Messengers of the Right: Conservative Media and the Transformation of American Politics by Nicole Hemmer

Author:Nicole Hemmer [Hemmer, Nicole]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
Tags: Politics, History, Media & Communications, Media Studies, Non-Fiction, Propaganda, United States
ISBN: 9780812248395
Google: jpzQDAAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0812248392
Goodreads: 29780905
Publisher: University of Pennsylvania Press
Published: 2016-08-24T23:00:00+00:00

Henry Regnery planned to cash in on the 1964 election.

It wasn’t a matter of changing his political stripes. True, Regnery had been slow to board the Goldwater for President train. In 1961, when Goldwater backed out of a ghostwritten labor union manuscript because he was “reconsidering his ‘public image,’” Regnery called the idea of a Goldwater presidential run “absurd.” “He is a fine man—honest, intelligent, and courageous,” he wrote Felix Morley, “but he is no Robert Taft.” Yet like Rusher, Regnery was won over by Goldwater’s impressive rise in the early 1960s, and by 1964 he was a firm backer of the Goldwater campaign. No, this wasn’t opportunism but rather a moment when pocketbook and politics aligned.25

As Goldwater marched toward the nomination, Regnery published three campaign-focused books: Edwin McDowell’s biography of Barry Goldwater, Phil Crane’s The Democrat’s Dilemma, and G. R. Schreiber’s exposé of the Bobby Baker affair. McDowell, an editorial writer for the Pulliam-owned Arizona Republic, cobbled together a traditional campaign biography, regaling readers with tales of Goldwater’s backcountry adventures interspersed with approving summaries of his political creed. The McDowell book received a huge spread in Human Events, which printed a ten-thousand-word excerpt packaged as a pro-Goldwater handout, as well as a favorable review by Rusher in National Review. The Democrat’s Dilemma received similar compliments from the magazine, and its author, Phil Crane, a young university professor, quickly became a conservative media darling.26

The book Regnery believed would make the biggest splash, however, was The Bobby Baker Affair: How to Make Millions in Washington. It explored the growing scandal around Baker, Lyndon Johnson’s political adviser, who was accused of trading government contracts for cash and call girls. The scandal, which broke in the fall of 1963, resulted in Baker’s resignation and a Senate hearing, but interest petered out after Kennedy’s assassination. Regnery hoped to resurrect it, putting Johnson’s character at the fore of the election. When Regnery was wrapping up publishing decisions on the Baker book, he had a feeling it would become a campaign phenomenon. Early sales numbers for the McDowell and Crane books were promising: the hardback of the McDowell book hit 17,000, prompting two paperback runs totaling 400,000 copies. Preorders for The Democrat’s Dilemma topped 110,000. Regnery felt confident enough to order a first printing of 200,000 for the Bobby Baker book, which his distributor believed would sell out in a week.27

The plunge into low-priced paperbacks, which Regnery undertook with unusual alacrity, was a major shift for the publisher. Until 1964, Regnery approached the selection and publication of conservative books cautiously, favoring the timeless over the timely, lining up orders well in advance to cover any possible losses. He certainly desired profits and popularity but, in the absence of both, cultivated an air of speaking to an enlightened remnant in a benighted world. So what changed?

In the first half of 1964, as Regnery was planning his publication schedule for the year, three other paperbacks appeared that jolted the political and publishing world. By Election Day, more than

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.