Frederick Woltman (March 16, 1905 – March 6, 1970) was a 20th-century American newspaper journalist for the ''

New York World-Telegram The ''New York World-Telegram'', later known as the ''New York World-Telegram and The Sun'', was a New York City newspaper from 1931 to 1966. History Founded by James Gordon Bennett Sr. as ''The Evening Telegram'' in 1867, the newspaper began ...

'', known as "an

anti-communist Anti-communism is political and ideological opposition to communism. Organized anti-communism developed after the 1917 October Revolution in the Russian Empire, and it reached global dimensions during the Cold War, when the United States and th ...

reporter in the 1940s and early 1950s, best known for criticism of U.S. Senator

Joseph McCarthy Joseph Raymond McCarthy (November 14, 1908 – May 2, 1957) was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957. Beginning in 1950, McCarthy became the most visi ...

in a series of articles called "The McCarthy Balance Sheet", which ran July 12–16, 1954.

Background

Enos Frederick Woltman was born in

York, Pennsylvania York (Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...

on March 16, 1905.

Career

Until 1929, Woltman taught Philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh, when the

Pennsylvania Governor The governor of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is the head of state and head of government of the U.S. state, Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, as well as commander-in-chief of the Commonwealth's military forces. The governor has a duty to enfo ...

Gifford Pinchot Gifford Pinchot (August 11, 1865October 4, 1946) was an American forester and politician. He served as the fourth chief of the U.S. Division of Forestry, as the first head of the United States Forest Service, and as the 28th governor of Penns ...

had him fired for an article he had written in the ''

American Mercury ''The American Mercury'' was an American magazine published from 1924Staff (Dec. 31, 1923)"Bichloride of Mercury."''Time''. to 1981. It was founded as the brainchild of H. L. Mencken and drama critic George Jean Nathan. The magazine featured w ...

'' about police brutality during a coal strike.

Roy Howard Roy Howard (15 November 1922 – 6 August 2008) was an Australian cricket Cricket is a bat-and-ball game played between two teams of eleven players on a field at the centre of which is a pitch with a wicket at each end, each comprisi ...

of the ''

'' hired him because of it. After

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

, Woltman received assistance from

Victor Lasky Victor Lasky (7 January 1918 – 22 February 1990) was a conservative columnist in the United States who wrote several best-selling books. He was syndicated by the North American Newspaper Alliance. Background On January 7, 1918, Victor Lasky wa ...

on articles about

communist Communism (from Latin la, communis, lit=common, universal, label=none) is a far-left sociopolitical, philosophical, and economic ideology and current within the socialist movement whose goal is the establishment of a communist society, a ...

infiltration within the United States. In 1946, Woltman beat out other newspaper investigators into the accusation of

Louis F. Budenz Louis Francis Budenz (pronounced "byew-DENZ"; July 17, 1891 – April 27, 1972) was an American activist and writer, as well as a Soviet espionage agent and head of the ''Buben group'' of spies. He began as a labor activist and became a member ...

that a high-level communist spy was working in the United States and discovered that person was

Gerhart Eisler Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the C ...

Woltman, a reporter with a long-standing reputation as a staunch anti-communist, wrote a five-part series of articles criticizing McCarthy in the ''

''. He stated that McCarthy "has become a major liability to the cause of anti-communism", and accused him of "wild twisting of facts and near facts

hat A hat is a head covering which is worn for various reasons, including protection against weather conditions, ceremonial reasons such as university graduation, religious reasons, safety, or as a fashion accessory. Hats which incorporate mech ...

repels authorities in the field". In 1954, ''

Time Time is the continued sequence of existence and events that occurs in an apparently irreversible succession from the past, through the present, into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequence events, t ...

'' magazine described Woltman as follows:

Long acknowledged the No. 1 newspaper specialist on Reds, he has been exposing Communists since 1938, and, unlike many other anti-Communist writers, he was never a Communist himself. A hard-digging reporter, he backed his stories with solid documentation—e.g., he exposed
Gerhart Eisler Gerhart Eisler (20 February 1897 – 21 March 1968) was a German politician, editor and publicist. Along with his sister Ruth Fischer, he was a very early member of the Austrian German Communist Party (KPDÖ) and then a prominent member of the C ...
as the top Kremlin agent in the U.S. the day before the FBI picked Eisler up. ... This week the World-Telly and other Scripps-Howard papers splashed Woltman's five-part series across their pages. His appraisal: McCarthy is "a major liability to the cause of anti-Communism." By making it harder for real Communist-fighters to operate effectively, wrote Woltman, McCarthy has actually become an asset to Communism. "He has introduced a slambang, rabble-rousing, hit-and-run technique into the serious business of exposing the Communist conspiracy ... and thereby disarranged ..."

The story was so controversial that it stirred up coverage itself, including again by ''Time'' two issues later: "In their series on Joe McCarthy, the Scripps-Howard papers ... stirred up an even bigger furor than they had expected".

Later life and death

In late April 1957, Woltman suffered a stroke that left him with

aphasia Aphasia is an inability to comprehend or formulate language because of damage to specific brain regions. The major causes are stroke and head trauma; prevalence is hard to determine but aphasia due to stroke is estimated to be 0.1–0.4% in t ...

. A longtime circus fan, Woltman retired in

Sarasota, Florida Sarasota () is a city in Sarasota County on the Gulf Coast of the U.S. state of Florida. The area is renowned for its cultural and environmental amenities, beaches, resorts, and the Sarasota School of Architecture. The city is located in the sou ...

, in 1959 because it was the winter quarters of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus. He later died of a heart attack on March 6, 1970.

Awards

* 1947: Pulitzer Prize for Reporting on articles during 1946 on the infiltration of communism in the United States

Background

Career

Later life and death

Awards

See also