James Westbrook Pegler

She alerted Westbrook Pegler, a conservative columnist for the national Hearst newspaper chain, about her concerns. Soon Sen. Joe McCarthy, R-Wis., was warning the nation that communists had even made inroads into staid old Vermont. Miller was particularly concerned about the presence of Owen ...

Westbrook Pegler was one of the most popular conservative pundits of mid-twentieth century America—the Rush Limbaugh of his time. In 1933, he wrote a column regretting that an assassination attempt against President Franklin Roosevelt “hit the wrong man” and killed the mayor of Chicago instead.

Westbrook Pegler was extremely good at calling people names. Particularly politicians. In his syndicated newspaper column, he called Franklin D. Roosevelt “Moosejaw” and “momma's boy.” Truman was “a thin-lipped hater.” Pegler was a bit of hater himself. He didn't like the labor movement, Communists, ...

"Some day I hope to meet you. When that happens you'll need a new nose, a lot of beefsteak for black eyes, and perhaps a supporter below! "[Newspaper columnist Westbrook] Pegler, a gutter snipe, is a gentleman alongside you. I hope you'll accept that statement as a worse insult than a reflection on your ...

Later, the columnist Westbrook Pegler, now forgotten although he was the most famous right-wing journalist of the mid-20th century, got into trouble for similarly provocative words. Pegler, who worked for many years for the Hearst papers, once regretted that the 1933 assassin who tried to kill Franklin ...

Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Westbrook Pegler, a vituperative critic of Franklin Delano Roosevelt, once wrote that the president's attack on the ill-gotten gains of America's wealthy was shameful hypocrisy given the fact that FDR's “buccaneer” grandfather's opium fortune had allowed Roosevelt and his ...

... Chicago Sun-Times, the Chicago Daily News, and the Chicago Defender, among other papers. It's an excellent collection, and this week we'll be selecting a story every day to give you a taste. First up: Westbrook Pegler's "The Called Shot Heard Round the World," from the Chicago Tribune, Oct. 2, 1932.