Fulton Lewis

Fulton Lewis, Jr. (April 30, 1903 in Washington D.C. – August 20, 1966) was a famous television and radio broadcaster from the 1930s to the 1960s. He broadcast from the Sheraton Park Hotel in Washington, D.C. over the Mutual Broadcasting System. When Lewis died, he was succeeded on the air by his son, Fulton Lewis III, who kept the broadcast running for another twelve years. The younger Lewis now lives in Florida.

Lewis's program ran fifteen minutes, from 7:00 to 7:15 p.m. Eastern time. His audience liked Lewis's folksy broadcasting style. At his commercial peak, Lewis was heard on more than 500 radio stations and boasted a weekly audience of sixteen million listeners.

The site where the summer home of the Lewis family stood in Washington, D.C. is now the site of the National Cathedral.

Lewis's signature closing was "That's the top of the news as it looks from here."

Lewis was a conservative commentator who supported Barry Goldwater for President, supported limited government and federalism, and opposed liberal leaders such as John F. Kennedy and Lyndon B. Johnson and their policies.

Fulton Lewis Jr. made his mark by opposing the New Deal policies of Franklin Delano Roosevelt. Lewis was a strong supporter of Senator Joe McCarthy. He was one of the first broadcasters to expose Julius and Ethel Rosenberg as the Communist spies that the Venona papers prove they were.

After attending the University of Virginia and George Washington University, Lewis found a job with the Washington Herald newspaper. Within three years, he was the City Editor. He left the Herald to join Universal News Service, run by the Hearst family. Between 1933 and 1936 Lewis wrote a newspaper column called The Washington Sideshow which was syndicated by King Features.

He got started in radio by volunteering to fill in for vacationing broadcasters. The head of WOL was impressed with Lewis's "on-the-spot" reporting and offered him a full-time position. Shortly his commentaries were picked up by the Mutual Broadcasting System.

Lewis was influential in persuading the U.S. Congress to allow radio broadcasting of Congressional activities.

Among those who worked for Lewis was Kenneth Tomlinson, currently head of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting, and agency whose existence Lewis would have denounced. In this position, Tomlinson has worked to eliminate what he calls liberal bias at the Public Broadcasting Service and National Public Radio. One of CPB's ombudsmen, William Schulz, was a writer for Lewis and for Human Events. Schulz and Tomlinson were also colleagues at Reader's Digest.

Lewis was also the composer of "The Cavalier Song" which appeared in the 2000 movie Bring It On.

In 1954, a biography of Lewis entitled Praised and Damned was published.

Lewis is buried in Rock Creek Cemetery in Washington, D.C.

External links

* [http://library.syr.edu/digital/guides/l/lewis_f_jr.htm Fulton J. Lewis, Jr. papers] at Syracuse University Special Collections Research Center]
* [http://www.otr.com/lewis.html Radio Days -- biography of Fulton Lewis Jr.]
* [http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/05/26/fulton_lewis_connection/index.html Salon.com article criticizing Fulton Lewis Jr.]
* [http://www.newsmax.com/archives/articles/2002/10/15/213933.shtml NewsMax.com article on Tomlinson's association with Fulton Lewis Jr.]
* [http://www.nationalreview.com/buckley/wfb200505271026.asp William F. Buckey, Jr., on Tomlinson, Schulz, and Lewis.]
* [http://www.audio-classics.com/radiomemories/fultonlewisjrandthenews.html Audio of Fulton Lewis Jr. radio broadcasts.]