The Honorable Press Baron

by Steve Weinberg Info

The author of six books, Steve Weinberg has been a longtime board member of the National Book Critics Circle and currently teaches investigative journalism at the University of Missouri Journalism School. He lives in Columbia, Missouri.

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Newscom A new biography of Joseph Pulitzer charts his unlikely beginnings and revolutionary impact on American media. Steve Weinberg salutes the man whose name stands for excellence in journalism.

“Comforting the afflicted and afflicting the comfortable” is a phrase often uttered by investigative reporters, a breed within the larger craft of journalism, to describe their calling. To practice investigative reporting, the small number within the breed must overcome reservations expressed by the owners of media properties. The owners belong, after all, to a class that by any measure helps constitute “the comfortable.”

Joseph Pulitzer (1847-1911) started his life among the afflicted, joined the comfortable at a surprisingly young age, but even after accruing great wealth he rarely discouraged investigative reporting at the newspapers he owned, mostly notably the St. Louis Post-Dispatch and the New York World. An excellent new biography of the unusual man known as JP is a reminder of the vital role journalism plays in a democratic society, if only its owners allow the vitality.

Pulitzer was convinced that accuracy built circulation, credibility, and editorial power.

James McGrath Morris’s biography is also a reminder of why well-researched, well-written history is so valuable. It’s also an important reminder to readers of how much certain societal practices change, while simultaneously reminding readers of how much certain society practices stay the same.

Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power. By James McGrath Morris. 576 pages. Harper. $29.99. Before Pulitzer could purchase newspapers, create an empire, and try to change the world, he had to overcome his status as an impoverished immigrant. The saga of his improbable rise from an impoverished immigrant childhood has been played out millions of times in U.S. history, but rarely has the story seemed so unlikely as it led to him attaining great wealth and influence.

Born in a German-speaking portion of Hungary to a Jewish family that had to face anti-Semitism, Pulitzer seemed to thrive despite for the depression that would develop as he witnessed seven of his eight siblings die from a variety of ailments.

When Pulitzer was 11 years old, his father died. Pulitzer realized he needed to find a way to the United States, where apocryphal streets-paved-with-gold opportunities might allow him to use his intellect. By the time he was 16, he had achieved a height of six feet one inches, extraordinarily tall for that era. Although not of legal military age when he entered the United States, Pulitzer lied his way into the Union Army in the midst of the Civil War, and even found himself a German-language unit because he couldn’t speak English very well. But by the end of the war, Pulitzer was without food or shelter and did not know what he would do next .

He soon found his footing in St. Louis, a German-American enclave along the Mississippi River. He worked menial jobs, and hung out in a library where he could study read German-language publications, teach himself English, and attract attention with chess playing skills developed during the Civil War. The owner of a German-language newspaper noticed Pulitzer at the chess board. Eventually, he would hire him for the Westliche Post, where Pulitzer became a skilled newspaper reporter and accumulated capital so that he could purchase the newspaper.

Morris’ book admirably charts Pulitzer’s remarkable rise and career, relying on some sources unavailable to earlier biographers, but for a review of this length it is perhaps best to draw out some of the most insightful aspects of Pulitzer’s life for understanding the role of news and newspapers today.