The daily monitor leader. [volume] (Mount Clemens, Mich.) 1942-19??, 1942-07-29
BY PETER EDISON
MonitOr-Leader Washington
Cnrvaenonda liant

side the propaganda lies which
the axis short wave medicine
men concoct and hope people
will swallow.
The way il works now, prac-
tically nobody listens TO foreign
shortwave broadcasts except the
people who get paid for it..
There's usually so much static
that il isn't fit to listen to and,
under good receptive conditions,
listening in on European stations
becomes a once-in-a-While fad.
People listen in on Lord Haw
HaW and his sue ce SIS n Of
American counterparts now per-
forming over tho German sta
ton Debunk, not to be inform
ed but for a good laugh. Conse-
quently, does it do any good to
pick up the mouthings of these
cute transformation specialists,
reprint them as government
handouts, then broadcast them
through the press and over the
standard wave radio?
The Federal Communications
Commissions Foreig.- Broad
cast Monitoring Service now lis
tens in on and records all these
enemy radio stations. The trans
cript of all these words is run
through a duplicating machine
daily, and the gathered sheets
make a book half an inch thick.
1t would take three or I o u r
hours to read it if any busy lit
tie government official had that
much time. So a digest is made
which can be read in half an
hour or so, and nobody has that
much time, either.
1t is probably necessary that
all this recording be done, just
for whatever clews may be pick
ed up from the axis-controlled
mouthpieces.
INSTRUMENTATION MINE
So in various u S. govern
ment departments men are as
signed TO study these reports
and pick out the items that may
be of interest to their chiefs,
whether they be generals, CO.
ordinators, or assorted assistant
secretaries. The foreign radio
being notorious for its inaccu-
racies and deliberate lies, these
studies make the most complete
analysis of transformation ever
made by man.
What good does II do? Well,
a kind of game has been evolv-
ed. Propaganda analysis experts
who only few months ago
we're probably respectable news
paper men, sit around behind
their horn rims trying to figure
out why the German radio took
time to vigorously deny that
cooking fats are being produc-
ed from the corpses of air raid
victims in bombed cities.
1t doesn't stop there. A press
release is prepared on this item,
and it is spread through the
newspapers and over the radio.
Or il the German radio has told
some nasty lie about the U, S.,
1t is promptly and officially de-
MED, and the denial is given
more publicity than the origi-
nal lie would ever have receiv-
ed. There hasn't been so much
of this lately, but back in the
days of the late and unlament-
ed Office of Facts and Figures,
this was a daily occurrence.
The theory behind this was
that even though the original lie
may not have received wide at
tention. the fact that it may
have b cen planted anywhere
made it necessary to spike the
lie before il was spread further
by the vermin pro-axis peri
odicals. by paid rumor mongers,
by whispering campaigns and
everyday gossip. Maybe so.
LIES RETOLD AS TRUTH
The other side Of the argu-
ment is that, even though these
original lies are labeled as such
when printed or broadcast Off
cially, so careless are the read
ing and listening habits of most
people that most of these lies
get repeated in gossip without
the qualification that they are
lies.
The truth is that all this bust
ness merely dabbles on the edges
of psychological warfare, which
Is An intriguing name but is still
most woefully underestimated
and misunderstood. To all too
many people. psychological war
fare means only propaganda via
short wave radio. There's lot
more to it than that, but most
of it comes in the realm Of hush
hush military information.
One extremely useful purpose
OF the foreign short wave an
alysis is in feeding back accur-
rate information to the undcr-
ground movements in occupied
or neutral countries When an
axis lie can be nailed down and
the truth about any given stu
alton be fed back into the con-