Investigative Journalist

Abstract

By the late 1940s press criticism had become a part of mainstream debates. The Hutchins Commission Report, Free and Responsible Press confirmed many of the observations made by Seldes about press practices and freedom. Publishers themselves began to acknowledge the public’s disgruntlement with them, although they attributed it to the public’s lack of knowledge about the press’s commercial and political constraints rather than failures of their behalf. Increasing numbers of journalists were also publicly critical of the press including A.J. Liebling, Don Hollenbeck, Max Lerner and the Neiman Scholars who also made similar suggestions to Seldes about subscription-based journalism. Yet, Seldes was not generally a part of these new conversations. Hysteria about communism undermined his credibility and general fear and apathy among his subscribers led to the closure of In Fact.