Early Years
George Seldes was born November 16, 1890 to ethnic Jewish emigres from Russia in Alliance Colony, a utopian community in New Jersey.
When he was nineteen, Seldes went to work at the Pittsburgh Leader. For this newspaper, he interviewed a saleswoman who had filed a rape complaint against the son of the owner on a large department store; however, the story was not published, and Seldes became outraged when the advertising department of the newspaper blackmailed the owner into buying more advertising. In 1914, he was appointed night editor of the Pittsburgh Post. As a young journalist, he was influenced by the investigative journalism of muckraker Lincoln Steffens, whom he met in 1919.
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