The Journalist Who Interpreted Too Much: The New York Times’ Courtship, Defense, and Betrayal of John W. White

Abstract

This study analyzes the behind-the-scenes correspondence, from 1928 to 1941, between the New York Times’ news executives and editors and John W. White, who served as the paper’s first Chief South American Correspondent. An analysis of the correspondence and White’s dispatches shows that interactions between news management, foreign governments, and the U.S. State Department influenced White’s writing to the point that he avoided writing about Argentina’s neighbors; provided more positive, “Pollyanna” material; and censored his own dispatches. The study provides further evidence that Arthur Hays Sulzberger meddled in the paper’s news coverage, even before he became Times publisher in 1935. The correspondence between Sulzberger and White also calls into question the romantic myth of the autonomous foreign correspondent, free to report without fear or favor. Instead, it shows that American foreign correspondents faced scrutiny not only from their news executives and editors but also from foreign governments, police officials, local newspapers, Nazi and Fascist spies, U.S. business interests, the State Department, and even the President of the United States.