McCormick had purchased the newspaper following Cissy Patterson’s 1948 death. The paper became an "isolationist and archconservative" publication known for sensationalism. McCormick appointed his niece, Ruth "Bazy" McCormick Miller as the publisher of the paper in 1949. He wanted Miller to use the paper to create "an outpost of American principles". When the two came to a parting of the ways over her relationship with one of the paper's editors, Garvin Tankersley, as well as editorial control over the paper, he ordered her to choose between Tankersley and the Tribune Company. As a result, she eloped with Tankersley and resigned from the Times-Herald. She later said, "I understood when I went to the Times-Herald I was to have full control. That control was not given me ... There is some difference in our political beliefs. I have broader Republican views than [McCormick] has. I am for the same people as the colonel, but I am for some more people.
