CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism

by Loren Ghiglione

Overview

Loren Ghiglione recounts the fascinating life and tragic suicide of Don Hollenbeck, the controversial newscaster who became a primary target of McCarthyism's smear tactics. Drawing on unsealed FBI records, private family correspondence, and interviews with Walter Cronkite, Mike Wallace, Charles Collingwood, Douglas Edwards, and more than one hundred other journalists, Ghiglione writes a balanced biography that cuts close to the bone of this complicated newsman and chronicles the stark consequences of the anti-Communist frenzy that seized America in the late 1940s and 1950s.

Hollenbeck began his career at the Lincoln, Nebraska Journal (marrying the boss's daughter) before becoming an editor at William Randolph Hearst's rip-roaring Omaha Bee-News. He participated in the emerging field of photojournalism at the Associated Press; assisted in creating the innovative, ad-free PM newspaper in New York City; reported from the European theater for NBC radio during World War II; and anchored television newscasts at CBS during the era of Edward R. Murrow.

Hollenbeck's pioneering, prize-winning radio program, CBS Views the Press (1947-1950), was a declaration of independence from a print medium that had dominated American newsmaking for close to 250 years. The program candidly criticized the prestigious New York Times, the Daily News (then the paper with the largest circulation in America), and Hearst's flagship Journal-American and popular morning tabloid Daily Mirror. For this honest work, Hollenbeck was attacked by conservative anti-Communists, especially Hearst columnist Jack O'Brian, and in 1954, plagued by depression, alcoholism, three failed marriages, and two network firings (and worried about a third), Hollenbeck took his own life. In his investigation of this amazing American character, Ghiglione reveals the workings of an industry that continues to fall victim to censorship and political manipulation. Separating myth from fact, CBS's Don Hollenbeck is the definitive portrait of a polarizing figure who became a symbol of America's tortured conscience.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780231144964
Publisher:	Columbia University Press
Publication date:	10/06/2008
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	352
Product dimensions:	6.20(w) x 9.10(h) x 1.30(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Loren Ghiglione, a journalism professor at Northwestern University's Medill School of Journalism, owned and edited New England newspapers for twenty-six years and served as president of the American Society of Newspaper Editors from 1989 to 1990. Following a five-year term as dean of Medill, he was president of the Association of Schools of Journalism and Mass Communication from 2006 to 2007.

Table of Contents

Introduction
1. The Boy from Lincoln
2. Working for William Randolph Hearst in Omaha
3. The Founding of PM, a "Newpaperman's Ideal"
4. Politics at PM: Commies and "Good Liberals"
5. Covering World War II from Home and Abroad
6. Getting Fired by NBC and ABC, Then Hired by CBS
7. The Invention of CBS Views the Press
8. Jack O'Brian: Buffalo Dock-walloper to Broadway Drama Critic
9. Press Criticism: From Name-calling to Nuance
10. Jack O'Brian: Championing Decency, Fighting Soft-on-Communism Liberals
11. The Obsession with Subversives and Communist Spies
12. Jack O'Brian: Traveling with the Conservative, Anti-Commie Crowd
13. The Hearsts Versus Hollenbeck
14. Jack O'Brian: Attacking the Communist Broadcasting System
15. Loyalty Oaths, Blacklists, and Joseph McCarthy
16. The Walking Wounded
17. The Sermon in the Suicide
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

Ted Koppel

Don Hollenbeck's significant presence at CBS News was at least acknowledged by George Clooney in his recent film Good Night, and Good Luck, but Hollenbeck deserved better and more. He gets both in this wonderful and elegantly written book. Hollenbeck, a man of unwavering principle and conscience, took his own life in l954. A life worth remembering? And how! How lucky we are that Loren Ghiglione undertook the task of reminding us.

Bob Schieffer

This is a story that should have been told a long time ago. Thankfully Loren Ghiglione not only tells it but tells it well. This is a skillfully written, meticulously researched account of a real-life tragedy that reads like a fast-paced crime novel.

Editorial Reviews

Loren Ghiglione not only recounts more than one would have thought possible of Hollenbeck's personal life, but, drawing with great insight on his own broad experience, recaptures the nuances of Hollenbeck's work as a newspaper, radio, and television journalist-and, of course, a press critic. Ghiglione shows how such an unbending figure as Hollenbeck could uphold journalism's best standards, even under the most unfavorable circumstances.

James Boylan

[An] engrossing biography.

Booklist

Loren Ghiglione's book is thoroughly researched, gracefully written, thoughtful, and thought-provoking. It is a pleasure to read. Anyone attempting to understand the evolution of the postwar American state, and the role of the press in it, needs to consider Hollenbeck's life. In Loren Ghiglione, Hollenbeck has found the ideal biographer—passionate but judicious, thorough but concise.

Evan Cornog

A compelling biography.

Journalism History - Mike Conway

[A] wonderfully researched tour of Hollenbeck's dramatic life.

Lincoln Journal Star

This splendid biography serves both Hollenbeck and media history well... Highly recommended.

Choice

Don Hollenbeck's significant presence at CBS News was at least acknowledged by George Clooney in his recent film Good Night, and Good Luck, but Hollenbeck deserved better and more. He gets both in this wonderful and elegantly written book. Hollenbeck, a man of unwavering principle and conscience, took his own life in l954. A life worth remembering? And how! How lucky we are that Loren Ghiglione undertook the task of reminding us.

Ted Koppel

CBS's Don Hollenbeck is a solid piece of media history, enthusiastically recommended.

The Midwest Book Review

A captivating tale of journalistic good versus political evil.

Edward Alwoodn Journalism

[An] engrossing biography.

Booklist

Journalist Don Hollenbeck, Edward R. Murrow's colleague at CBS during the 1940s and 1950s, is the subject of this biography by Ghiglione (journalism, Northwestern Univ.). Although not as famous as Murrow, Hollenbeck was noted for his dedication to objectivity in reporting and was best known for hosting the radio program CBS Views the Press, on which he critiqued the accuracy and style of the national media. A driven professional, he also frequently clashed with network sponsors. In his personal life, he struggled with alcoholism and committed suicide at the age of 49. In addition to Hollenbeck's story, Ghiglione also provides a history of the climate of Communist hunting and loyalty oaths that held sway in both politics and the media. Interspersed with Hollenbeck's story are short chapters about his polar opposite, newspaper columnist Jack O'Brian, who relentlessly criticized Hollenbeck's liberalism and elitism. Ghiglione's attention to detail and use of numerous personal interviews make this both a compelling biography and a rich contextual history of the McCarthy era. Highly recommended for public and academic libraries.
—Sarah Statz Cords

Library Journal

A biographical tribute to a journalist nearly forgotten since his suicide in 1954. A colleague of Edward R. Murrow within the CBS News broadcasting empire, Don Hollenbeck invented contemporary media criticism in 1947, when CBS Views the Press began airing on radio. Until the 2005 release of Good Night, and Good Luck, his career had been mostly lost in the mists of communications history. That film portrayed Hollenbeck as a victim of anti-Communist hysteria-an accurate perception as far as it goes, declares Ghiglione (Media Ethics/Northwestern Univ.; The American Journalist, 1990, etc.), but lacking depth and breadth. Born in Nebraska in 1905, Hollenbeck, an only child, received an attentive upbringing before entering the state university in Lincoln. His adoring mother became increasingly unhinged and killed herself when he was 22. His relationships with women were complicated, and the author gives some attention to his failed marriages and his devotion to his daughter. These passages are brief, since the author's primary aim is to recount Hollenbeck's pioneering efforts as an informed, incisive critic of the mass media. Before getting to that, Ghiglione delivers an excellent chapter on his years reporting from World War II's European theater, showing how important journalists on the scene became to Americans far away from the fighting. The author praises Hollenbeck's media criticism for its excellence and daring, explaining how those very qualities led to vicious attacks on the newsman by some of his targets. Singled out by Ghiglione as the primary villain is Jack O'Brian, a vituperative New York City newspaper columnist who perceived Hollenbeck-and portrayed him in print-as a Communistendangering America's welfare. Well-written and clear-eyed portrait of a crusading newsman.

Kirkus Reviews

An excellent read for any journalism scholar.

Jhistory - Robert A. Rabe

A compelling portrait in journalistic courage. As one of the Murrow boys, I hope it will inspire the journalists of a later generation to stand up in the face of repressive forces.

Daniel Schorr

This is a story that should have been told a long time ago. Thankfully Loren Ghiglione not only tells it but tells it well. This is a skillfully written, meticulously researched account of a real-life tragedy that reads like a fast-paced crime novel.

Bob Schieffer

A valuable reminder of the tragic story of Don Hollenbeck—a brilliant journalist crushed in the horror of McCarthyism.

Walter Cronkite

A captivating tale of journalistic good versus political evil.

American Journalism - Edward Alwood

An excellent read for any journalism scholar.

— Robert A. Rabe

Jhistory

A captivating tale of journalistic good versus political evil.

— Edward Alwood

American Journalism

A compelling biography.

— Mike Conway

Journalism History