22 Facts About Westbrook Pegler

Francis James Westbrook Pegler was a Pulitzer Prize-winning US journalist described as "one of the godfathers of right-wing populism".

Westbrook Pegler was a newspaper columnist popular in the 1930s and 1940s for his opposition to the New Deal, labor unions, and anti-lynching legislation.

Westbrook Pegler criticized the Supreme Court, the tax system, labor unions, and any federal intervention on the issue of civil rights.

Westbrook Pegler's late writing appeared sporadically in publications that included the John Birch Society's American Opinion.

James Westbrook Pegler was born on August 2,1894, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, the son of Frances A and Arthur James Pegler, a local newspaper editor.

Westbrook Pegler was the youngest American war correspondent during World War I, working for United Press Service.

Westbrook Pegler built up a large readership for his column "Mister Pegler" and elicited this observation by Time magazine in its October 10,1938 issue:.

Six days a week, for an estimated $65,000 a year, in 116 papers reaching nearly 6,000,000 readers, Mister Westbrook Pegler is invariably irritated, inexhaustibly scornful.

Unhampered by coordinated convictions of his own, Westbrook Pegler applies himself to presidents and peanut vendors with equal zeal and skill.

In 1944, Westbrook Pegler moved his syndicated column to the Hearst's King Features Syndicate.

Westbrook Pegler supported President Franklin Roosevelt initially but, after seeing the rise of fascism in Europe, he warned against the dangers of dictatorship in America and became one of the Roosevelt administration's sharpest critics for what he saw as its abuse of power.

Westbrook Pegler "hit the wrong man" when gunning for Franklin Roosevelt.

Westbrook Pegler was outraged by the New Deal's support for labor unions, which he considered morally and politically corrupt.

At his peak in the 1930s and the 1940s, Westbrook Pegler was a leading figure in the movement against the New Deal and its allies in the labor movement, such as the National Maritime Union.

In 1941 Westbrook Pegler became the first columnist to win a Pulitzer Prize for reporting, for his work in exposing racketeering in Hollywood labor unions, focusing on the criminal career of Willie Bioff and the link between organized crime and unions.

Westbrook Pegler's reporting led to the conviction of George Scalise, the president of the Building Service Employees International Union who had ties to organized crime.

Westbrook Pegler aligned himself with the white supremacist White Citizens Council.

Westbrook Pegler was ultimately expelled from the John Birch Society because of his extreme views.

Westbrook Pegler died age 74 on June 24,1969, in Tucson, Arizona of stomach cancer.

Westbrook Pegler is interred in the Cemetery of the Gate of Heaven in Hawthorne, New York.

Westbrook Pegler's distinctive writing style was often the subject of parody.

Interest in Westbrook Pegler was briefly revived when a line originally written by him appeared in Republican Vice-Presidential nominee Sarah Palin's acceptance speech at the 2008 Republican National Convention in St Paul, Minnesota.