On the show this week we explore a pivotal period for radio news in the 1930s and learn why the Lindbergh kidnapping changed everything. Travel back in time with us. It’s March 1932 and a horrible crime has just occurred, the kidnapping of the 20-month-old son of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh and his wife Anne Morrow Lindbergh. Imagine that you were living in the United States in 1932 and wanted to follow breaking news about this story. If it were 2021, the answer might be Twitter or the internet. But in the early 1930s, it was obviously a very different media landscape, largely consisting of print journalism, news reels, and radio. Our guest, Thomas Doherty joins us to provide historical context and shed light on radio’s role in the media frenzy surrounding the kidnapping of the Lindbergh baby and subsequent trial and why it was a turning point for how breaking news was covered. Thomas Doherty, Professor of American Studies at Brandeis, is the author of Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century.

• Thomas Doherty faculty page at Brandeis University
• Little Lindy is Kidnapped: How the Media Covered the Crime of the Century
• Lindbergh Kidnapping (FBI website)
• Wikipedia entry for journalist and writer Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Women Film Pioneers Project article about Adela Rogers St. Johns
• Canon 35: Cameras, Courts and Confusion
• The March of Time radio program (Wikipedia)
• Testimony of Anne Morrow Lindberg
• 25 Years after O.J Simpson’s Chase, L.A. is Still Obsessed with Police Pursuits (New York Times)

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