NP Hiter, Mussolini, Hearst

[Doug Millison]

http://www.nybooks.com/nyrev/WWWfeatdisplay.cgi?20000810004R
  A Boy's Life
  RUSSELL BAKER
(review of _The Chief: The Life of William Randolph
  Hearst_by David Nasaw)

"[....] Here, for example, is a priceless piece
  of comedy in which Hitler and Mussolini
  show how to get under Hearst's skin.
  Both wrote for him in the early 1930s,
  and each was an editor's nightmare.
  Hearst's editorial manager, Vanneman
  Ranck, was at the point of contact with
  the pair, and his wire messages to
  Hearst reveal a man near the boiling
  point. He reports constant trouble with
  Mussolini: "ponderous" prose, dull
  subject matter, copy constantly late.

" Then-what's this! Mussolini's latest
  piece disagrees with Hearst's view on
  the European war debt. Hearst is
  furious. This gives Ranck a chance to
  argue for dropping Il Duce from the
  payroll. Unless reined in, he cautions,
  Mussolini will try to "make us take any
  old pot-boiling topic that he pleases at
  any time at twelve hundred dollars per
  article. Not only has Mussolini been
  endeavoring to work off some very
  uninteresting subjects but in spite of all
  our admonitions has been providing
  some of them so late as to miss our
  [deadlines]." Hearst agrees that it's
  time to crack down: "Have noted that
  Mussolini has been less interesting of
  late.... There is no reason why we
  should take and pay for dull stuff." But
  Mussolini hangs on.

" When Hitler goes on the payroll he is
  still a minor player in German politics
  and is worth only a small fee. As he
  turns into Der Führer he demands better
  pay. Then we enter Chaplin territory with
  Ranck wiring Hearst that Hitler won't
  write a piece Hearst wants "unless we
  willing pay him as much as pay
  Mussolini. Frankly do not believe he is
  worth as much as Mussolini. Do you?
  What would you think of Goering?" Soon
  Herman Goering has replaced Hitler as
  Hearst's inside expert in Germany and
  turns out to be a shameless chiseler,
  forever trying to squeeze "the Chief" for
  more money. "
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