November/December 1996  (Vol. 11, Issue 6)

Tell the Truth and Run: George Seldes and the American Press
(1996) 111 min. $275. PPR. Goldsmith Productions. Color cover. ISBN: 1-57448037-5.
As he wrote in the title of his recent book, George Seldes (1890-1995) was truly an "eyewitness to a century." This gadfly journalist took on dictators like Hitler, Franco, Mussolini, Lenin; the "lords of the press" who traded journalistic integrity for advertising space; cigarette companies and McCarthy and his fellow anti-communists. Seldes fought his battles with words, and he never lost his essential optimism that Americans would do what was right once the truth was revealed. This documentary celebrates Seldes’ long, colorful career and interviews the subject when he was an amazingly spry, articulate 98-year-old. Seldes recalls his journalistic beginnings in Pittsburgh, a sojourn in revolutionary Russia, his run-ins with Mussolini, adventures in covering the Spanish Civil War, and his role as an increasingly lonely critic of the press. Seldes ran his own muckraking newsletter In Fact for about 10 years, until he was finally sidelined by J. Edgar Hoover and McCarthyite hysteria in the 1950s. However, Seldes’ crusading style influenced journalists I. F. Stone, Nat Hentoff, consumer advocate Ralph Nader, and Pentagon Papers figure Daniel Ellsberg. Many causes championed by Seldes have become part of the national agenda. This is an inspiring and entertaining look at an unjustly neglected personality. Highly recommended. Aud: C, P. (S. Rees)