Changes

===Feud with Eleanor Roosevelt===

===Feud with Eleanor Roosevelt===

After 1942 assailed [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] (and FDR) regularly. In public Eleanor ignored him.  In private in 1942 she asked the FBI to investigate Pegler suggestion a column he wrote involved “sedition.”  Her actions belied her public reputation as a champion of First Amendment rights when it came to leftists. In fact, she wielded her influence as First Lady to push the Bureau on this case. Dissatisfied with the FBI's initial report on the Pegler's column, she prodded [[J. Edgar Hoover]] to expand the investigation until it took on a voluminous scope.  Recent scholars (including Betty Houchin Winfield, Kenneth O'Reilly, and Richard W. Steele) have exposed Franklin Roosevelt's political use of the FBI and traced how he ordered wartime sedition investigations of anti-New Deal newspaper publishers, such as William Randolph Hearst and the ''Chicago Tribune'''s Robert McCormick.  In the Pegler's case, there was a willingness to use similar tactics against a prominent conservative columnist. Moreover, it also becomes clear that, despite her reputation as a champion of free speech rights, Eleanor Roosevelt resorted to similar methods against a media opponent.  The charges were entirely false, the FBI reported, but Eleanor continued to push the FBI to look for dirt on Pegler.<ref>David Witwer, "Westbrook Pegler, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the FBI: A History of Infamous Enmities and Unlikely Collaborations." ''Journalism History'', 2009 Vol. 34, Issue 4  in [[EBSCO]]</ref>

After 1942 assailed [[Eleanor Roosevelt]] (and FDR) regularly. In public Eleanor ignored him.  In private in 1942 she asked the FBI to investigate Pegler suggestion a column he wrote involved “sedition.”  Her actions belied her public reputation as a champion of First Amendment rights when it came to leftists. In fact, she wielded her influence as First Lady to push the Bureau on this case. Dissatisfied with the FBI's initial report on the Pegler's column, she prodded [[J. Edgar Hoover]] to expand the investigation until it took on a voluminous scope.  Recent scholars (including Betty Houchin Winfield, Kenneth O'Reilly, and Richard W. Steele) have exposed Franklin Roosevelt's political use of the FBI and traced how he ordered wartime sedition investigations of anti-New Deal newspaper publishers, such as William Randolph Hearst and the ''Chicago Tribune'''s Robert McCormick.  In the Pegler's case, there was a willingness to use similar tactics against a prominent conservative columnist. Moreover, it also becomes clear that, despite her reputation as a champion of free speech rights, Eleanor Roosevelt resorted to similar methods against a media opponent.  The charges were entirely false, the FBI reported, but Eleanor continued to push the FBI to investigate Pegler.<ref>David Witwer, "Westbrook Pegler, Eleanor Roosevelt, and the FBI: A History of Infamous Enmities and Unlikely Collaborations." ''Journalism History'', 2009 Vol. 34, Issue 4  in [[EBSCO]]</ref>

 

==Republicanism==

==Republicanism==

Pegler exemplified a traditional defense of American values—especially [[republicanism]]—against powerful and corrupt government, in an echo of the Patriots of 1775.  Pegler depicted a dark conspiratorial world where criminal syndicates, corrupt union bosses, and Communists threatened the economic freedom of working Americans, while being protected and promoted by liberal allies in the New Deal.  Pegler criticized every president from Herbert Hoover to FDR ("moosejaw") to Harry Truman ("a thin-lipped hater") to John F. Kennedy for their failures to uphold the values of republicanism.  He also attacked the Supreme Court, and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as labor unions big and small.   

Pegler exemplified a traditional defense of American values—especially [[republicanism]]—against powerful and corrupt government, in an echo of the Patriots of 1775.  Pegler depicted a dark conspiratorial world where criminal syndicates, corrupt union bosses, and Communists threatened the economic freedom of working Americans, while being protected and promoted by liberal allies in the New Deal.  Pegler criticized every president from Herbert Hoover to FDR ("moosejaw") to Harry Truman ("a thin-lipped hater") to John F. Kennedy for their failures to uphold the values of republicanism.  He also attacked the Supreme Court, and the Internal Revenue Service, as well as labor unions big and small.