Presidential PR

Madeleine Brand of NPR's Day to Day had an interesting segment today on the history of presidential PR. It's a bit long (6-7 minutes) but the highlights included:

- Presidential propaganda has only been illegal since 1952. And the illegality takes the form of a rider put on appropriations bills that prohibits the executive branch from using funds for domestic publicity.

- During WWI Woodrow Wilson created the "Committee on Public Information" (ominous sounding). And FDR paid hundreds of people (Armstrong Williams' more liberal grandfather?) to write positively about the New Deal.

- Nixon (of course) apparently found a way around the band by expanding the scope of the press office. The piece goes on to state that all presidents since that time have used various (radio and video news releases, paying people to write favorable op-eds, outside PR firms) but it doesn't make clear how they are able to get around the rule, or where exactly the money comes from.

- My favorite part involved Nixon's press office and their letter to the editor campaigns. While Democrats and Republicans still help constituents write letters, Nixon had supporters send out letters to media from supposed liberals thanking journalists for revealing what a shallow and dangerous man Nixon was. This was to cause journalists to reflect upon their objectivity in their piece and possibly edit themselves. Tricky....