The Committee on Public Information

The Committee on Public Information On April 13, 1917, the US declared war on Germany. Within a week of this declaration, President Wilson had issued an executive order creating a federal agency to influence public opinion. This agency was the Committee of Public Information, led by George Creel, a newspaper reporter. The Committee was the nation’s first modern propaganda office. It was organized into multiple different divisions, each one controlling a different aspect of news and information. The Speaking Division consisted of the Four-Minute men, an army of volunteers that gave four-minute speeches wherever there was an audience. According to Creel, the men had given around 7.5 million speeches by the end of the war. Additionally, there was also a News Division and Film Division. They were able to control what newspapers published by restricting reporters’ access to soldiers, generals, and people involved in the war. In doing so, reporters were forced to use government press-releases and reports to meet the public demand for news about the war. Essentially, they could only report information that the government released. This strategy was extremely effective, with government-written reports in at least 20,000 newspaper columns each week. Newspapers also had to follow government guidelines about how to be “patriotic,” which basically meant they had to portray the war in a positive light that encouraged people to support the war. Additionally, the CPI released its own government newspaper, distributing it across the country to newspapers, post offices, and military bases. The Film Division released movies dramatizing the war, emphasizing the barbaric enemies and heroic Americans. This included three full-length films: Pershing's Crusaders (May 1918), America's Answer (to the Hun) (August 1918), Under Four Flags (November 1918). The CPI was also responsible for many of the now-famous propaganda pictorials, like Uncle Sam’s “I want you.” The Division of Pictorial Publicity developed over 1483 designs for posters and postcards, many drawn by volunteers as well as famous artists. These posters portrayed Germans as bloodthirsty Huns while urging people to support the war by buying bonds and enlisting bonds, aiming to shift public opinion from a position of neutrality to one of of support for the war. Though the CPI proved effective in its task, there were incidents that revealed the spread of misinformation through the government. For example, a government report that claimed ships had sank multiple German submarines was proved false after interviewing the ship’s captain in England. Another example was when the government claimed that American planes were flying to France, but it was revealed that there was in fact only one plane, and it was still being tested. These incidents led newspapers and reporters that had once complied with government regulations become skeptical of the information the government was spreading. The CPI and Creel was also criticized by others such as Walter Lippmann, who wrote about the violation of civil liberties. World War I was significant not only in its technology, but also because of the widespread effect it had on the actual citizens. In the US, this war was the first time propaganda had been used on a national scale. Many people who participated in the CPI realized the power of manipulating public opinion. Edward L. Bernays, a volunteer in the CPI, wrote about the importance of propaganda in controlling the masses, saying “Propaganda is the executive arm of the invisible government.” https://theconversation.com/how-woodrow-wilsons-propaganda-machine-changed-american-journalism-76270 https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/how-woodrow-wilsons-propaganda-machine-changed-american-journalism-180963082/ http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/4970/ https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Creel#ref172962 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Committee_on_Public_Information