page_title: Fulton Lewis Jr.
section_title: Radio career
hierarchical_section_title: Fulton Lewis Jr. / Radio career
caption_attribution_description: English: Low-resolution reproduction of newspaper advertisement for the WKIC–Hazard, Kentucky, broadcast of the nationally distributed radio program of Fulton Lewis Jr., ca. 1940s–1950s
context_page_description: Fulton Lewis Jr. was a prominent conservative American radio broadcaster from the 1930s to the 1960s.
context_section_description: Lewis left the Herald to join Universal News Service, run by the Hearst family.  Between 1933 and 1936 Lewis wrote a newspaper column called "The Washington Sideshow" which was syndicated by King Features.  His radio career began when he volunteered to fill in for a vacationing news reporter.  The head of Washington AM radio station WOL was impressed with Lewis' "on-the-spot" reporting and offered him a full-time position. His commentaries were broadcast nationally by the Mutual Broadcasting System.  
  Lewis' commentary program (presented as a "news" program, but which allowed him to choose his topic and to give his opinions in depth) ran from 7:00-7:15 p.m. Eastern time, five days a week.  His audience liked Lewis' folksy broadcasting style.  At his commercial peak, Lewis was heard on more than 500 radio stations and boasted a weekly audience of sixteen million listeners.  His signature closing was "That's the top of the news as it looks from here."  He also transitioned briefly to television in the early 1950s but the format of his program did not appeal in that medium, so he returned to radio for the remainder of his career.  
  Lewis was a conservative commentator who supported Barry Goldwater for President, supported limited government and federalism, and opposed liberal leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and their policies.  He first made his mark by opposing the New Deal policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (although he initially admired the man upon his first election), and as the world lurched toward World War II in the late 1930s he strongly supported the America First Committee, along with famed aviator Charles Lindbergh in their efforts to keep the US out of what he considered "the European War".  He strongly opposed FDR's re-election in 1944, and also the election campaign of FDR's successor Harry S. Truman in 1948.
  After the war, Lewis was avidly anti-communist, and strongly backed Senator Joe McCarthy. He was one of the first broadcasters to expose Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as the communist spies that the Venona papers proved they were, although he was later accused of antisemitism as well.  He despised Earl Warren, even, at one point, calling to lynch him: "I wouldn't impeach him. I'd lynch him." Even after McCarthy was disgraced nationwide, Lewis continued to strongly champion him, and this did much to reduce his nationwide radio audience and appeal.  He continued on air, however, until his death in 1966, after which his son Fulton Lewis III kept the broadcast running for another twelve years.
caption: Advertisement for Fulton Lewis Jr.'s radio show on WKIC in Hazard, Kentucky.
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