Evening star., 1940-11-17
By Charles e. Ross.

of their departments or the personal
fortunes of their superiors. Here again
the newspapers can apply the corrective.
There have been no recent instances, so
far as this writer has been able to find,
of any absolute distortions of fact in
Government press release.
Polite though they usually are in deal
ing with the press and radio, officials
of the Government occasionally let their
temper get the better of their judgment.
An incident of this kind, much talked
about here, occurred during the cam
paign. Lowell Mellett, one of the admin
istrative assistants to the President, be-
came angered at what he considered an
unfair slant in a news broadcast by
Fulton Lewis, jr., of the Mutual System.
He called up Lewis from his home i'm
mediately after the broadcast and made
his views known in sulphurous language.
Blowing of Steam
To understand MeIIetts action, one
needs to know that he is zealot in the
New Deal cause and that, having long
been in newspaper work at the Capital
before he went into the Government
service. he is on free-and-easy terms
with the Washington newspaper re-
porters. The consensus of Melletts for
mer colleagues doubtless would be that
he was excessively tactless in his criti-
cism of Lewis, but that the incident
could hardly be taken as evidence Of a
IF
Mellett say that he was simply blowing
off steam in his private capacity.
Melletts relationship TO the press is
about the same as that of Stephen T.
Early Of the White House staff. A long
time and popular reporter. Early is
Steve" to nearly all the newsmen who
visit the White House. He and the re-
porterS speak the same language. In
this fact, as in the case Of Mellett, there
is one of those Intangible factors that
make it so difficult 10 analyze the system
of Government publicity, or to say where
proper guidance of reporter ends and
cracking down begins.
Uniformly, the relations Of the Presi-
dent and the broadcasting companies
have been extremely friendly-a fact not
to be wondered at, so far as the Presi-
dent is concerned, in view of the ef-
fective use that the President is able to
make of the air waves. Whereas the
President has gone out of his way to
criticize the press-specifcally the pub
fishers Of newspapers has on numer-
Gus occasions said a good word for radio.
No Danger of Suppression.
If there is any danger to the public
from the Government publicity system,
it is not from the suppression of news,
either by the newspapers or by the radio,
but from the constant pressure of the
Government, through its numerous press
agents under various titles, to get ma
terial favorable to the Government into
the papers and the movies and on the
air AS the Government grows, this
pressure constantly increases.
Here again, it is impossible to be dog
matic-to say, for example, how much
money the Government should spend on
publicity, or to what extent it should as
sist the newspapers in getting the news,
or, in many cases, whether a Govern
ment handout to the press, radio or
movies, Is legitimate publicity" or
propaganda" for a cause. If there is
misuse of the executive power in any of
these respects, or others, the remedy is
in the hands, first, of Congress, which
holds the purse strings, and, second, of
the private agencies concerned. None
of these is compelled to use a Govern
ment handout.
But clearly the second of these cor
rective measures may be Intellectual
through fear on the part of a private
agency of offending a strong central
Government. Radio, because its broad
casting stations operate under one-year
licenses revocable by the Federal Com
munications Commission, is peculiarly in
position where fear of reprisals might
work against the public interest.
Reference has been made to Lowell
Mellett. There is no doubt he is a
power in the Government t-one of the
half dozen men closest to the President
and will be a greater power in the event
of war A newspaperman for many
years, he broke with his chief, Roy w.
Howard, in 1887, after 16 years as editor
Of the washington Daily News Of the
Scripps- Howard chain. Recognizing IN