38 Facts About Walter Lippmann

Walter Lippmann was an American writer, reporter, and political commentator.

Walter Lippmann won two Pulitzer Prizes, one for his syndicated newspaper column "Today and Tomorrow" and one for his 1961 interview of Nikita Khrushchev.

Walter Lippmann has been highly praised with titles ranging from "most influential" journalist of the 20th century to "Father of Modern Journalism".

Walter Lippmann was born on New York's Upper East Side as the only child of Jewish parents of German origin.

Walter Lippmann's father Jacob Lippmann was a rentier who had become wealthy through his father's textile business and his father-in-law's real estate speculation.

Walter Lippmann had his reform Jewish confirmation instead of the traditional Bar Mitzvah at the age of 14.

Walter Lippmann was emotionally distanced from both parents, but had closer ties to his maternal grandmother.

From 1896 Walter Lippmann attended the Sachs School for Boys, followed by the Sachs Collegiate Institute, an elite and strictly secular private school in the German Gymnasium tradition, attended primarily by children of German-Jewish families and run by the classical philologist Dr Julius Sachs, a son-in-law of Marcus Goldmann from the Goldman-Sachs family.

Walter Lippmann took only one course in history and one in government.

Walter Lippmann was a member of the Phi Beta Kappa society, though important social clubs rejected Jews as members.

Walter Lippmann became a member, alongside Sinclair Lewis, of the New York Socialist Party.

In 1911, Lippmann served as secretary to George R Lunn, the first Socialist mayor of Schenectady, New York, during Lunn's first term.

Walter Lippmann resigned his post after four months, finding Lunn's programs to be worthwhile in and of themselves, but inadequate as socialism.

Walter Lippmann was a journalist, a media critic and an amateur philosopher who tried to reconcile the tensions between liberty and democracy in a complex and modern world, as in his 1920 book Liberty and the News.

In 1913, Lippmann, Herbert Croly, and Walter Weyl became the founding editors of The New Republic.

Walter Lippmann returned to the United States in February 1919 and was immediately discharged.

Walter Lippmann sharply criticized George Creel, whom the President appointed to head wartime propaganda efforts at the Committee on Public Information.

Walter Lippmann examined the coverage of newspapers and saw many inaccuracies and other problems.

Walter Lippmann was the first to bring the phrase "cold war" to a common currency, in his 1947 book by the same name.

Walter Lippmann argued that people, including journalists, are more apt to believe "the pictures in their heads" than to come to judgment by critical thinking.

Walter Lippmann was elected to the American Philosophical Society in 1947 and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1949.

Walter Lippmann later feuded with Johnson over his handling of the Vietnam War of which Lippmann had become highly critical.

Walter Lippmann died in New York City due to cardiac arrest in 1974.

Walter Lippmann was mentioned in the monologue before Phil Ochs' recording of "The Marines Have Landed on the Shores of Santo Domingo" on the 1966 album Phil Ochs in Concert.

In Public Opinion, Walter Lippmann noted that modern realities threatened the stability that the government had achieved during the patronage era of the 19th century.

Walter Lippmann wrote that a "governing class" must rise to face the new challenges.

Walter Lippmann argued that distorted information was inherent in the human mind.

Walter Lippmann argued that interpretation as stereotypes subjected us to partial truths.

John Dewey in his book The Public and Its Problems, published in 1927, agreed about the irrationality of public opinion, but he rejected Walter Lippmann's call for a technocratic elite.

Walter Lippmann is a pleasant man who, without any important qualifications for the office, would very much like to be President.

Walter Lippmann coined the phrase "Great Society" in 1921.

Walter Lippmann was an early and influential commentator on mass culture, notable not for criticizing or rejecting mass culture entirely but discussing how it could be worked with by a government licensed "propaganda machine" to keep democracy functioning.

Later, in The Phantom Public, Walter Lippmann recognized that the class of experts were, in most respects, outsiders to any particular problem, and hence not capable of effective action.

Walter Lippmann was married twice, the first time from 1917 to 1937 to Faye Albertson.

Walter Lippmann was one of the pioneers of Christian socialism and the social gospel movement in the spirit of George Herron.

Walter Lippmann was divorced by Faye Albertson to be able to marry Helen Byrne Armstrong in 1938, daughter of James Byrne.

Walter Lippmann divorced her husband Hamilton Fish Armstrong, the editor of Foreign Affairs.

Walter Lippmann was the only close friend in Lippmann's life.