Walter Lippmann was a syndicated columnist with considerable influence. He wrote his column for over 40 years, and it appeared in leading newspapers in the United States and throughout the world, going into semiretirement in 1967, leaving a number of readers who had long depended on his column without an important part of their lives. He started his life as a journalist before the First World War and would continue writing into the Vietnam War era some 50 years later. Lippmann had a strong influence on various presidents and political leaders, and he made use of this influence to try to shape policy and influence decision-making in government. Many journalists and columnists may aspire to this sort of power, but few achieve it to the degree that Lippmann did. Biographer Ronald Steel writes,
Influence was Lippmann's stock-in-trade; was what made him a powerful public figure. The influence was tangible, but hard to measure. He commanded no divisions, but he did have an enormous power over public opinion. This in turn gave him a power over Presidents, politicians and policymakers.
An examination of Lippmann's use of his column to influence public opinion will show how he made use of his popularity, the sorts of issues that fired him, and the methods he used to shape policy, especially during the period of his greatest influence from the New Deal to the Truman presidency.
Understanding Lippmann requires understanding his background and the changes in his professional life to some degree. Lippmann at first wanted to be a professor, but he abandoned this, retaining his intellectual bent but directing it into a new avenue through his newspaper work first as a journalist and then as a columnist. The difference between journalist and columnist is important, for a journalist reports on the news while a columnist by definition comments on the news and presumably tries to shape it by altering and martialing public opinion. W...