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Administration and was not averse to providing journalists with questions on topics he<br />

wished to discuss. 45 Roosevelt also realized that he possessed the power to promote,<br />

divert or suppress the reaction <strong>of</strong> the media and the public to a daily event or public<br />

policy. 46 Steven Casey maintained that FDR was particularly influenced by the “shifting<br />

attitudes <strong>of</strong> opinion makers,” especially those <strong>of</strong> “journalists, editors and <strong>com</strong>mentators”<br />

who opposed liberalization <strong>of</strong> the quota laws or immigration in general. 47 A<br />

correspondent <strong>of</strong> the time observed that the President had the ability to quickly ascertain<br />

the “mood <strong>of</strong> the country” and the relative importance <strong>of</strong> “current events, trends [and]<br />

problems” from the manner in which in which press questions were framed and the<br />

“tone” used in their construction. 48<br />

Roosevelt also utilized the Division <strong>of</strong> Press<br />

Intelligence during 1933-1939. This agency monitored and analyzed the reporting and<br />

editorializing <strong>of</strong> approximately four hundred newspapers, providing the White House<br />

with a daily “intelligence report.” 49 A 1995 analysis <strong>of</strong> the themes <strong>of</strong> the President’s first<br />

45 Elmer Cornwell, Jr., Presidential Leadership <strong>of</strong> Public Opinion (Bloomington, IN: Indiana University<br />

Press, 1966), 156-157.<br />

46 White, FDR and the Press, 22; Richard W. Steele, Propaganda in an Open Society: <strong>The</strong> Roosevelt<br />

Administration and the Media, 1933-1941 (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1985), 37; Betty H. Winfield,<br />

FDR and the News Media (Urbana, IL: University <strong>of</strong> Illinois Press, 1990), 237.<br />

47 Steven Casey, Cautious Crusade: Franklin D. Roosevelt, American Public Opinion, and the War<br />

against Nazi Germany (NY: Oxford University Press, 2001), 69.<br />

48 White, FDR and the Press, 22.<br />

49 Laurel Leff, “News <strong>of</strong> the Holocaust: Why FDR Didn’t Tell and the Press Didn’t Ask,” Hakirah: A<br />

Journal <strong>of</strong> <strong>Jewish</strong> and Ethnic Studies, 2006, 11available from<br />

http://wymaninstitute.org/articles/News%20<strong>of</strong>%20the%20Holocaust-<br />

%20Why%20FDR%20Didn't%20Tell%20and%20the%20Press%20Didn't%20Ask.pdf; Internet; accessed<br />

October 3, 2010. <strong>The</strong> Office <strong>of</strong> Press Intelligence was established in August 1933 and on July 10, 1935 it<br />

was placed under the authority <strong>of</strong> the National Emergency Council. <strong>The</strong> Reorganization Plan No. 11<br />

transferred the agency to the Office <strong>of</strong> Government Reports where it remained in operation until Executive<br />

Order 9182 <strong>of</strong> June 13, 1942 moved it to the Bureau <strong>of</strong> Special Services in the Office <strong>of</strong> War Information.<br />

325

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