March 24, 1944

Soldiers of the Press

Under fire from some members of Congress, Walter Winchell says: Every crusading newspaperman has discovered that his life is just a bed of thorns. Truth is as a red flag to the bull in certain groups … During the Revolution a great American aimed his pungent pen at those who obstructed the battle for freedom. The powerful men he irked launched a campaign of vilification against him and drove him out of the country. He later returned and died in poverty … Now he is remembered as one of the most eloquent voices of American liberty: Thomas Paine.

From the St. Petersburg Times.