Editing Walter Winchell (section)

=== Outspoken views ===
Winchell was one of the first commentators in America to attack [[Adolf Hitler]] and American pro-[[Fascism|fascist]] and pro-Nazi organizations such as the [[German-American Bund]], especially its leader [[Fritz Julius Kuhn]]. He was a staunch supporter of President [[Franklin D. Roosevelt]] and the [[New Deal]] throughout the [[Depression era]], and frequently served as the Roosevelt Administration's mouthpiece in favor of interventionism as the European war crisis loomed in the late 1930s.<ref name="PBS" /> Early on, he denounced American isolationists as appeasing Hitler, and explicitly attacked such prominent isolationists as [[Charles Lindbergh]], whom he dubbed "The Lone Ostrich", and [[Gerald L.K. Smith]], whom he denounced as "Gerald Lucifer KKKodfish Smith". Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, Winchell was also an outspoken supporter of [[Civil and political rights|civil rights]] for African Americans, and frequently attacked the [[Ku Klux Klan]] and other racist groups as supporting un-American, pro-German goals.

During World War II, he attacked the [[National Maritime Union]], the labor organization for the civilian [[United States Merchant Marine]], which he said was run by Communists, instancing West Coast labor leader [[Harry Bridges]].<ref>"Liberty Ships" 1995 [[Public Broadcasting Service]] (PBS) documentary</ref> In 1948 and 1949, he and influential columnist [[Drew Pearson (journalist)|Drew Pearson]] attacked [[United States Secretary of Defense|Secretary of Defense]] [[James Forrestal]] in columns and radio broadcasts.<ref>[http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14496-4/cbss-don-hollenbeck/excerpt ''CBS's Don Hollenbeck: An Honest Reporter in the Age of McCarthyism''] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006135419/http://cup.columbia.edu/book/978-0-231-14496-4/cbss-don-hollenbeck/excerpt |date=October 6, 2014 }}, Loren Ghiglione, 2008, Chapter 16</ref>

Subsequently, Winchell began to denounce Communism as the main threat facing America.