For better and for worse, the Manchester Union Leader generated controversy almost from the moment that William Loeb secured full ownership in 1949. That is the way Loeb liked it because a part of Loeb preferred bare knuckles in politics. Loeb's brand of journalism, reminiscent of the old Hearst press, was considered an anachronism in its partisanship on news pages and often inflammatory editorializing. One well known political columnist, Jack Germond, described the paper as “outlandish,” while others referred to its publisher in stronger terms, as unhinged, mean, and racist.
Loeb could be obsessive in his partisanship. Judging by his willingness to assault political opponents with a barrage of negative stories and editorial invective (including, in one instance, using the paper to embarrass the daughter of a sitting governor for a minor indiscretion), he had a mean streak. But he was not unhinged. For much of the period he ran...