Old York newspaper won’t die or fade away
Not surprisingly, The Gazette and Daily in York shows up, albeit briefly, in Myra MacPherson’s “All Governments Lie! The Life and Times of Rebel Journalist I. F. Stone.” http://www.simonsays.com/content/book.cfm?tab=1&pid=520115&agid=2
Stone, the famed independent journalist, and J.W. Gitt, the noted Gazette and Daily owner, had much in common.
They fought McCarthyism, sought to thaw the Cold War and questioned the Vietnam War from beginning to end. Gitt published Stone’s work on the op-ed page, or second editorial page, as it was called. Further, the two men had a common denominator in Louis Stone, Izzy’s brother and J.W.’s managing editor… .
MacPherson wrote that The Gazette and Daily was one of a dozen newspapers that Izzy Stone read each day.
The York newspaper, in turn, published Stone’s work, expanding the reach of his writing. Gitt’s Gazette developed a wide following for running left-of-center commentary on its op-ed page.
By the way, J.W. Gitt, the small-town newspaper owner from 1915-1970 who gained a worldwide following, may have his story told soon. Efforts are under way to publish his biographer, Mary Allienne Hamilton’s, work on Gitt.
Stone — and Gitt — drew intense criticism throughout their careers. And even today. Consider what historian Paul Johnson says of Lillian Hellman, considered by some to be in the same camp.
“Like (Victor) Gollancz, she was part of that great intellectual conspiracy in the West to conceal the horrors of Stalinism,” he wrote in his book “Intellectuals.”
Not sure about the conspiracy allegation, but one weakness of Cold War liberals was that they cried for peace when there was no peace in Siberian gulags.
But back to Stone, for the moment. In setting up a Christopher Hitchens article on MacPherson’s biography, vanityfair.com http://www.vanityfair.com/features/general/articles/060911fege01 states with the same verve that characterized Stone’s work:
“Reading a new biography of the fiercely independent and incorruptible I. F. “Izzy” Stone, the author recalls how, with a one-man kitchen-table weekly, the late great reporter blazed the way for a generation of bloggers, became a legend Washington journalists still worship, and set a standard few can meet… .”
