When the New York Times Liked Ike: The Newspaper’s Controversial Presidential Endorsements of 1952 and 1956

Abstract

The New York Times has only endorsed presidential candidates during party primaries—interfering in intra-party politics—twice in its history: once, in January 2016, coming out for John Kasich for the nomination that would go to Donald Trump, and the other, in January 1952, endorsing Dwight Eisenhower over his main Republican rival, Robert Taft. Understanding the exceptionalism of the 1952 election sheds light on the unusually close relationships between top members of the New York Times and the military, as well as reveals tensions within the Times over editorial decisions that the news team feared undermined its coverage. This paper uses archival collections of the New York Times—in addition to papers from several other personal and institutional archival collections—to demonstrate how important decisions were made, as well as contested, on the ground.

Notes

1 Notes, Arthur Hays Sulzberger (hereafter AHS), September 26, 1956, box 22, folder 11, Arthur Hays Sulzberger Papers, New York Times Company Records, New York Public Library (hereafter NYPL).

2 Scholars have established that political endorsements by media outlets can serve as cues for voters, who may otherwise not have the information to evaluate candidates. For a review of the literature on political cues, see Cheryl Boudreau, “The Persuasion Effects of Political Endorsements,” in Bernard Grofman, Elizabeth Suhay, and Alexander H. Trechsel eds., Oxford Handbook of Electoral Persuasion (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2018). For a review of the literature on the effects of newspaper political endorsements on voters, see Stephen Ansolabehere, Rebecca Lessem, and James M. Snyder, Jr., “The Orientation of Newspaper Endorsements in U.S. Elections, 1940–2002,” Quarterly Journal of Political Science 1, no. 4 (2006): 393–404, note 2.

3 The Editorial Board, “A Chance to Reset the Republican Race,” New York Times, January 30, 2016, https://www.nytimes.com/2016/01/31/opinion/sunday/a-chance-to-reset-the-republican-race.html.

4 Conservative support for Eisenhower varied dramatically, both before and after his election, but the Robert Taft wing generally supported his candidacy after September 1952 and having Nixon as vice president meant a connection at the time with the anti-communist, conservative wing of the party. See Michael Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism: Dewey, Taft, and the Battle for the Soul of the Republican Party (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2011), 153–200.

5 Sociologist C. Wright Mills presented such connections between the elite of the press and the elite of the military in The Power Elite (New York: Oxford University Press, 1956).

6 Daniel Chomsky has used the Turner Catledge papers to demonstrate the influence of Arthur Hays Sulzberger on news coverage in the 1956–1962 period. Daniel Chomsky, “An Interested Reader: Measuring Ownership Control at the New York Times,” Critical Studies in Media Communication 23, no. 1 (March 2006): 1–18.

7 Arthur H. Sulzberger Papers, Finding Aid, NYPL, 124, https://archives.nypl.org/mss/17782. I have not been able to conduct a quantitative analysis of the letters to determine the percentage that were good or bad. The implication in surrounding material suggests that the paper received more negative mail than was typical in only these two years, and that this is what made the numbers stand out.

8 For textual analysis of campaign coverage, see, William L. Benoit, Katharina Hemmer, and Kevin Stein, “New York Times’ Coverage of Presidential Campaigns,” Journalism and Mass Communication Quarterly 8, no. 2 (Summer 2005): 356–376; Wayne P. Steger, “Comparing News and Editorial Coverage of the 1996 Presidential Nominating Campaign, Presidential Studies Quarterly 29, no. 1 (Mar. 1999): 40–64. For an empirical analysis of the New York Times’ Democratic partisanship in news coverage from 1946 to 1997 see Ricardo Puglisi, “Being the New York Times: The Political Behaviour of a Newspaper,” The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis and Policy 11, no. 1 (2011): article 20. On the relationship between news and the electorate, see Thomas E. Patterson, The Mass Media Election: How Americans Choose Their President (New York: Praeger, 1989); Thomas E. Patterson, Out of Order (New York: Knopf, 1993); Doris A. Graber, Mass Media and American Politics, 7th ed. (Washington: Congressional Quarterly, 2006); Kathleen Hall Jamieson and Paul Waldman, The Press Effect: Politicians, Journalists, and the Stories That Shape the Political World (New York: Oxford University Press, 2003).

9 Many scholars have noted the importance of the Times among elites and within the news industry. Herbert Gans wrote in a 2004 edition of Deciding What’s News that, “The New York Times remains the news industry’s final authority on what stories are suitable.” Herbert Gans, Deciding What’s News: A Study of CBS Evening News, NCB Nightly News, Newsweek and Time (Evanston, Ill.: Northwestern University Press, 2004), xviii.

10 “Without Fear or Favor,” Time, July 8, 1950.

11 Recent works that rely on these archives include Kevin Lerner, “Abe Rosenthal’s Project X: The Editorial Process Leading to the Publication of the Pentagon Papers,” Media Nation, Bruce Schulman and Julian Zelizer, eds. (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2017), 144–159; Matthew Pressman, On Press: The Liberal Values That Shaped the News (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2018). This is not to say that journalists and scholars could not previously access these papers, with permission, as did Susan E. Tifft and Alex S. Jones in their seminal work on the Ochs-Sulzberger family, The Trust: The Private and Powerful Family Behind The New York Times (New York: Little, Brown, 1999).

12 For an account of Ochs’ leadership, see Tifft and Jones, The Trust, 5–162; Andrew Porwancher, “Objectivity’s Prophet: Adolph S. Ochs and the New York Times, 1896–1935,” Journalism History 36, no. 4 (Winter 2011): 186–195.

13 Sulzberger had wanted to appoint his own editor of the editorial page immediately but initially “felt inhibited about naming his own man.” Tifft and Jones, The Trust, 174.

14 Walter Lippmann and Charles Merz, “A Test of the News,” The New Republic 23, no. 296 (August 4, 1920), supplement.

15 On the rise of objectivity, see, for example, Michael Schudson, Discovering the News: A Social History of American Newspapers (New York: Basic Books, 1978); David T.Z. Mindich, Just the Facts: How “Objectivity” Came to Define American Journalism (New York: New York University Press, 1998); Richard L. Kaplan, Politics and the American Press: The Rise of Objectivity, 1865–1920 (New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002).

16 Charles Merz interview by Frank Bailinson, March 11, 1971, 91, box 8, folder 6, New York Times Oral History Collection, NYPL.

17 Charles Merz interview by Frank Bailinson, March 18, 1971, 161, box 8, folder 6, New York Times Oral History Collection, NYPL.

18 First used in a series of advertisements for the newspaper appearing in its own pages, beginning February 12, 1925, 4.

19 On US media’s support for World War II and especially radio’s role in Americans’ changing opinion, see Richard W. Steele, “The Great Debate: Roosevelt, the Media, and the Coming of the War, 1940–1941,” The Journal of American History 71, no. 1 (June 1984): 69–92; Susan J. Douglas, Listening In: Radio and the American Imagination (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2004), 161–198.

20 Memo, AHS, October 25, 1939, box 274, folder 9, Sulzberger Papers.

21 Tifft and Jones, The Trust, 196.

22 See travel diary, box 150, folder “Russian Trip, June-July, 1943,” James B. Reston Papers, University of Illinois (Urbana-Champaign); “Visit to Pacific,” box 3, series IA, Turner Catledge Papers, Mississippi State University (Starkville).

23 AHS to Dwight Eisenhower, August 20, 1942, box 274, folder 8, Sulzberger Papers.

24 Julius Ochs Adler to Douglas MacArthur, October 4, 1944, box 1, folder 20, Adler Papers.

25 Bio, box 8, folder 2, Adler Papers.

26 Biographical data from the following sources: A.H. Raskin interview by Frank Bailinson, December 6, 1976, box 10, folder 2, page 146, New York Times Oral History Collection; John B. Oakes interview by Kenneth Leish, February 17, 1961, vol 1., page 22, Columbia University Oral History Collection; Wallace Carroll to Arthur Schlesinger, Jr., June 23, 1950, box P-11, folder “Wallace Carroll,” Papers of Arthur Schlesinger Jr., Private Files, John F. Kennedy Library; Memo, Wallace Carroll to Robert Blum, March 26, 1953, box 58, folder “Nat’l Security Council, 1952–55,” Reston Papers. On William Laurence, see Beverly Ann Deepe Keever, “Top Secret: Censoring the First Rough Drafts of Atomic-Bomb History,” Media History 14, no. 2 (2008): 185–204; Alex Wellerstein, Restricted Data: The History of Nuclear Secrecy in the United States (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021); Vincent Kiernan, Atomic Bill: A Journalist’s Dangerous Ambition in the Shadow of the Bomb (Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, forthcoming 2022).

27 “Army to Release All Data on War,” New York Times, November 19, 1947.

28 Speech, Punch Sulzberger, March 21, 1990, box 15, folder 4, General Files, New York Times Co. Records.

29 Some typical wartime discussions can be found in: Raymond McCaw to Luther Huston, November 13, 1941, box 125, folder 5, Sulzberger Papers; AHS to Arthur Krock, December 9, 1941, box 125, folder 5, Sulzberger Papers; Hanson Baldwin to E.L. James, October 12, 1942, box 125, folder 4, Sulzberger Papers. For more, see Michael S. Sweeney, Secrets of Victory: The Office of Censorship and the American Press and Radio in World War II (Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 2001); George H. Roeder, The Censored War: American Visual Experience During World War II (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1993).

30 Memo, Julius Ochs Adler, May 23, 1951, box 1, folder 20, Adler Papers.

31 Memo, Luther Huston to Ernest [unknown], February 6, 1951, box 7, folder 5, National Desk Records, New York Times Co. Records, NYPL.

32 Memo, Luther Huston to Ray O’Neill, January 17, 1951, box 7, folder 5, National Desk Records.

33 Memo, Julius Ochs Adler, February 6, 1951, box 22, folder 12, Sulzberger Papers.

34 E.L. James to Arthur H. Sulzberger, May 13, 1946, box 21, folder 12, Sulzberger Papers.

35 On Eisenhower and the 1952 election, see William Pickett, Eisenhower Decides to Run: Presidential Politics and Cold War Strategy (Chicago: Ivan R. Dee, 2000); Gary Donaldson, When America Liked Ike: How Moderates Won the 1952 Presidential Election and Reshaped American Politics (Lanham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield, 2017).

36 Arthur Krock to E.L. James, January 5, 1951, Book II, 234–235, Arthur Krock Papers, Mudd Manuscript Library, Princeton University; Memo series, box 22, folder 12, Sulzberger Papers.

37 C.L. Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles: Memoirs and Diaries, 1934–1954 (Toronto: The Macmillan Company, 1969), 750.

38 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 670.

39 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 715.

40 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 733.

41 C.L. Sulzberger, “Gruenther is Favored for Eisenhower’s Job,” New York Times, March 30, 1952.

42 Lippmann and Merz, “A Test of the News.”

43 Cyrus Sulzberger to AHS, March 6, 1951, box 29, folder 25, Sulzberger Papers.

44 Sulzberger to AHS, March 6, 1951, Sulzberger Papers.

45 AHS to Alfred Gruenther, “The Day before Election, 1952,” box 29, folder 25, Sulzberger Papers.

46 Tifft and Jones, The Trust, 258.

47 “Eisenhower,” New York Times, January 7, 1952.

48 “Eisenhower.”

49 “To the Republican Voters of New Hampshire,” New York Times, February 13, 1952. On coverage of the 1952 New Hampshire primary, see William E. Casey, Jr., “The Press and the 1952 New Hampshire Primary: A Perception of Significance,” Journalism History 5, no. 4 (Winter 1978): 115–123.

50 “Mr. Taft Can’t Win,” New York Times, July 1–3, 1952.

51 Arthur Krock to Turner Catledge, May 16, 1952, box 16, folder “Washington Bureau 1952,” Series IIA, Catledge Papers.

52 Turner Catledge to Arthur Krock, May 19, 1952, box 16, folder “Washington Bureau 1952,” Series IIA, Catledge Papers.

53 See also Chomsky, “An Interested Reader.”

54 Arthur Krock to Turner Catledge, April 11, 1952, box 13, folder “Krock, Arthur 1952,” Series IIA, Catledge Papers.

55 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 772.

56 Sulzberger, A Long Row of Candles, 775–776.

57 Quoted in Bowen, The Roots of Modern Conservatism, 159.

58 McCarthyism and the press have been explored at length, mostly relating to political and domestic coverage of the senator. See Edwin Bayley, Joe McCarthy and the Press (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1981); Edward Alwood, Dark Days in the Newsroom: McCarthyism Aimed at the Press (Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 2007); Christopher M. Elias, Gossip Men: J. Edgar Hoover, Joe McCarthy, Roy Cohn, and the Politics of Insinuation (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2021); Richard M. Fried, A Genius for Confusion: Joseph R. McCarthy (New York: Rowman and Littlefield, 2022).

59 W.H. Lawrence, “Eisenhower Scores President on Reds; Supports M’Carthy,” New York Times, October 4, 1952.

60 Tom Wicker, Dwight D. Eisenhower (New York: Times Books Henry Holt and Co., 2002), 15.

61 Telegram, AHS to Sherman Adams, General Eisenhower’s special train, Wheeling, West Virginia, September 24, 1952, box 1, folder 11, Sulzberger Papers.

62 “A Choice Reaffirmed,” New York Times, October 23 and 26, 1952.

63 Tifft and Jones, The Trust, 262.

64 AHS to Charles Merz, November 3, 1952, box 50, folder 3, Sulzberger Papers.

65 AHS to Turner Catledge, November 3, 1952, box 7, folder “Sulzberger, Arthur Hays, 1952,” series IIC, Catledge Papers.

66 AHS to Alfred Gruenther, “The Day before Election, 1952,” box 29, folder 25, Sulzberger Papers.

67 James Reston to AHS, January 9, 1954, box 53, folder 28, Sulzberger Papers.

68 “The Eisenhower Administration and the Press,” January 13–14, 1953, box 100, folder “New York State Publishers Association,” Reston Papers.

69 See, for instance, Harrison Evans Salisbury interview by David Berliner, October 6, 1972, and William Howard Lawrence interview by John Luter, September 7, 1967, Eisenhower Administration Project, Columbia University Oral History Collection.

70 See Julie B. Lane, “Positioning for Battle: The Ideological Struggle over Senator Joseph McCarthy and the American Establishment,” American Journalism 33, no.1 (winter 2016): 61–85.

71 James B. Reston to AHS, June 21, 1954, box 50, folder “Confidential Memos,” Reston Papers.

72 AHS to James C. Hagerty, July 8, 1954, box 22, folder 12, Sulzberger Papers.

73 See Craig Allen, Eisenhower and the Mass Media: Peace, Prosperity and Prime-Time TV (Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

74 Robert H. Ferrell, ed., The Diary of James C. Hagerty: Eisenhower in Mid-Course, 1954–1955 (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1983).

75 See Michael Schudson, The Rise of the Right to Know: Politics and the Culture of Transparency (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2015), 37–50.

76 Script, May 4, 1956, box II: 40, folder Radio Commentaries, 1953–59, Eric Sevareid Papers, Manuscripts Division, Library of Congress.

77 Arthur Krock to AHS, September 26, 1955, box 22, folder 22, Sulzberger Papers. The nickname “Tricky Dicky” appears several times in the diaries of Robert Allen: January 11, 1955; September 20, 1955; and October 5, 1955, box 23, Robert S. Allen Papers, Wisconsin Historical Society (Madison, WI), and was the precursor to the “Tricky Dick” of Nixon’s presidency.

78 AHS to Sherman Adams, August 6, 1956, box 1, folder 6, Sulzberger Papers.

79 Note from AHS to Arthur Krock, September 27, 1956, box 22, folder 11, Sulzberger Papers.

80 AHS, notes, September 26, 1956.

81 Robert S. Allen, Diary, December 24, 1952, box 23, Allen Papers.

82 John B. Oakes, “The Case Against Richard Nixon,” September 18, 1956, box 53, folder 28, Sulzberger Papers.

83 Memo, AHS to Orvil E. Dryfoos, September 4, 1956, box 71, folder 16, Sulzberger Papers. Emphasis in original text.

84 Quoted in “Orvil E. Dryfoos Dies at 50,” New York Times, May 26, 1963, 91.

85 AHS, notes, September 26, 1956.

86 AHS to Eisenhower, October 11, 1956, box 22, folder 11, Sulzberger Papers.

87 Eisenhower to AHS, October 14, 1956, box 22, folder 11, Sulzberger Papers.

88 AHS to Eisenhower, October 16, 1956, box 22, folder 11, Sulzberger Papers.

89 “The Choice of a Candidate,” New York Times, October 16, 1956.

90 Adlai Stevenson to AHS October 16, 1956, box 6, folder “Stevenson, Adlai 1949–1964,” Series IIC, Catledge Papers.

91 Quoted in John B. Oakes, “The Case Against Richard Nixon,” September 18, 1956, box 53, folder 28, Sulzberger Papers. Oakes was quoting a note he had written to himself in February 1952.

92 Richard Harwood, “A Reporter On the Take?” New York Times, April 24, 1993; James Sayler, “Arthur Krock Was Not ‘On the Take’” New York Times, June 3, 1993.

93 Charles Merz interview by Frank Bailinson, March 23, 1971, 205, box 8, folder 7, New York Times Oral History Collection, NYPL.

94 Charles Merz interview by Bailinson, March 23, 1971.

95 John B. Oakes interview by Kenneth Leish, February 17, 1961, and January 23, 1962, “Reminiscences of John Bertram Oakes,” Columbia University Oral History Collection.

96 See Timothy E. Cook, Governing with the News: The News Media as a Political Institution (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1998).

Additional information

Funding

The present research was financially supported by the Eisenhower Foundation and Princeton University.

Notes on contributors

Kathryn J. McGarr

Kathryn J. McGarr is an assistant professor in the School of Journalism and Mass Communication at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Her forthcoming book, City of Newsmen: Public Lies and Professional Secrets in Cold War Washington (University of Chicago Press, 2022), is a history of foreign policy reporters in Washington, DC, from World War II through the early Cold War period.