Finley Peter Dunne

“Th’ newspaper does ivrything f’r us. It runs th’ polis foorce an’ th’ banks, commands th’ milishy, controls th’ligislachure, baptizes th’ young, marries th’ foolish, comforts th’ afflicted, afflicts th’ comfortable, buries th’ dead an’ roasts thim aftherward.” 


"The duty/job of the newspaper is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable” 

Finley Peter Dunne (Mr. Dooley) 

The famous quote is about a hundred years old and can be traced to the work of Finley Peter Dunne, one of the great journalists of his day, who wrote about politics and culture in the voice and persona of an Irishman named “Mr. Dooley.”

Dunne wrote satirical "Mr. Dooley" columns that were nationally syndicated.  In Mr. Dooley, an opinionated, first-generation, Irish-American bar owner, Dunne created a character who could criticize the nation and its most powerful people.

Dunne was an anti-imperialist and bluntly addressed such topics as racism, the Spanish-American war, and the imperialism of the Supreme Court. Mr. Dooley on "Weighing souls"

 


Further Reading 

Elmer Ellis, Mr. Dooley's America: A Life of Finley Peter Dunne (1941), contains Dunne's unfinished memoirs.

For Dunne's place in the history of American humor see Walter Blair, Horse Sense in American Humor (1942).

The Autobiography of Lincoln Steffens (1931) contains a contemporary sketch of Dunne.
Additional Sources Eckley, Grace, Finley Peter Dunne, Boston: Twayne, 1981. □