Podcast: The Crusading Editor Verne Marshall And His War On Corruption in 1930s Iowa
He exposed corruption and helped his newspaper win a Pulitzer Prize in the 1930s. But how one-time Cedar Rapids Gazette Editor Verne Marshall did it was anything but ordinary. Listen to the IowaWatch Connection podcast.
He exposed corruption and helped his newspaper win a Pulitzer Prize in the 1930s. But how one-time Cedar Rapids Gazette Editor Verne Marshall did it was anything but ordinary.
This podcast of an IowaWatch Connection radio report features an extensive interview with Jerry Harrington, who writes about Marshall in his book, “Crusading Iowa Journalism Verne Marshall: Exposing Graft and the 1936 Pulitzer Prize,” published by The History Press.
Verne Marshall. became managing editor of the Cedar Rapids Gazette in 1914 at the same time his father, Harry, was named editor. The younger Marshall previously has worked as either a reporter or editor for three papers: the Cedar Rapids Republican, Sioux City Journal and the Minneapolis Tribune. He served from 1917-18 in a World War I ambulance unit. He returned to The Gazette as managing editor in 1918. Marshall became secretary and editor following his father’s death in 1932. He served as editor until 1941, when he was succeeded by Harry Boyd. Marshall died on March 24, 1965, at the age of 74. His son, Clare, was Gazette promotion manager from 1934-44. Photo circa 1946.
“I think he was probably a difficult person to get along with. He was unafraid of writing anything in the newspaper when he felt he was on the side of righteousness,” Harrington said.
“He was an investigative journalist from the word, ‘go’. And he was dedicated to the proposition that whenever a journalist uncovered any sort of corruption in terms of public officials it was the duty of that newspaper to drive and to investigate and to report and uncover and shine a light on that as best as he could.”
Other IowaWatch Connection podcasts about Iowans who won the Pulitzer Prize in Journalism that might interest you:
Join us at Walker Homestead for an evening of wood-fired pizza, live music, and community connection in support of independent, investigative journalism. Investigate Midwest’s annual fundraiser supports our IowaWatch newsroom.
We recently brought back our Live Storytelling series in Iowa City — and the photos are in.
Co-produced with the University of Iowa Events Management Certification program, the night featured
You're invited to an evening of live storytelling featuring powerful, personal stories from five Iowa men with backgrounds in journalism, education, comedy, and the arts.
Iowa’s farmlands are hotbeds for greenhouse gases, with nitrous oxide accounting for 59% of agricultural emissions in 2022.
These emissions are primarily driven by nitrogen fertilizer applications and animal
Some Americans may think their country is divided politically more than ever but political acrimony was more serious, and sometimes violent, in other times in U.S. history, former long-time U.S. congressman James Leach, of Iowa, said in an IowaWatch interview. Listen to the interview in this podcast
White Iowans made strong gains in high school and college graduation rates, poverty, median family income and home ownership from 1960-2010 but black and Latino achievements in these areas grew far more slowly, or in some cases declined. This IowaWatch Connection radio podcast looks at ways some are
Iowa's 3,851 miles of track won't be enough to carry all the freight state Department of Transportation planners think Iowa will handle in the future. Those planners expect demand on Iowa's railroads for shipping goods to increase 52 percent from 2014 to 2040.
Election Day on Nov. 8, 2016, marks the end of a long, long presidential campaign in Iowa, where the presidential campaign began well before the first presidential precinct caucuses in
