--- description: Next to Bernarr Macfadden (who "retired" from Macfadden Publications last year) the best-known Macfadden name is Charles Fulton Oursler, high-priced editor of Liberty. Last week Editor... title: The Press: Oursler Out image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltde093bcdab65f2d0/6988d9b9bc6cfc69913e2a3c/time-logo.jpg?branch=production --- * [U.S.](/section/us/) # The Press: Oursler Out by [TIME](/author/time/) Feb 16, 1942 4:00 AM CUT by [TIME](/author/time/) Feb 16, 1942 4:00 AM CUT Next to Bernarr Macfadden (who “retired” from Macfadden Publications last year) the best-known Macfadden name is Charles Fulton Oursler, high-priced editor of Liberty. Last week Editor Oursler too was out. Liberty’s new editor is 58-year-old Sheppard Butler, who quit the same job when Macfadden bought Liberty from Cousins Joe Patterson and Bertie McCormick in 1931\. Editor Oursler, busy with a novel and a play, kept mum about the reasons for his departure and his 10,000 shares of Macfadden stock (market price: $1.25 per share). Onetime law clerk, piano salesman, magician and Baltimore reporter, Editor Oursler went to work for Macfadden in 1921, two weeks later was left in charge while Macfadden took a vacation. Thereafter Editor Oursler sat permanently on Macfadden’s right. He shuffled staffs’, set up and knocked down magazines, started that ill-fated and ill-smelling Macfadden tabloid, the New York Graphic. Describing himself “not as a prophet but as one who has talked with prophets,” Editor Oursler once got Liberty circulation to 2,700,000 with the Emil Ludwig series on Roosevelt, in 1936 bought a prophetic story written by a then pulp writer named George Fielding Eliot in which the U.S. Fleet is crippled in a surprise attack on Pearl Harbor. But Editor Oursler does not point with pride to Liberty’s classic embarrassment in printing a lead article shortly after Pearl Harbor which began: “Hawaii is ready.” Of current rumors that Liberty is sailing in rough waters, ex-Editor Oursler categorically echoes Macfadden Publications in calling them gross slanders. The Press: Oursler Out ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765788/the-press-oursler-out/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765788/the-press-oursler-out/"},"headline":"The Press: Oursler Out","datePublished":"1942-02-16T04:00:00.000Z","dateModified":"2026-02-28T18:47:50.619Z","description":"Next to Bernarr Macfadden (who \"retired\" from Macfadden Publications last year) the best-known Macfadden name is Charles Fulton Oursler, high-priced editor of Liberty. Last week Editor...","url":"https://time.com/archive/6765788/the-press-oursler-out/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME","url":"https://time.com/author/time/"}],"articleSection":"U.S.","image":[],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/us/","name":"U.S."}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/6765788/the-press-oursler-out/","name":"The Press: Oursler Out"}}]}] ```