william randolph hurst. one of the unknown incidents to most people is the mckinley assassination, right? >> that year was what year. >> i was afraid you would ask me that. out of my period. 19 10i -- 1901, i think. please edit that. the mckinley is assassinated and it's blamed on -- in a lot of the media, it's blamed on the hu are rst press. because william randolph hurst papers tended to be democratic and rabble roused about rich or poor. >> the other papers were blaming? >> yes, the more stayed papers. by that time the hearst papers were ultra sensationalistic and there were other sober papers like "the new york times." and it basically discredits. it's one of the things that seriously discredits old style super partisan journalism when the president got killed because they -- of the way they whipped up the people. >>> you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. for more information, follow us on twitter @c-spanhistory. >>> now, the contenders, our 14-week series on key pol

you know, william randolph hurst. one of the things people -- one of the most unknown incidents, the mckinley assassination, right? >> that year was what year? >> i was afraid you were going to ask me that. it's out of my period. 1901, i think? please edit that. mckinley's assassinated and it's blamed on -- in a lot of the media it's blamed on the hurst press. william randolph hurst's papers tended to be democratic and tended to be rebelroused about rich and poor. >> the other papers were blaming -- >> yes. the more stayed papers -- at that time the hurst papers were ultra sensationalistic and there were more sober papers like t"te new york times" and basically discredits -- it's one of the things that really seriously discredits old-style superpartisan journalism when the president got killed because of the way they whipped up the people. >> from your perspective, what are some of the myths or myths on misunderstandings about the political culture in the u.s. between the revolution and the civil war? >> well, i think

because william randolph hurst papers tended to be democratic and thend are tended to rabble-rouse about rich and poor. >> the other papers were blaming? yes, the more staid papers especially. by that time the hearst papers were ultra sensationalistic and there were other sober papers like "the new york times." and it basically discredits. it's one of the things that seriously discredits old-style, super-partisan journalism when -- the president got killed because they -- of the way they whipped up the people. >>> you're watching american history tv all weekend, every weekend on c-span3. for more information, follow us on twitter @c-spanhistory. >>> now, the contenders, our 14-week series on key political figures who ran for president and lost but nevertheless changed political history. we feature former governor of new york al smith who was the democratic presidential candidate in 1928. this two-hour program was recorded at the new york state assembly chamber in albany, new york. each sunday at this time through labor day weekend, you can watch "the contenders" on "american history tv"

you see editorial cartoons, lump with william randolph hurst with the irish nationalists. at end of the day the german-american vote goes to wilson. so he done allose date the campaign themes very well. he's fighting on things like the tariff, which is not a popular issue for the republicans that year. there are labor issues, there are labor issues, which are very important that year. there's two big things which cross him up. they do not work well for him. even though, as governor of new york, he has an admirable record. he establishes workers comp bores, cases that whole system, first in the country. there's all sorts of labor regulations put in place for the first time. so he's a champion of labor. but there, there's two things that happen. on the infamous california trip, which we'll get into later, two things that happen. one thing which is never talks about is he blundered into san francisco where the chamber of commerce is trying to break the unions and they -- they are particularly trying to do it in the restaurants and they want them to be open shops. in other wor

there's taminy hall, there's franklin roosevelt and there's another fellow, william randolph hurst. what can you say about that relationship, specifically the 1918, the 1922 gubernatorial races and the 1932 presidential nomination process? >> let's start with beverly gage. >> well, hearst is one of al smith's great critics. he turns into one of smith's great critics. he's sort of the man around which smith learns how to deal with the press in many ways. i know that you -- we were talking earlier. you said you had been writing about this in great detail about the milk issue and hearst's attacks on smith. >> this is a great question. i'm glad dave brought this up. william randolph hearst was probably one of the most controversial government figures or quasi government figures in new york history. he was a two-term congressman from new york city. he basically bought the seat. he went to taniny hall, says he wanted it. tried to get the nomination in 1904 for president of the united states and h lost that. he runs for governor in 1906 against charles evans hughes and loses. runs for new