The Newspaper Axis: Six Bress Barons Who Enabled Hitler by Kathryn J. Olmstead - 2022 - 401 Pages

The Newspaper Axis: Six Bress Barons Who Enabled Hitler by Kathryn J. Olmstead is a very valuable highly interesting account of how powerful English and American Newspaper Publishers did all they could to keep England and America from entering what they saw as "continental entanglements" involving the ambitious of Adolf Hitler.

The Press Barons published articles praising Hitler for revitalising Germany, advocating appeasement and trivialising his Anti-Semitic rants. They insisted Hitler did not want a war even as Germany began to rearm in violation of the Versailes Treaty.  Some personally admired Hitler and were thrilled to meet him.

As World War II approached, the six most powerful media moguls in America and Britain tried to pressure their countries to ignore the fascist threat. The media empires of Robert McCormick, Joseph and Eleanor Patterson, and William Randolph Hearst spanned the United States, reaching tens of millions of Americans in print and over the airwaves with their isolationist views. Meanwhile in England, Lord Rothermere’s Daily Mail extolled Hitler’s leadership and Lord Beaverbrook’s Daily Express insisted that Britain had no interest in defending Hitler’s victims on the continent.

 

Kathryn S. Olmsted shows how these media titans worked in concert—including sharing editorial pieces and coordinating their responses to events—to influence public opinion in a right-wing populist direction, how they echoed fascist and anti-Semitic propaganda, and how they weakened and delayed both Britain’s and America’s response to Nazi aggression.

She does also feature how the press Barons began to alter their views once the war started.  They were from the start strong believers in white supremacy, hated Franklin Roosevelt and Winston Churchill. However Lord Beaverbrook went to work for Churchill to build up England's airforce and was highly dedicated and successful.  Even as America entered the war the American publishers tried to convince their readers, about 30 percent of Adults that Roosevelt was under the control of a world Jewish cabal and wanted to  become a dictator.

Olmstead tells us as authoritarian style leaders seek power there

 is a warning in her book. Press figures, TV News Networks seek above all profits and will pander to these leaders.

For bio data on Kathryn J. Olmstead check the website of the history department of the University of California at Davis

Mel Ulm