Page 120 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

PERSUADERS
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POLITICAL
In 1911, contentious liberal Hey wood Broun began a column that often dealt
with politics, but the true progenitor of political column-writing was David
Lawrence, who launched his conservative column in 1921. He is chiefly remem-
bered as the founder of U.S. News & World Report, but he continued his syn-
dicated column until 1973.
Other political pundits of the 1920s, with the years their columns ran, include
California Progressive Chester Rowell (1920-1947); Frank Kent (1922-1958)
of the Baltimore Sun, whose syndicated column was entitled "The Great Game
of Politics"; the New York Herald Tribune's Mark Sullivan (1923-1952), also
remembered for his muckraking magazine articles; black conservative George
Schuyler (1924-1977) of the Pittsburgh Courier, Edward Price Bell (1927-
1931) of the Chicago Daily News, whose specialty was world politics and who
was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize; and the New York Times' Olym-
pian conservative Arthur Krock (1927-1966), winner of four Pulitzer Prizes.
Perhaps the most influential of all the early political columnists was two-time
Pulitzer Prize winner Walter Lippmann (1931-1971), who was clearly read by
world leaders. He was syndicated by the New York Herald Tribune.
SOURCE: Charles Fisher, The Columnists, 1944.
Sam G. Riley

POLITICAL COMMUNICATORS. See Samuel Adams; Roger Ailes; Ste
phen Tyree Early; Benjamin Franklin; James Campbell Hagerty; Louis Henry
Howe.

POLITICAL JOURNALISTS. See Joseph and Stewart Alsop; Jack Anderson;
Peter Arnett; Timothy Crouse; William Lloyd Garrison; Edwin Lawrence God-
kin; Arthur Krock; Walter Lippmann; Robert C. Maynard; Joe McGinniss; P. J.
O'Rourke; Thomas Paine; William Safire; Helen Thomas; Hunter S. Thompson;
Theodore H. White; Robert U. Woodward and Carl Bernstein.
POLITICAL PERSUADERS is a term coined by political science professor
Dan Nimmo in the late 1960s to describe a growing profession of men and
women who specialized in managing political campaigns. Modern-day political
persuaders are descendants of skilled party politicians like Mark Hanna and
James Farley, who acquired national reputations for managing the presidential
campaigns of William McKinley and Franklin D. Roosevelt, respectively. Cam-
paigns Inc., formed in 1933 by Clem Whiter and Leone Baxter, was the first
full-service agency devoted exclusively to managing political campaigns. The
agency won 70 of 75 campaigns in its first 20 years. Although it is not possible
to compile a complete list, estimates indicate that political consulting is a growth
industry, employing thousands of people in the United States and abroad.
The high financial stakes and complexity of running for offices at all levels
of government require consultants skilled in personnel management, media re-
lations, advertising, fund-raising, polling, issue analysis, speechwriting, and tel-