Editing Michael Foot (section)

==Journalism==
On the recommendation of [[Aneurin Bevan]], Foot was soon hired by [[Lord Beaverbrook]] to work as a writer on his ''[[Evening Standard]]''. (Bevan is supposed to have told Beaverbrook on the phone: "I've got a young bloody knight-errant here. They sacked his boss, so he resigned. Have a look at him.") At the outbreak of the [[Second World War]], Foot volunteered for military service, but was rejected because of his chronic [[asthma]].

In 1940, under the pen-name "Cato" he and two other Beaverbrook journalists ([[Frank Owen (politician)|Frank Owen]], editor of the ''Standard'', and [[Peter Howard (journalist)|Peter Howard]] of the ''[[Daily Express]]'') published ''[[Guilty Men]]'', which attacked the [[appeasement]] policy and slow pace of [[British re-armament]] under the [[National Government (United Kingdom)|National Governments]] of [[Ramsay MacDonald]], [[Stanley Baldwin]], and [[Neville Chamberlain]]; it became a runaway bestseller. (In so doing, Foot reversed his position of the 1935 election – when he had attacked the Conservatives as militaristic and demanded [[disarmament]] in the face of [[Nazi Germany]].) Beaverbrook made Foot editor of the ''[[Evening Standard]]'' in 1942, when he was aged 28. During the war, Foot made a speech that was later featured in the documentary TV series ''[[The World at War]]'' broadcast in February 1974.<ref>{{cite web|url=https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129870/|title=The World at War|series=Episode 15: "The Home Front 1940–44"|publisher=[[Internet Movie Database]]|date=13 February 1974|access-date=15 August 2010|last=Calder|first=Angus|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20101105190749/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1129870/|archive-date=5 November 2010|url-status=live}}</ref> Foot was speaking in defence of the ''[[Daily Mirror]]'', which had criticised the conduct of the war by the [[Churchill war ministry|Churchill government]]. He mocked the notion that the Government would make [[appeasement|no more territorial demands]] of other newspapers if they allowed the ''Mirror'' to be censored.

Foot left the ''Standard'' in 1945 to join the ''[[Daily Herald (UK newspaper)|Daily Herald]]'' as a columnist. The ''Daily Herald'' was jointly owned by the [[Trades Union Congress]] and [[Odhams Press]], and was effectively an official Labour Party paper. He rejoined ''[[Tribune (magazine)|Tribune]]'' as editor from 1948 to 1952, and was again the paper's editor from 1955 to 1960. Throughout his political career he railed against the increasing corporate domination of the press.