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Lewis Stone, best known to modern viewers as kindly Judge Hardy from the "Andy Hardy" series, was on occasion not so kindly in films. In Freedom of the Press, Stone plays a thoroughly corrupt politician named Daniel Steele. Embarking upon a mayoral campaign, Steele sets about to destroy his enemies, starting with newspaper publisher John Ballard (H.B. Warner). He goes so far as to order Ballard's assassination. The publisher's son Bill (Malcolm McGregor), previously an aimless wastrel, takes over the newspaper and mounts an expose of Steele's dirty political machine.