My favorite author. I liked how he combined exciting stories with actual science or points about society.
(mini diatribes)
Learning about the Spanish-American War and Hearst should have done the trick, but I was slow. My awakening was many years ago when I stumbled across some editorials by H.L. Mencken that excoriated both the press (media) and - as Mencken termed him - King Roosevelt II for manipulating the voters through manufactured fear and mass hysteria.