Title: The press against Upton Sinclair
First published: 1968
Description: I am the author of this thesis. The full title is The Press Against Upton Sinclair:the 1934 California Gubernatorial campaign. The abstract of the thesis: This thesis represents an effort to ascertain whether the California press showed bias in its news columns against Democratic Party candidate Upton Sinclair during the 1934 California gubernatorial campaign. For research purposes, a sample of six daily newspapers was selected on a regional basis.  Inquiry was focused on one aspect of the campaign: press treatment, invcluding follow-up material, on a remark made by Sinclair that if he was elected half of the unemployed would come to California.  To place the remark within the context of the csmpsign, it was found necessary to provide background on various aspects of the election.  Research included consulting books and magazines dealing with the campaign, inspectiong newspapers of the period, and obtaining letters from key persons directly or indirectly involved in the campaign.
Findings of the study were that the three largest newspapers sampled---the Los Angeles Times, San Francisco Chronicle. and Los Angeles Examiner---consistently editorialized in news stories to discredit Sinclair, slanted headlines against the Democratic Party casndidate, and, in the cases of the Times and Examiner, used news photographs that (if not outright fakes) bore headings and cutlines indisputably worded to place Sinclair at a distinct disadvantage.  The three smallest newspapers in thg sample gave the
Sinclair remark little coverage.
People: Upton Sinclair (1878-1968)