Three Powerful Newspapers

The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, and The Washington Post are positioned at the heart of American business, culture, and government. Their influence reaches out across the nation. They originate news, focus on issues of their liking, elevate public figures they approve of and denigrate those they do not. They tell us what movies to see, what books and magazines to read, what records to buy and what art to admire. They influence how we think on a thousand different subjects — and, in fact, they frequently choose what subjects we think about at all.

The New York Times is read all over America — in academia, business, politics, the arts and literary world. It sets our political, social, entertainment, literary, artistic, and fashion standards. The New York Times Company owns 33 newspapers as well as three book-publishing companies, 12 magazines, seven radio and broadcasting stations, and a cable-TV system. The New York Times News Service serves more than 506 newspapers across America.

Like so many other newspapers, it began under Gentile ownership and ended up Jewish. George Jones and Henry Raymond founded the great paper in 1851. Near the turn of the century, Jewish activist Adolph Ochs bought the paper, and now his great-grandson, Arthur Ochs Sulzberger, Jr., is CEO and publisher. Executive and managing editors are Max Frankel and Joseph Lelyveld.

Because it is so widely read by Washington's elected and appointed federal officials and bureaucrats, The Washington Post has a huge impact on our government. It can influence appointments, firings, legislation, and foreign and domestic affairs of all kinds. It can even be instrumental in bringing down a president, as it did Richard Nixon. The bosses of The Washington Post can choose to give publicity to an issue or choose to ignore it, choose to be outraged about an event or bellow in approval. The Post has numerous holdings in newspapers, television, and magazines — most notably, Newsweek.

Like The New York Times, The Washington Post started out in Gentile hands. It was founded in 1877 by Stilson Hutchins and was later run by the McLean family. Due to the McLeans’ conservative policies, Jewish advertising shifted to the other Washington papers, driving the Post into bankruptcy. A Jewish financier, Eugene Meyer, stepped in to buy it for a trifling sum at the bankruptcy auction. As soon as it passed into Jewish hands, advertising from Jewish businesses and advertising agencies returned, and the newspaper returned to profitability.

In an effort at further consolidation of the media in our nation’s capital, the Jews ran an advertising boycott of Colonel Robert McCormick’s Times-Herald, which they detested because of its support for anti-Communist Sen. Joseph McCarthy. Unable to sell retail-advertising space, the newspaper shrunk dramatically and began losing about a million dollars a year and was finally sold to Meyer in 1954 at a bargain price. The Washington Post is now run by Meyer’s daughter, Katherine Meyer Graham, the principal stockholder and chairman of the board. Her son Donald is president and CEO.

The third leading influential newspaper in America, especially in the business realm, is The Wall Street Journal, published — along with Barron’s and 24 other daily newspapers — by Dow Jones & Company. The Wall Street Journal has a circulation of more than two million, making it America’s largest business daily and a tremendous influence on business, banking, trade, and economic issues. The CEO of Dow Jones and chairman and publisher of The Wall Street Journal is Peter R. Kann, a Jew.