US. Isolationist Press “Smears” Britain

Manawatu Times, Volume 66, Issue 266, 8 November 1941, Page 2

US. Isolationist Press “Smears” Britain

Isolationists in the United States have developed a new technique in seeking to sway public opinion against aid to the democracies—it is a campaign to “smear" Britain.

One such attack recently brought t

reply from the British Government sub* mitted to the American State Department and branding as “fairy tales trumped up by the Axis” charges that Great Britain has misused lend-lease supplies from the United States. But the following day new charges were made, and they are likely to continue because of the nature of the situation, the character of the propagandists involved, and the rising temper of the participants. Three newspapers are largely involved in the anti-British campaign, covering the two biggest cities in the United States and the captal of the country. Thus the following headline appeared in the Washington outlet: “Britons Here Make Whoopee As U.S. Pays” # And the bank of the headline continues: “30,000 dollars in wine, food reported charged to lease-lend bill." Family of Isolationists The article is written by Walter Trohan, a member of the Washington Bureau of the isolationist Chicago Tribune, of which Colonel Robert McCormick is editor, and it is printed in the Washington Times-Herald, of which Mrs. Eleanor Patterson, cousin of Colonel McCormick, is owner. The third strongly isolationist link in the chain is the New York Dailv News, owned by Colonel Joseph Patterson, brother of Mrs. Eleanor Patterson. The Daily News is a tabloid paper with the largest circulation in the country. Mrs. Patterson’s Times-Herald in Washington customarily uses the isolationist Daily News editorials and cartoons of her brother’s paper in New iork on her own editorial page, and publishes the articles of her cousin’s paper in Chicago in her own news columns. Thus it was a Chicago Tribune news story, simultaneously published in Mrs. Patterson’s paper in Washington and purporting to disclose the “grand strategy” decided upon at the Roose-velt-Churchill sea meeting, which was asserted to include “a vast American expeditionary force,” which was denounced on the floor of the Senate by Majority Leader Alben W. Barkley as a “deliberate and intentional and premeditated falsehood.” . The Nazis are Delighted Whether it was all these things of not, its circulation and the regular circulation of similar stories by the newspapers give delight to Nazi propagandists, who gleefully quote, reprint and broadcast the anti-British “smear” campaign to all parts of the world. The Chicago Tribune syndicates its pieces besides to other newspapers, primarily in the Midwest An example of the technique of the “smear” campaign under way against Britain is one Times-Herald-Chicago Tribune story published recentlv. It has many of the traits of vitriolic newspaper reporting in the last days of a political campaign. It starts off with a bang: “Britishers of military age in the national capital are doing their bit for England by spending American dollars on everything from guns to whoopee.” An example of the story follows* “It is understood that the commission has contracted other bills for whisky, wines, and food at hotels and restaurants which are to be charged to the 7,000-million dollar lend-lease bill. . . ." Denial Printed Like the earlier article on a “vast American expeditionary force,” the story carries no corroboration and does not name any specific source. The charges are stated as facts, or carried as “it is reported.” At one place the article states “it is reported in reliable Congressional circles.” At the bottom of the sensational story it carried a denial: "At the British Purchasing Mission, this story was denied, along with other stories of use of iendlease funds over and above factual war needs.” This contemptuous inclusion of its own denial illustrates how hard it is to meet the “Smear Britain” campaign by ordinary means. New denials do little good when ingenious new allegations will be promptly thought up that can be printed in American papers and then re-broadcast in Nazi newspapers and sent out over the world by shortwave radio.

While most of America Is bending its efforts to aid Britain, the “Smear Britain” campaign is simultaneously going on, substituting for the V for victory campaign, a D for defeat.