After reading about the life of
Joseph Wright Alsop V, I have gained a certain admiration for his values as a
journalist. Joseph Alsop, like Professor Henry has continually suggested us to
do, defined his morals as an individual quite early on in his career. While a
prisoner of war to Japan in China, Alsop created a rule that he would “go and
see for myself [himself] the weather in the streets.
Alsop spent many of his days hidden
away in his father’s library in attempts to become a self-labeled “educated gentleman.”
At Harvard University, he majored in English Literature. With strong
encouragement from his grandmother, Alsop moved to Manhattan to work for the New York Herald Tribune, covering
stories ranging from Hoovervilles to celebrities.
Alsop’s big break came after his
excellent coverage of the Lindbergh kidnapping incident. Shortly after covering
the story, Alsop was promoted to Washington correspondent. Alsop had many
connections in the white house, due in part to his family relation to the
Roosevelts. Joe Alsop voiced his opinions that America should work vigorously
to eradicate worldwide communism in a column he co-authored with his brother
Stewart. Several people blamed Alsop for
convincing President Kennedy and Johnson to war. Alsop had an amazing ability
to be kind and loyal to his family, yet be harsh and argumentative with those
who refuted him in the media.
Several factors led to the end of
Alsop’s career as a journalist/columnist. While on the job, Alsop was
photographed in a homosexual encounter in Russia. Alsop was also devastated by
President Kennedy’s assassination, writing, “Now nothing seems worth
doing.” In 1973 Alsop and his wife
separated (later divorcing), and one year later Alsop’s brother died of
Leukemia. In 1974 Alsop retired his column leaving future journalist with one
last note of advice, “Facts alone in the long run possess influence,” and “If a
member of my trade forgets this important truth, and begins to think his
readers will be guided by his personal opinion, it is time for him to think
about retiring.”
Sources:
American Journalist by Donald A. Richie
[Letter from James D. Alsop]
James D. Alsop
Journal of
the American Musicological Society
, Vol. 32, No. 2 (Summer, 1979), p. 367
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