John R. Rathom (original) (raw)

John Revelstoke Rathom (1868–1923) was an Australian-American journalist, editor, and author based in Rhode Island at the height of his career. In the years before America entered World War I, Rathom promoted British propaganda, including false or exaggerated allegations of German war crimes, which were widely republished by other American newspapers and helped ensure American participation in the war against Germany. Rathom's claims that his newspaper routinely uncovered German espionage plots were also later revealed as fraudulent, although his reputation as an heroic anti-German crusader endured. He later engaged in a long public dispute with Franklin Delano Roosevelt early in the future president's career. He cut a large figure in the world of journalism and as a political spokesman ad