Minnesota Publishers and Editors as Elected Officials,1923–1938: A Comparison of Journalistic Rhetoric and Conduct

Abstract

This study compares occupational rhetoric of early-twentieth-century newspaper journalists on the involvement of journalists in politics to the actual conduct of a group of 146 Minnesota journalists who practiced their craft between 1923 and 1938. A quantitative collective biography of the personal, journalistic, and community lives of Minnesota editors and publishers suggests that a number of them either did not know about, or chose not to abide by, the admonishments of some members of their occupational group who warned that serving simultaneously as politician and journalist would call into question their ability to act in the best interests of the public.