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Zero Hour
Doremus Jessup’s newspaper, the Daily Informer, represents the free press’s role in a democracy, effective journalism’s power to improve society, and the dangers of censorship. The paper is Jessup’s life’s work: when the novel begins, he has dedicated more than 35 of his 60 years to running it. Thousands of people read everything he writes, and while his editorials are often controversial, they consistently shape the political conversation in his corner of Vermont.
Then, Buzz Windrip becomes a national phenomenon. His primary communications strategy is mass media—and specifically the radio, which allows him and his followers (like Bishop Prang) to instantly spread propaganda around the whole country. Local newspapers like Jessup’s start to seem irrelevant and powerless, because their facts and rationality are no match for Windrip’s grandiose rhetoric and empty promises. In other words, the U.S. falls into tyranny in part because the free press is not powerful, organized, or committed enough to show the public the dangers that Windrip poses to them.
After Windrip takes power, he starts censoring the press. Suddenly, Jessup can no longer write freely, and nobody can find out about Windrip’s increasingly horrific abuses of power. Jessup takes one final stand by publishing an honest editorial criticizing the government—and then the administration takes over his paper and forces him to publish exclusively favorable news. The Daily Informer turns from a defense against government propaganda into a tool for it. With no access to independent information, Americans start to blindly trust the administration. Thus, the Daily Informer’s relatively bland name actually represents the humble but absolutely essential role that journalists play in a democracy: they must simply inform people of the truth, day after day, so that the public can make better decisions and protect themselves against tyrants.
The Fort Beulah Daily Informer Quotes in It Can’t Happen Here
The It Can’t Happen Here quotes below all refer to the symbol of The Fort Beulah Daily Informer. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 18
Quotes
“All this trouble and the Corpos—They’re going to do something to you and me. We’ll become so roused up that—either we’ll be desperate and really cling to each other and everybody else in the world can go to the devil or, what I’m afraid is more likely, we’ll get so deep into rebellion against Windrip, we’ll feel so terribly that we’re standing for something, that we’ll want to give up everything else for it, even give up you and me. So that no one can ever find out and criticize. We’ll have to be beyond criticism.”
“No! I won’t listen. We will fight, but how can we ever get so involved—detached people like us—”
“You are going to publish that editorial tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
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Chapter 29
Quotes
The universal apprehension, the timorous denials of faith, the same methods of arrest—sudden pounding on the door late at night, the squad of police pushing in, the blows, the search, the obscene oaths at the frightened women, the third degree by young snipe of officials, the accompanying blows and then the formal beatings, […] the waiting in solitude to know what will happen, till men go mad and hang themselves—
Thus had things gone in Germany, exactly thus in Soviet Russia, in Italy and Hungary and Poland, Spain and Cuba and Japan and China. Not very different had it been under the blessings of liberty and fraternity in the French Revolution. All dictators followed the same routine of torture, as if they had all read the same manual of sadistic etiquette.
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The Fort Beulah Daily Informer Symbol Timeline in It Can’t Happen Here
The timeline below shows where the symbol The Fort Beulah Daily Informer appears in It Can’t Happen Here. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 3
...small estate, which Jessup used to move home and buy a stake in the Weekly Informer newspaper. In the 35 years since, he has bought the paper outright and turned it...
(full context)
Chapter 11
...Trowbridge (and knows that he has better chances of winning). He attacks Windrip in his Informer columns, and he spends his days interviewing voters around town. He’s dismayed to see that...
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Chapter 16
...well-kept farmhouse in the woods, which Doremus Jessup visits periodically to talk politics. In the Informer, Jessup writes that Windrip’s hysterical dictatorship won’t last. He’s afraid of being arrested, but he...
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Chapter 18
...but Jessup suspects that Itchitt might try to turn him in and take over the Informer. At home, Emma worries that the Corpos will put Doremus in prison, while Sissy isn’t...
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Chapter 19
...evening. The chapter begins with a description of Doremus Jessup’s comfortable office in the three-story Informer building downtown. In the morning, he looks out the window and watches a group of...
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Suddenly, Shad Ledue marches into the Informer office and stops the mob. He announces that the Corpos are taking over the building,...
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Judge Swan asks Jessup to “play along” with the government in the Informer and write up a list of everyone he knows who is against the administration. Jessup...
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...will be released on parole and tasked with teaching Emil Staubmeyer how to run the Informer. Jessup will continue writing editorials, under Staubmeyer’s command, starting with an apology for his attack...
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Chapter 23
...Minute Men go through all of Doremus Jessup’s private letters in his study and the Informer office. Emil Staubmeyer starts ignoring him, and Shad Ledue starts questioning him about his connections...
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Chapter 25
...to Trianon. Jessup realizes that he’s next, and he decides that he should quit the Informer before he gets arrested.
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Doremus Jessup marches into Shad Ledue’s office to quit the Informer, but Ledue doesn’t let him. In fact, Ledue says that the only reason he hasn’t...
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...even encourages him to go visit Buck Titus and Lorinda Pike.) Once, Jessup visits the Informer offices, and he sees that Doc Itchitt has effectively taken over the paper. Otherwise, Jessup...
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Chapter 26
After the Informer finishes printing at 11 p.m., Dan Wilgus hides several pieces of eight-point movable type from...
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...of opposition to the government than out of frustration about Doc Itchitt taking over the Informer. The Fort Beulah cell is headquartered in Buck Titus’s basement, and it has about two...
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Chapter 29
...fact, Tasbrough wants Jessup to officially join the Corpos and offers him control of the Informer (or a prominent government job) if he does. Jessup says no, and he tries to...
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