Quick Take: Shades of Elliot Carver

 If you don't understand the title, then you're not a die-hard James Bond fan. Elliot Carver was an owner of mass media with a megalomaniac, of course, bent. He ran his empire by creating the news he served up to his customers. 

Watch old films and you'll see the old time newspapers portrayed as being less than scrupulous, and that reputation turns out to be somewhat deserved.

The Chicago American, the paper that reported the train wreck in the first part of my last post, was a Hearst newspaper and published for the first time on July 4, 1900. It relied primarily on street sales rather than subscriptions, which meant breaking news was its bread and butter. I can see the newsies running around downtown Chicago crying out headlines for the big event of the day.

It was merged and renamed numerous times in its history, finally folding in 1974.

Among its employees was a night city editor (a position I once held) named Harry Romano.

From Wikipedia:

"Romy" a stout, cigar-chomping, suspendered, order-barking commander of the city desk, enjoyed the fearful but absolute regard of pressmen, the composing room and the entire night staff of the Tribune Tower, which owned and housed the Chicago American's operations in its final decades.

One night floods threatened Southern Illinois, and the American did not have a big story for the front page. Romanoff called fire departments and police stations throughout the region, posing as "Captain Parmenter of the state police" (a nonexistent individual), urging them to take action. One fire department, bemused by the call, asked what they should do. "Ring those fire bells! Call out the people!" Romanoff then turned to his rewrite man to dictate the lead story: Fire bells rang over southern Illinois as police and fire departments called out the people to warn them of impending floods.

It never did flood, but the American had its banner headline.