Huey Long's Weekly Newspaper
Kingfish Countered Coverage of Dailies with His Own Weekly
Facing total opposition from Louisiana’s daily newspapers early in his term as Governor, Huey Long fought back with his own weekly Louisiana Progress. This tool may have been one of the earliest attempts at publishing a truly alternative weekly newspaper.
The first issue of the Progress rolled off the presses on March 27, 1930 as Long set his sights on unseating incumbent U.S. Senator Joseph Ransdell in the Democratic primary—tantamount to election—the following September. In addition, Long was reeling from daily coverage of his narrow escape in a recent impeachment attempt and felt the need for an “objective” media outlet to promote his policies and programs
Creative Financing
The Progress featured an eight-page, eight-column format and was produced by a professional staff hired by Long. The first four issues were void of any advertising, which immediately brought claims from the dailies that Long had forced state employees to take a 20% pay reduction for one month to establish capital for the fledgling enterprise.
Long biographer T. Harry Williams maintained that the charge was for the most part accurate, as employees of a certain level were “requested’ to buy or sell a number of subscriptions commensurate with one’s salary. In his autobiography, Every Man a King, Long answered the charges by stating that “friends” had “voluntarily” solicited subscriptions.
Attacking the Dailies
In addition to promoting Long’s gubernatorial policies and Senate campaign, the weekly simultaneously demonized the dailies and attacked their credibility. Noted Louisiana journalist of the era, Harnett T. Kane, referred to the Long publication as “probably the most cheerfully venomous publication in the nation.” As an example, the dailies were frequently referred to as “hypocritical, double-crossing polecats.”
The dominant issue of the Senate campaign proved to be Long’s proposal for a $68 million highways and bridges program, which the Progress dutifully championed throughout the campaign. In truth, Louisiana had great needs in these areas, as the state had fewer than 300 miles of paved roads and not one bridge crossing the Mississippi River when Long took office.
Ever the populist, Long used the Progress to reach out to his rural constituents, who were estimated to make up 60% of the state’s electorate. The weekly was effective in carrying Long’s “us vs. them” message to the farm people, characterizing the mainstream dailies as tools of the state’s cultural and business elite that had ignored the needs of the poor and rural for generations.
The Progress Makes a Statement
When the votes were tallied in the September 9 primary, Long carried 51 of the state’s 61 parishes in defeating Ransdell by a count of 149,640-111,451. For perhaps the only time in American history, a candidate won state-wide office despite losing the three most urban, populous parishes or counties.
Probably not coincidentally, the three largest parishes naturally were served by the anti-Long dailies of New Orleans, Baton Rouge, and Shreveport. Four of the other seven parishes carried by Ransdell adjoined the “big three,” and were part of the dailies’ circulation areas. The remaining three lost by Long were in the Delta region; Long’s populist rhetoric of lifting the masses out of poverty and illiteracy was probably too much to bear for the Delta political leaders, primarily plantation owners. For them, the status quo was desirable.
The Progress proved to be an effective tool for Long throughout the campaign in taking his message to the masses in the outlying parishes of the state. The eight-page weekly, boasting a circulation of 50,000 within four months of the inaugural issue, suddenly ballooned to forty pages in a special “election issue” just prior to the vote. Long’s success in the parishes void of major dailies provides some insight to the weekly’s value in his Senate campaign.
Sources:
Cortner, Richard C. The Kingfish and the Constitution: Huey Long, the First Amendment, and the emergence of modern press freedom in America. Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
Williams, Harry T. Huey Long. New York: Knopf
Long with raised fist
|
Huey in Senate
|
What do you think about this article?
More in History
Latest Articles