Title

Radio priest : Charles Coughlin, the father of hate radio

Description

Warren Donald's biography of Father Charles Coughlin.

Identifier

590753

684824035

Creator

Warren, Donald I

Source

Brian Lamb Booknotes Collection

Gift of Brian Lamb, 2011.

Catalog record

Language

eng

Date

1996

Program air date: September 8, 1996.

Publisher

Free Press

George Mason University. Libraries. Special Collections & Archives

Text

Transcription of Annotations
Notes on front endpapers state that unemployment in 1933 was nearly 25%, list Hilaire Belloc, Ezra Pound, and G.K. Chesterton as supporters of Mussolini, refer to 'The Shrine of the Little Flower', Charles Coughlin's Catholic church in Royal Oak Michigan, and to his radio broadcast 'The Children's Hour'. Other notes concern the National Union for Social Justice, Coughlin's hatred of Jews, a 1935 meeting at Hyde Park between Coughlin and Joe Kennedy, state that Hoover tapped the priest's phone, and list Coughlin, Gerald L.K. Smith and Dr. Francis E. Townsend as members of the Union Party. These statements and questions are also included in the notes: "Why were all the interviews conducted in the mid-80s?" -- "What recordings are there of Coughlin?" -- "1930: 2 out of 5 had radios; [in the] urban Midwest half had radios." -- "How close was F[ather] C[oughlin] to F.D.R. in 1932?" -- "What happened to the church shop run by his parents?" -- "What role did Joe Kennedy play in all of this?" -- "Sheldon Marcus told Warren, [the author], that F.C. lied in his interviews." --"How does Drew Pearson figure in all this?" -- "How big was the 'Social Justice' magazine?" -- What was the Union Party?" -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book. -- p. 4: "angry media personalities who practice an electronic demagoguery by projecting qualities of populist sincerity and trustworthiness while providing a forum for violence-provoking political expressions." -- p. 6: "He was the first public figure to obliterate the distinction between politics, religion, and mass media entertainment." -- p. 19: "Successful bigot: "claim [the] credentials of the anti-bigot"." -- p. 299: "The antidemocratic sentiments that had so energized the radio priest in his heyday reemerged and were directed against a liberalized ecclesiastical authority he now saw engulfing both his church and America...Coughlin described bishops as "a pitiful, lamentable college of sociologists, raceologists, slum-diggers and would-be ecumenists ... headline seekers in the science of racism."

Subject

"Coughlin, Charles E. (Charles Edward), 1891-1979."

"Catholic Church--United States--Clergy--Biography."

"Right-wing extremists--United States--Biography."

"Radio in politics--United States."

"Radio in religion--United States."

Relation

Original Booknotes interview

Rights

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