flâneur

Founders: #135 Joseph Pulitzer (Politics & Media)

podscripts.co · 12,953 words · saved by 1 readers

What I learned from reading Pulitzer: A Life in Politics, Print, and Power by James McGrath Morris. ---- [0:20] Joseph Pulitzer was the midwife to the birth of the modern mass media. Pulitzer’s lasting achievement was to transform American journalism into a medium of mass consumption and immense influence. [3:04] He was the pioneer of the modern media industry. [5:06] Teddy Roosevelt tried to have Joseph Pulitzer put in jail. [7:11] How one of Pulitzer’s adult sons viewed him: One of the strange differences between us two is the fact that you have never come near learning how to enjoy life. [9:42] Joseph favored reading works of history and biography. [10:12] Joseph understood fully the extent of the calamity [his father’s death]. He had been 9 years old when his older brother died, 10 when his younger brother and sister died, 11 when his father died, and 13 at the death of his last sister. [11:50] At 17 years old Joseph escapes to America. A group of wealthy Boston businessmen recruit thousands of young Europeans to fight for the Union in the American Civil War. This scheme became Pulitzer’s escape route. [13:18] Describing how he came to the United States: He was friendless, home

[00:00:00] Like Alfred Nobel, Joseph Pulitzer is better known today for the prize that bears his name than for his contributions to history. That is a shame. In the 19th century, when America became an industrial nation and Carnegie provided the steel, Rockefeller the oil, Morgan the money, and Vanderbilt the railroads, Joseph Pulitzer was the midwife to the birth of the modern mass media. What he accomplished was as significant in his time as the creation of television would be in the 20th century. And it remains deeply relevant in today's information age. Pulitzer's lasting achievement was…

related reading