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7/22/44
A factual, comprehensive record of this hostility, vjhlch on occasion has flared into open warfare, is provided by the President's own statements as made for the most part during official White House press conferences covering the entire period since his first elec¬ tion, It is a very revealing record. It reveals an attitude on the President’s part ranging from slight irritation to cold fury,
"Mr, Roosevelt's charges against the press have been many and varied. He seems to be particularly distrustful of the motives of newspaper owners, especially of those whose papers have opposed New Deal policies. He has accused them of 'editing from the counting house*, of being dominated by business and financial forces. He has denounced them as 'bogus patriots who use the sacred freedom of the press to e cho the sentiments of the propagandists in Tokyo and Berlin,* He has charged writers and editors with mishandling, dis¬ torting and misrepresenting the news. He has accused them of delib¬ erate misstatements of fact and of deliberate falsification,
"The record shows that he has branded at least one news¬ paper man as a liar. To another, who wrote a coliamn which displeased him, the President 'awarded* the German Iron Cross.
"The President has complained over and over again that newsmen are compelled to 'slant* their stories according to the pol¬ icies of the papers which employ them, thus 'misinterpreting* the news. That complaint has become almost a theme song at FDR's press conferences, Washington correspondents say, and has been for some time, "
The article, citing specific instances where the President has dealt sharply with the press, covers his entire administration. There are few references to radio. One of them refers to an article by David Lawrence ;
"Commenting on the controversy over the Government seizure of the Montgomery Ward plant in Chicago, Mr, Lawrence wrote on May 10, 1944; * The President, of course, in reciting some of the facts
of the case stressed that neither the press nor the radio had let the country know the facts that led up to the seizure. After he had finished reciting them, a woman reporter said to the President that she had either read in the press or heard over the radio everything that Mr. Roosevelt had just narrated, . . , Mr, Roosevelt's idea of a fair article or radio comment, is one presenting the Administra¬ tion's side comprehensively and then saying the other side isn't worth mentioning, that it is either plcayunish or inconsequential. This appears to Mr. Roosevelt to be the kind of reporting he*d like to read in the press or hear on the radio,' "
Another was;
"The New York Times, June 30, 1943; 'Asked for an example of government arguments started by the press, Mr, Roosevelt contend¬ ed that there were flocks of them and suggested that almost any columnist be read. Go back in the files, he said. Asked about the radio, the President said he Included it in his criticism but not to such an extent as newspapers, ' "
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