Elmer Davis
Illustration, not an archive object
Director of the Office of War Information (1942-1945) · United States
On the regime page: Roosevelt administration
5 quotes, oldest first. Filter with other speakers.
“This is a people’s war, and to win it the people should know as much about it as they can. This office will do its best to tell the truth and nothing but the truth, both at home and abroad. Military information that would aid the enemy must be withheld; but within that limitation we shall try to give the people a clear, complete, and accurate picture.”
Davis had been named head of the new Office of War Information in June 1942, which combined several information agencies. He described his aims to reporters soon after taking up the post.
Elmer Davis, remarks at a press conference as Director of the Office of War Information, quoted in The American Observer, vol. 11, no. 44, 20 July 1942 Source
“But propaganda is an instrument; it may employ truth instead of falsehood in its operation (as Wilson did, and as this Office intends to do); and it may be directed to worthy instead of unworthy purposes. To condemn the instrument, because the wrong people use it for the wrong purposes, is like condemning the automobile because criminals use it for a getaway.”
Davis, discussing precedents for the Office of War Information, cites Benjamin Franklin and Woodrow Wilson, and notes Hitler's praise of Allied propaganda in Mein Kampf. The statement was first made to a House committee in autumn 1942.
Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 7 Source
“It may be objected that such surveys would be propaganda, directed against the American people and not against our enemies. Well, propaganda is an instrument which may use truth or falsehood as its material, which may be directed toward worthy or unworthy ends. We are going to use the truth, and we are going to use it toward the end of winning the war; for we know what would happen to the American people if we lose it. “Propaganda” is a word in bad odor in this country, but there is no public hostility to the idea of education as such, and we regard this part of our job as education.”
Davis answers the objection that OWI's planned surveys of the war situation for the American public were propaganda aimed at citizens.
Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 9 Source
“One of the most important divisions of our domestic branch is a news service which will take this news from enemy sources and set it in its proper relation to the facts of what is going on, with the background and any necessary correctives; so that the antidote comes along with the poison. To keep this news out of the country would be impossible and in my opinion unwise; all this service is going to do is to enable the people to recognize that news or so-called news for what it is—a weapon of war which the enemy uses just as he uses air bombs on people who are closer to him than we are.”
Davis describes OWI's plan to circulate enemy radio news in the United States with commentary on how it related to the facts, rather than to bar it.
Elmer Davis, "OWI Has a Job," Public Opinion Quarterly, vol. 7, no. 1 (Spring 1943), pp. 5-10 (a revision of Davis's statement to the House Committee on Appropriations, autumn 1942), p. 9 Source
“All of us in the news business ought to remember that our primary responsibility is to the man who buys his newspaper, or turns on his radio, expecting us to give him in so far as is humanly possible not only the truth and nothing but the truth, but the whole truth.”
Written nine years after Davis left the Office of War Information, in a book defending free expression during the McCarthy period. It gives his view of the duty of journalists.
Elmer Davis, But We Were Born Free, chapter 3, "News and the Whole Truth" (1954; André Deutsch English edition, p. 176) Source
Often attributed, not verified
These words circulate under Elmer Davis’s name but could not be traced to a source. They are listed so readers can check them, not as Elmer Davis’s words.
“The easiest way to inject a propaganda idea into most people's minds is to let it go through the medium of an entertainment picture, when they do not realize that they are being propagandized.”
Widely repeated, with the date given variously as 1942 or 1943, and traced in books to Koppes and Black, Hollywood Goes to War (1987). I found no primary document (letter, testimony, speech) in which Davis says it, so it is not published as verified.