.

27 Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sun Belt, 161, 363; “National Media Concentrating Attacks on Invisible Empire,” Klansman, May 1979, p. 6.

28 Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 234; Stephen Birmingham, “Does a Zionist Conspiracy Control the Media? Agnew Envisions Jewish Media Barons Meeting to Plot Favorable Coverage of Israel; Does Paley Talk to Punch and Does Mrs. Graham Keep Kosher?,” More: The Media Magazine, July–August 1976, p. 15; Gene Roberts and Howard Klibanoff, The Race Beat: The Press, the Civil Rights Struggle, and the Awakening of a Nation (New York: Vintage Books, 2006) 154, 161, esp. 162.

29 “Subscribe to the Klansman,” advertisement, Klansman, May 1978, p. 3; “Klan Rally Set for Tupelo, MS.,” ibid., May 1978, pp. 1, 4; “National Media Concentrating Attacks on Invisible Empire.”

30 “Busing Fails in San Francisco,” ibid., April 1977, p. 1. “‘Affirmative Action’ = Reverse Discrimination,” reprint of undated Pax Centurion article, ibid., May 1978, pp. 2–3. The Klansman offered antibusing bumper stickers and T-shirts along with Klan gear and white supremacy slogans. See “T-Shirts” and “Lick ’Em and Stick ’Em” (advertisements), ibid., May 1977, p. 7. My conclusion that the Citizens Informer did not use anti-Semitic rhetoric is based on a careful reading of dozens of issues of the newspaper from the 1970s.

31 “A New Face—A New Policy,” Liberty Bell, pp. 3–4, esp. 4. On the anti-Semitic front-cover cartoon, see front cover, ibid., June 1979. On bumper stickers, see “Envelope and Bumper Stickers,” advertisement, ibid., June 1976, p. 39. On Jefferson County, Kentucky, busing protestors, see photos and captions, ibid., May 1976, pp. 23, 24.

32 Epstein and Forster, The Radical Right, 64. While the John Birch Society (JBS) maintained it was not anti-Semitic, it maintained links with outspoken anti-Semites such as Eric Butler, whom the JBS published in its publication American Opinion in 1965. See ibid., 128–37.

33 Dochuk, From Bible Belt to Sunbelt, 274–75.

34 Webb, Rabble Rousers, 23.

35 The 1971 Gary Allen book None Dare Call It Conspiracy can also be classified in the hazy borderlines. Like John Stormer's 1964 book None Dare Call It Treason, Allen's book sold millions of copies and was widely circulated on the Right. See Gary Allen, None Dare Call It Conspiracy (Rossmoor, CA: Concord Press, 1971); John A. Stormer, None Dare Call It Treason (Cutchogue, NY: Buccaneer Books, 1964); McGirr, Suburban Warriors, 157; Lora and Longton, Conservative Press in Twentieth-century America, 507; and Forster and Epstein, New Anti-Semitism, 287–90.

36 Touchstone served on the Liberty Lobby board and contributed to Liberty Lobby publications. See George and Wilcox, American Extremists, 213; George Michael, Willis Carto and the American Far Right (Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2008), 102. As of 1973 the Councilor boasted a circulation of 264,000, while in 1979 Liberty Lobby claimed that it printed 250,000 copies of every issue of Spotlight (which had since changed its name from National Spotlight). See Councilor, May 3, 1973, p. 1; and “Dear Friend” Liberty Lobby/Spotlight mailing, RH WL Eph 2212.17, Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements.

37 “Editorial,” National Spotlight, September 17, 1975, pp. 1, 9, 11, esp. 1. “NBC and Red China Offer Brainwash Film,” Councilor, Jan. 12, 1973, p. 25. “TV Viewer Writes Angry Letter to Harry Reasoner,” ibid., December 1–22, 1970, p. 45; “Crime Facts That You Don't Hear on NBC, CBS, or ABC,” ibid., March 16, 1971, p. 97; “TV Brainwash Policies Seem to Be Working,” ibid., December 21, 1972, p. 1, 3; “How Are Some Truthful News Stories Kept Out of the Daily Newspapers?” ibid., Feb. 4, 1973, p. 31; “Hushed-up Speech Is Now Available to Public,” ibid., October 26, 1970, pp. 1–2; “The Untold Story of the Calley Case,” ibid., May 1, 1971, p. 111; “‘Biggest News Story’ Goes Unnoticed by Press: Congress Votes to Award Wealth of 70% of Earth to UN Plotters,” ibid., May 3, 1973, pp. 1–2; “The Secret of Who Ordered Kennedy's Death,” advertisement, ibid., September 4, 1972, p. 145. “Editorial,” National Spotlight, September 17, 1975, pp. 1, 9, 11, esp. 9. “How Are Some Truthful News Stories Kept Out of the Daily Newspapers?” Councilor, February 4, 1973, p. 31.

38 “Press Covers Up Sellout…to Reds at Helsinki,” National Spotlight, September 17, 1975, pp. 4–5; cartoon, ibid., September 17, 1975, p. 4. “Dan Smoot Warned Americans about Bilderbergers in 1962,” Councilor, July 3–24, 1971, p. 147; “Councilor Has Proof That False Churchman Is Rothschild Kin,” ibid., January 12, 1971, pp. 1–2; “Look Who Writes the News,” ibid., April 5, 1972, p. 73; “Reported Truth about New York Papers Way Back in 1914,” ibid., December 21, 1972, p. 3. On Kissinger, see “A Special Supplement to the National Spotlight,” National Spotlight, November 14, 1975, unnumbered pages. On explicit anti-Semitic criticism of Kissinger, see “The Brothers Nixinger,” photo and caption, Common Sense, April 1, 1972, p. 1. On “Zionist lobby,” see cartoon, National Spotlight, October 31, 1975, p. 4; and George DeRosa, “Zionist Lobby Assures Sinai OK,” ibid., October 17, 1975, p. 7.

39 Councilor [unknown date; vol. 10, no. 12], 1973, p. 158.

40 “Socialist Plan for Conquest” (cartoon), ibid., June 12, 1971, p. 126. Also see “A Paper Can Report without Fear UNLESS It Is the First to Report,” ibid., December 1–22, 1970, p. 68; and Ned Touchstone, “What the Councilor Is Trying to Do,” ibid., February 22, 1972, p. 56.

41 Front page, National Spotlight, September 17, 1975.

42 “Kopechne Death, Busing May Prod Kennedy to Run,” ibid., December 8, 1975, unknown page; “Untold Truths about Effects of Marijuana,” ibid., November 24, 1975, p. 1; “Crime Facts That You Don't Hear on NBC, CBS or ABC,” Councilor, April 7, 1971, p. 97; “CBS, CFR, and the People's Right to Know,” ibid., August 14, 1971, p. 160; “Councilor Has Proof That False Churchman Is Rothschild Kin,” ibid., January 12, 1971, front page; “Ford's Secret Agreement with Israel,” National Spotlight, October 8, 1975, p. 11.

43 “Letters: Ardent Admirer,” National Spotlight, January 12, 1976, p. 8. In the early 1970s Touchstone served as a witness on behalf of Gen. Edwin Walker, the far right conservative and integration opponent who had ties with Billy James Hargis in the 1960s, in a three-million-dollar libel suit against the Associated Press and New Orleans Times Picayune. Touchstone commented that the news media coverage of Walker's trial was inaccurate. See “News Reporters Helped Prove a Point: Trial Testimony Helped Prove a Point,” Councilor, September 4, 1971, p. 171.

44 “Books Presently in Stock and Available to Councilor Readers,” Councilor, May 1, 1971, p. 111; “Liberty Library” (advertisement), National Spotlight, December 15, 1975, n.p.

45 “Two Points of View,” photo and caption, Councilor, December 1–22, 1970, p. 33.

46 Frank P. Mintz, The Liberty Lobby and the American Right: Race, Conspiracy, and Culture (Westport, CT: Praeger, 1985), 104; “Klan No Longer ‘Invisible Empire’; Issues Aired Publicly,” National Spotlight, October 31, 1975, n.p.

47 “Zionism,” advertisement, National Spotlight, December 1, 1975, p. 9.

48 “N.Y. Times Was Silent When Government Suppressed Book by Charles A. Lindbergh,” Councilor, July 3–24, 1971, front page.

49 Anthony J. Hilder, “Porno Films Reach Depths as Women Are Murdered,” National Spotlight, October 31, 1975, pp. 7, 11, esp. 7; “Films Reflect on All Jews,” ibid., December 1, 1975, p. 8; Anthony J. Hilder, “Films Ridicule US, Christians,” ibid. Anti-Semitism played a key role in attacks on Hollywood labor unions before and during the Cold War and in the blacklisting of film and television directors and writers following World War II. See Neal Gabler, An Empire of Their Own: How the Jews Invented Hollywood (New York: Crown Publishing, 1988); Steven Alan Carr, Hollywood and Anti-Semitism: A Cultural History up to World War II (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2001); and Joseph Litvak, The Un-Americans: Jews, the Blacklist, and Stoolpigeon Culture (Durham: Duke University Press, 2009).

50 “Bias Laws Not Black and White,” National Spotlight, October 1, 1975, p. 13.

51 “Liberals Seek Sainthood for King, a Thief, Sex Deviate, and Threat to US,” National Spotlight, December 22, 1975, p. 4; “The Councilor Was Right about King Organization,” Councilor, February 22, 1972, p. 56.

52 P. Douglas Johnston, “Union Busing Foes Buck Chief,” National Spotlight, November 7, 1975, unknown page; photos and captions, ibid., November 7, 1975, unknown page. Also see front page headline and photo, ibid., November 7, 1975.

53 “Busing Judge Is Immune to Boston Turmoil,” ibid., December 1, 1975, p. 4; Douglas Johnston, “Judge Orders Integration, Lives Segregation while Refusing to Hear Foes,” ibid., January 5, 1976, p. 4.

54 Forster and Epstein, New Anti-Semitism, 106.

55 On John R. Rarick, see Drew Pearson, “Neo-Nazi Group Seeks US Control,” Toledo Blade, April 17, 1969, p. 25. On Tom Anderson, see Tom Anderson, “The People Own the Airwaves,” Councilor, May 22, 1972, p. 120; Mike Newberry, The Yahoos (New York: Marzani and Munsell, 1964), 17, 20; and Kominsky, Hoaxers, 17, 24–25, 106–07, 115–16. On Dan Smoot, see “Dan Smoot Warned Americans about Bilderbergers in 1962,” Councilor, July 3–24, 1971, p. 147. On Daniel Lyons, see “Lyons Raises Anti-Semitism in 2nd Speech,” Group Research Report, April 20, 1970, p. 30. On Jeffrey St. John, see Forster and Epstein, New Anti-Semitism, 313. On E. P. Thornton, see E. P. Thornton, “A Conservative Speaks Out,” Liberty Bell, October 1975, p. 3.

56 Kirkpatrick Sale, Power Shift: The Rise of the Southern Rim and Its Challenge to the Eastern Establishment (New York: Random House, 1975), 13, 110–11, 4–5.

57 Lora and Longton, Conservative Press in Twentieth-century America, 58; John Saar, “Rabbi Begins Drive: Be Fair to Nixon,” Washington Post, August 25, 1973, pp. A1, A4; “An Appeal for Fairness: Seventh in a Series; The Rape of America” (advertisement), New York Times, December 2, 1973, p. 274; “An Appeal for Fairness: Seventh in a Series; The Rape of America” (advertisement), Washington Post, December 2, 1973, p. C16. Also see “An Appeal for Fairness: Sixth in a Series; The Assassins” (advertisement), Los Angeles Times, November 18, 1973, p. G6.

58 Justin P. Coffey, “Nixon and Agnew,” in Melvin Small, ed., A Companion to Richard M. Nixon (Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 331; “Tell-It-Like-It-Is Buttons,” Point-Blank, January 1970, p. 11; “Mass Murder: Facts Withheld by the Self-appointed News Censors,” Point-Blank, September 1971, pp. 1, 4–15.

59 Tim Kiska, “Nixon and the Media,” in Small, Companion to Richard M. Nixon, 292.

60 Coffey, “Nixon and Agnew,” 332; “The People Speak: Vice President's Speech Seen as Political Ploy,” Louisiana Freedom Review, March, April, and May 1970, p. 9.

61 “Spiro Spells It Out,” reprint of undated Peoria Journal-Star editorial, Militant Truth, vol. 25, no. 11 [probably 1970], p. 1; “Litany of Grievances; Slanted TV,” reprint of undated Manchester Union Leader editorial, Independent American, January 1970 (including November–December 1969), p. 5; “WRAL-TV Viewpoint,” December 12, 1969, RH WL D-1610 #2231, Wilcox Collection of Contemporary Political Movements; Congressman Richard L. Roudebush, “Misleading Press and TV Coverage of Moratorium March,” Independent American, January 1970 (including November–December 1969), p. 1; “1970—Time to Tell the Truth,” Free Enterprise, January 1970, p. 1; “The People Speak: Vice President's Speech Seen as Political Ploy,” Louisiana Freedom Review, 9; Mankiewicz and Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism.”

62 Spiro T. Agnew, “Public Should Demand TV Fairness: Network News Biased,” Human Events, November 22, 1969, pp. 1, 12. Also see “Full Text of Agnew's Speech on TV Bias,” Neighbor-to-Neighbor News/Free Enterprise, December 1, 1969, pp. 1, 8.

63 “Agnew Draws Right-wing Applause,” Group Research Report, December 18, 1969, p. 85; Mankiewicz and Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism.”

64 John R. Coyne Jr., The Impudent Snobs: Agnew vs. the Intellectual Establishment (New Rochelle, NY: Arlington House, 1972), 266–67.

65 “Agnew Draws Right-wing Applause”; “News Service for Conservatives?,” Group Research Report, January 6, 1970, p. 3.

66 “Lyons Raises Anti-Semitism in 2nd Speech.” Lyons made similar remarks at a December 1969 speech before the American Legion in Saint Paul, Minnesota. A local Catholic priest said his comments were “very thinly veiled anti-Semitism.” See “Defense of Agnew by Lyons Brings Racial Protest,” Group Research Report, January 6, 1970, p. 2.

67 Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, 51–52; Mankiewicz and Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism.”

68 Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, 52; Mankiewicz and Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism”; “News Service for Conservatives?”

69 Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, 50–52; Mankiewicz and Braden, “Agnew Unintentionally Triggers Renewed Round of Anti-Semitism”; Birmingham, “Does a Zionist Conspiracy Control the Media?”; Isaacs, 52.

70 Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 232.

71 Si Sheppard, The Partisan Press: A History of Media Bias in the United States (Jefferson, NC: McFarland, 2008), 270; Greenberg, Nixon's Shadow, 275; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 145. Nixon's infamous “enemies list” included several prominent Jewish print and broadcast journalists. See ibid. Nixon allegedly told an Egyptian newspaper reporter in 1974: “Jews in the US control the entire information and propaganda information machine, the large newspapers, the motion pictures, radio and television, the big companies.” The White House denied that Nixon had made the comments. See Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 232–33.

72 Dinnerstein, Antisemitism in America, 233.

73 Kiska, “Nixon and the Media.” The Nixon White House also thought highly of Edith Efron's book the News Twisters, and Nixon aide Charles Colson set aside money to buy one thousand copies to help boost the book's sales. See ibid., 299.

74 Spiro T. Agnew, The Canfield Decision (Chicago, 1976), 5; John Kenneth Galbraith, “The Canfield Decision; The Hero Is, You Guessed It, the Vice President,” New York Times, June 6, 1976, p. 218. The Canfield Decision reached the New York Times fiction bestseller Top Ten list. See “Best Seller List,” New York Times, July 11, 1976, p. 187. Agnew also appeared on CBS's Dinah Shore show, where he also made explicit comments about Zionism and the news media. See Deirdre Carmody, “Zionism ‘in Media’ Decried by Agnew: On TV for First Time since Resignation, He Says U.S. Is Swayed on Mideast,” New York Times, May 12, 1976, p. 15.

75 Troy, Moynihan's Moment, 3, 158.

76 Carmody, “Zionism ‘in Media’ Decried by Agnew”; Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 132.

77 William Safire, “Spiro Agnew and the Jews: Essay,” New York Times, May 24, 1976, p. 28.

78 Patrick Buchanan, “Dividing Line: American Jews Overreact to Agnew Remarks” (Greenville, MS) Delta Democrat-Times, July 27, 1976, p. 4.

79 Birmingham, “Does a Zionist Conspiracy Control the Media?”

80 Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 133.

81 Isaacs, Jews and American Politics, 48.

82 Whitfield, American Space, Jewish Time, 133–35, esp. 133, 135.

83 Birmingham, “Does a Zionist Conspiracy Control the Media?”

84 Greenberg, “The Idea of ‘the Liberal Media’”; Nicole Hemmer, Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2016); Gillis, “Say No to the Liberal Media.”

85 Nerone, Violence against the Press, 205; John Aravosis, “Donald Trump's Jew-haters,” Americablog, April 28, 2016, http://americablog.com/2016/04/donald-trumps-jew-haters.html; “David Duke Exposes Alex Jones as a Zionist Shill,” Truth Warriors, September 27, 2015, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uo2yLI5dgBE.