Talk:George Seldes

WikiProject Military history/Assessment/Tag & Assess 2008
Article reassessed and graded as start class. --dashiellx (talk) 13:48, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

World War One
I believe George Seldes was a good investigative reporter. However he might have been biased, as is this article on the subject of World War one. He, just as this article, have forgotten to write about the fact that the allied as well as the Americans could only wage war against Germany and win because Jewish-American banks and their Jewish colleagues abroad (even Jewish German banks) financed the war against Germany (They financed the Entente as well as the Bolsheviks). All this while Germany was not the one to scheme and mobilize for war first (France, England and Russia came first). The fact that Germany attacked first was a military necessity for a country with enemies on both sides (any military officer can explain that to you). Since then this is used by the victorious Entente as legitimization for their war on Germany (And don't forget their war against Austria. What did Austria do wrong against any of the Entente countries?). Jewish bankers, industrials and traders as well as many American, English and French republican and liberal democrats wished to destroy the autocratic empires of Russia, Germany and Austria. On top of all this the English wished to maintain their power over all sea-routes. The American wished to destroy all colonial forces, including the French and the English. The Jews had an extra crudge against the Russian empire and wished a country of their own (Palestine). And the Russian Emperor wished to keep influence on the Balkan and needed a victory after the lost war against the Japanese (Which by the way he lost because Jewish bankers financed against him). There is plenty of evidence for all of this (Read for instance the biography of Jacob Schiff, a major Jewish-American Banker. This biography was published by the Jewish community itself. So until proven otherwise I hold it reliable on this subject). 82.125.221.67 (talk) 13:27, 5 August 2011 (UTC)
 * I don't expect a reply a decade later, but I'd like to note that Schiff supported Russia's Provisional Government. I'm not aware of any reliable source that claims he supported the Bolsheviks financially or otherwise, which wouldn't make much sense given the Bolsheviks overthrew the Provisional Government and were widely perceived by supporters of the Entente as pro-German. I can't help but suspect your overall analysis of "the Jews" (whom you present as a homogeneous political and economic entity) during World War I is also flawed. --Ismail (talk) 06:44, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Quotes by Ralph Nader and Nat Hentoff
Would someone please find the sources for the following Ralph Nader quotes:
 * "[Seldes] used the word fascism to reflect an authoritarian state of mind that tended to stifle free speech and dissent and also tended to believe that might was right.";
 * "He was like a doctor. He reported about disease in the political economy, and the gross inequities of power, and the abuses and the exploitation. I always wanted to be a crusading lawyer, and he gave me some materials to contemplate crusading about.".

And by Nat Hentoff:
 * "He took what should be the most honorable term in journalism - muckraking - and made it work again. A lot of journalists of his generation and the generation or two that followed, did more, took risks, because [Seldes] was the model. And the fact that he was there made them feel like whores if they didn't do more.".

Thank you, Faunas (talk) 19:17, 19 October 2012 (UTC)

More
And this one, by Ben Bagdikian:
 * "When Seldes was no longer printed by the mainstream press, he was an important conduit to the journalistic community, who knew that there were flaws in the system, but often couldn't get printed in their own newspapers, because the press cannot be a watchdog on itself. So they fed stories critical of the press to Seldes.".

Faunas (talk) 18:45, 22 September 2014 (UTC)

They are all from Tell the Truth and RunRomanticcomedy12 (talk) 08:44, 10 June 2020 (UTC)

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Seldes as Stalinist
Just a cautionary note against simple conclusions. I have Seldes 1929 book and his condemnation of Russia at that time is complete. He says Chekah have killed as many as half a million for no crime other than thinking. There is no democracy and Russians live under terror, he says. The Haynes and Klehr reference implying that he was a Soviet asset seems pretty thin. The other quote saying he was virtually a Stalinist until 1947 is not supported by his 1929 book. I am not defending him because I dont know, but I believe the truth with him may be more complicated than he was simply a Stalinist. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.233.235 (talk) 17:50, 22 July 2018 (UTC)

Seldes tells his own story of the Stalinist label in the 1953 book "Tell the Truth and Run" and in the 1968 book "Never Tire of Protesting." I reject the statement by Haynes and Klehr in "Spies" that "Seldes lied." Haynes and Klehr have their own critics that they jump to conclusions. The truth is somewhat complicated, Seldes does the best job with it himself. Haynes and Klehr have only one hard reference from 1940, apparently an unencrypted message retrieved from archive in Russia. They do not know who wrote it. Read that, then read the Seldes books, especially the later book with the chapter on Bruce Minton, and the chapters in Tell the Truth on the Spain civil war and how it changed him. Nazis were the threat and the actual killers. The U.S. papers were lying about Spain. Seldes praised Russia for fighting against Fascists in Spain. He published a series of articles in New Masses prior to 1940. His initial partner with "In Fact" was Bruce Minton who in 1940 was trying to set up a stealth communist party paper with Seldes as figurehead editor. It never worked out and they cut ties in less than a year. Seldes says he never saw it that way. Minton has a long statement in the later book. Seldes does have blind spots. In 1953 he still believes that reports of 10 to 20 million dead by Stalin are lies. Says Duranty was impartial as late as 1953. He wrote mostly about the countries he was in, he was not an editorialist, and he was never in Russia after 1923. I believe him that he was never a communist party member, admired Russia for aligning with Republic Spain against Nazi murder in 1938, but curiously unable to see the monster Stalin and his terroristic grip on Russia. Its complicated. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 107.77.234.26 (talk) 14:46, 26 July 2018 (UTC)
 * On the other hand, the unencrypted message that Klehr and Haynes quote states that none other than Earl Browder relayed that Seldes was secretly in the CPUSA. Browder was presumably in a position to know. It seems unlikely to me that either the author of the message or the man who relayed Browder's words (Jacob Golos, whom Klehr and Haynes note "was the CPUSA liaison with Soviet intelligence") were mistaken. This doesn't mean that Seldes' own account of things should be ignored, but it is a pretty striking contradiction of said account. --Ismail (talk) 06:44, 20 December 2021 (UTC)

Missing links in works
In the works section of the article, the links to the following books are missing/do not have the full book:
 * Dead link. Updated. Faunas (talk) 08:48, 1 March 2023 (UTC)
 * Limited (search-only) version. ''Updated. Faunas (talk) 14:10, 25 September 2023 (UTC)
 * Limited (search-only) version.
 * Link does not exist.
 * Limited (search-only) version.
 * Link does not exist.
 * Link does not exist.
 * Link does not exist.

If anyone finds a legal upload of these full books, please care to edit the section to add the link. If the uploaded edition is different from the original, please add |edition=, date of retrieval of the link and, if different, the publisher of that edition in addition to that of the original one. Faunas (talk) 09:59, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

Also
If anyone can find ISBNs, OCLCs or other identifying codes for Seldes's books, please write them in the works section. Use |isbn=, |oclc= or similar. Faunas (talk) 12:57, 20 June 2021 (UTC)

No reference for the following footnote
In the footnotes section there is the following


 * Asked how to say his name, he told the Literary Digest in 1936: "Nine persons out of ten mispronounce our name. If it had an n instead of an s as the final letter there would be no difficulty. The name is pronounced like Selden with the last letter an s":.

However I've searched that book and the 1st edition, as well as other books, and nothing comes up. Faunas (talk) 00:25, 21 June 2021 (UTC)


 * Replaced footnote (and reference) with an actual, direct quote from the Literary Digest (which was from 1935, not 1936). Faunas (talk) 19:16, 26 September 2023 (UTC)


 * I've put back the footnote, but with a citation needed template replacing the "reference", since the reference I replaced it with was removed. Find the source, please. Faunas (talk) 09:44, 30 September 2023 (UTC)

Seeking Seldes' posterity
I'm new here so I may be in the wrong section. Apologies. Currently reading Seldes' "Witness to a Century". Finding respect for a man I never heard of in 50 years of history study. Can readers suggest to me current newspaper/letter/infosource titles that adhere to the principles of Seldes' In Fact publication? I don't read newspapers much, for the reason that I suspect some of the reporting of having a bias, and noting all the advertising that crushes the content. I often disagree with editorials, promoting positions that I oppose. And I still resent the Chicago Tribune dropping The Katzenjammer Kids. I would like to subscribe to a title that is compact in physical presentation (saving paper and postage) and can be counted on for truth without a liberal or conservative slant. I would also patronize electronic outlets, but having had a career in the printing industry, I still wish to support a publication. Looking forward to referrals. — Preceding unsigned comment added by Userofwik (talk • contribs) 00:41, 20 May 2022 (UTC)