Silas Bent IV (born May 9, 1882, in

Millersburg, Kentucky Millersburg is a home rule-class city in Bourbon County, Kentucky, United States. The population was 792 at the 2010 census. It is part of the Lexington–Fayette Metropolitan Statistical Area. History Millersburg was founded in 1817. It ...

– d. July 30, 1945 in

Greenwich, Connecticut Greenwich (, ) is a New England town, town in southwestern Fairfield County, Connecticut, United States. At the 2020 United States Census, 2020 census, the town had a total population of 63,518. The largest town on Connecticut's Gold Coast (Conne ...

), son of Silas Bent III and Ann Elizabeth (Tyler) Bent was an American journalist, author, and lecturer. He spent nearly three decades as a journalist, including time as a freelance writer, and spent a year as an assistant professor at the University of Missouri School of Journalism. Bent authored several books and articles, many critiquing the practices of newspapers in their reporting. He was married to Elizabeth Sims.

Career

Bent began his newspaper work in 1900 in

Louisville, Kentucky Louisville ( , , ) is the largest city in the Commonwealth of Kentucky and the 28th most-populous city in the United States. Louisville is the historical seat and, since 2003, the nominal seat of Jefferson County, on the Indiana border ...

, working for the ''Louisville Herald''. After three years he moved to St. Louis and joined the staff of the ''

St. Louis Post-Dispatch The ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'' is a major regional newspaper based in St. Louis, Missouri, serving the St. Louis metropolitan area. It is the largest daily newspaper in the metropolitan area by circulation, surpassing the ''Belleville News-Dem ...

'' as reporter and assistant editor. He was appointed assistant professor of theory and practice of journalism at the

University of Missouri The University of Missouri (Mizzou, MU, or Missouri) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Columbia, Missouri. It is Missouri's largest university and the flagship of the four-campus Universit ...

School of Journalism A journalism school is a school or department, usually part of an established university, where journalists are trained. 'J-School' is an increasingly used term for a journalism department at a school or college. Journalists in most parts of the ...

Columbia, Missouri Columbia is a city in the U.S. state of Missouri. It is the county seat of Boone County and home to the University of Missouri. Founded in 1821, it is the principal city of the five-county Columbia metropolitan area. It is Missouri's fourth ...

when the school was opened in 1908, but resigned his position in February 1909 to return to the ''Post-Dispatch''. Later, he did publicity work in Chicago and then spent 13 years in New York City. As a freelance writer, Bent contributed articles to ''

The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...

'', '' Harper's Weekly'' and ''

The Atlantic ''The Atlantic'' is an American magazine and multi-platform publisher. It features articles in the fields of politics, foreign affairs, business and the economy, culture and the arts, technology, and science. It was founded in 1857 in Boston, ...

,'' among others. In one story, ''Journalism and Morality'', published in ''The Atlantic'' in 1926, Bent decried the yellow journalism published in newspapers and referred to the war between Joseph Pulitzer's ''

New York World The ''New York World'' was a newspaper published in New York City from 1860 until 1931. The paper played a major role in the history of American newspapers. It was a leading national voice of the Democratic Party. From 1883 to 1911 under publi ...

'' and

William Randolph Hearst William Randolph Hearst Sr. (; April 29, 1863 – August 14, 1951) was an American businessman, newspaper publisher, and politician known for developing the nation's largest newspaper chain and media company, Hearst Communications. His flamboya ...

's ''

New York Journal :''Includes coverage of New York Journal-American and its predecessors New York Journal, The Journal, New York American and New York Evening Journal'' The ''New York Journal-American'' was a daily newspaper published in New York City from 1937 t ...

''. Bent spoke to the lack of credibility in journalism and how "reader's got so they didn't believe what they read," writing "faking didn't pay." Bent was writing about the frustration that many journalists felt at that time. Bent's most famous work is ''Ballyhoo'' (1927), a critical survey of newspaper practices; he also wrote ''Strange Bedfellows'' (1928), a book on contemporary political leaders; a biography of Justice

Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr. (March 8, 1841 – March 6, 1935) was an American jurist and legal scholar who served as an associate justice of the Supreme Court of the United States from 1902 to 1932.Holmes was Acting Chief Justice of the Un ...

, and ''Buchanan of the Press'' ( Vanguard Press, 1932), a novel about a reporter's career set in St. Louis. He died in 1945 and is buried in Bowling Green, Kentucky.

Selected works

* ''Ballyhoo: The Voice of the Press'', Boni and Liveright, 1927. * ''Strange Bedfellows: a review of politics, personalities and the press'', Liveright, 1928. *''Machine Made Man'', Farrar and Rinehart, 1930. * ''Buchanan of "The Press": a novel'', Vanguard Press, 1932. *''Slaves by the Billion: The story of mechanical progress in the home'', Longmans, Green and Company, 1938. His *''Newspaper Crusaders: A Neglected Story'', Whitley House, McGraw Hill Book Company Inc., 1939.

References and external links

''Harpers'' - The Art of Ballyhoo
{{DEFAULTSORT:Bent, Silas University of Missouri faculty 1882 births 1945 deaths People from Millersburg, Kentucky