The Press: Victory for Elmer

In the White House one day last week President Roosevelt, and OWI Boss Elmer Davis, who had been pointedly not invited to the Quebec conference, sat down to discuss news and news policies. The President and three representatives (War, Navy and State Departments) mostly listened. Elmer Davis, disgruntled over the shellackings OWI has taken from Congress, mostly talked.

> He pointed out that OWI’s function is to keep the public informed about the war, but that, in his opinion, too much war news is being suppressed and delayed by the Navy and (to a lesser degree) the Army. (Examples: the details of the Tokyo bombing were suppressed for a full year; the news of the loss of four U.S. cruisers in the Savo Island battle was delayed two months, while the loss of an Australian cruiser in the same engagement was reported almost immediately.)

> He expressed misgivings about the nation’s mood. The people, he said, are complacent because they get only the rosier side of war. (Example: pictures from Sicily, where the Allies suffered 25,000 casualties, have been mostly fluff—Sicilians tossing posies at U.S. troops, throwing fruit at Mussolini posters.) Said Elmer Davis to the President, in effect: either give OWI a new deal, or kill it; it is not much good the way it is.

The discussion lasted an hour and a half. At its end a Presidential directive went out to War, Navy, State Departments. Its gist: henceforth Elmer Davis will decide when, where & how all war news is to be released. The only exception: if any Department feels OWI is releasing any item of news too soon, thus endangering the national security, it can appeal to the President, who then will act as arbiter.

The new policy quickly began to pay off. News of the Navy’s unexpected aerial and sea attack on Japan’s Marcus Island base was announced in Washington while the attack was still under way. Then, at week’s end, came further results. It was announced in Washington that, to blot out the prevalent “armchair war” attitude, Americans at home will get to see heretofore suppressed pictures showing the horrible side of war—the deprivation, danger and suffering the U.S. fighting man endures. One of the first such photos to be released was one to make Americans catch their breaths. It showed the corpses of U.S. paratroopers killed in Sicily.

Grey, patient Elmer Davis had won a victory. But it could not yet be considered a permanent victory. The armed forces had been told off before, and not much had come of it.