The Beginning of "Hate Radio"

Father Coughlin’s radio broadcasts were a regular fixture in American politics in the 1930”s. A political radical and, a zealous democrat, he was seen as a bigot who freely vented angry, irrational charges and allegations. His radio broadcasts drew as many as 45 million listeners. Coughlin frequently and vigorously attacked capitalism, communism, socialism, and dictatorship. By the mid-1930s, his talks took on a nasty edge as he combined harsh attacks on Roosevelt as the tool of international Jewish bankers with praise for the fascist leaders Benito Mussolini and Adolph Hitler. The “Radio Priest’s” relentless anti-elitism pushed Roosevelt to sharpen his own critiques of elites, and in that sense Coughlin had a powerful impact on American politics beyond his immediate radio audience. In 1937 he gave a sermon, called “Twenty Years Ago,” reflected much of what made Coughlin popular. In 1935 Father Coughlin created the National Union for Social Justice. This was a political action group that would represent the interests of his listeners in Washington, D.C. By the 1936 presidential election the National Union for Social Justice had over one million paying members. In 1936, Coughlin founded a journal entitled Social Justice, providing another venue to promote his populist ideology. Over the years Coughlin had kept his anti-Semitism to himself while he was on the air. After his split with President Roosevelt and with the rise of National Socialism and Fascism in Europe, however, he attacked Jews explicitly in his broadcasts. Some historians attribute this change to Coughlin taking advantage of rising anti-Semitism around the world in order to keep himself connected.. Based on his speeches, and writings, he appears to have had significant anti-Semitic sentiment throughout his career. For years, Coughlin had publicly derided “international bankers,” a phrase that most of his listeners understood to mean Jewish bankers.