Forensic Research Archive of Manipulation and Exploitation
Is that Something to Cluck About?, 1948 US cartoon: On a farm, a hen labelled 'Special Session' crows loudly beside a broken

Is that Something to Cluck About?

On a farm, a hen labelled 'Special Session' crows loudly beside a broken egg while a rooster with a human face and round glasses watches from a fence, and a duckling labelled 'Spy Probe' paddles into a pool labelled 'The Spotlight'. The cartoon argues that the special congressional session hatched something other than what it set out to, a spy investigation; its tell is selective framing of the session's results.

Propaganda techniques used in this cartoon

Card stacking
Date
August 7, 1948
Period
Cold War
Made by
Washington Evening Star (cartoonist Jim Berryman)
Region
North America
Country
United States
Medium
Cartoon
Issuer type
Media
Regime
Truman Administration
Leader
Harry S. Truman
Audience
Domestic public
Purpose
Persuade or win support
Themes
Elections and party politics, Security and surveillance
Source
Identified Openly sourced: the speaker is who they say they are
Source
U.S. National Archives, Records of the U.S. Senate, Jim Berryman Political Cartoons (NAID 5730852), retrieved October 3, 2026
Rights
Public domain (U.S. government work)
Jim Berryman, Washington Evening Star. National Archives and Records Administration, Records of the U.S. Senate, local ID 5743143 (NAID 5743143).

Text on the object

Original (English) · read from the image, not independently checked

SPECIAL SESSION
SPY PROBE
THE SPOTLIGHT
JIM BERRYMAN

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