U.S. Propaganda & Censorship in WWI

--to reach every person in the U.S.multiple times with patriotic information

As the U.S. entered World War I, the former president of the Colorado Bar, Thomas Jefferson O’Donnell,¹ condemned Congress for failing to support military censorship of the press. He focused on immigrants.

Thus, alien enemies, and alien-blooded sympathisers with them, have been able to coordinate opinion and to support and encourage each other with each other's treason, and keep up a methodical and well-directed fire against the patriotic sentiment of the country…Every day the agents of this propaganda are engaged in spreading the poison, among the millions who speak tongues other than our own or that of the enemy, and even among English-speaking people. It needs no argument to demonstrate the evil effect and insidious influence of these publications. ²

When the U.S. Used 'Fake News' to Sell Americans on World War I (George Creel,Head of the Committee on Public Information)

Woodrow Wilson established the Committee on Public Information (not wishing to use the word, propaganda) under George Creel to support U.S. involvement in the War.³ Creel authorized over 750,000 speeches given to 400 million listeners by over 75,000 “4-Minute Men” in 1917-1918.⁴⁵

1. O’Donnell Family Papers. University of Colorado-Boulder.

2. O'Donnell, T,J. “Military Censorship and Freedom of the Press.” Virginia Law Review , Dec., 1917, pp. 178-189.

3. Creel, George. How we advertised America. New York & London: Harper & Brothers Publishers, 1920.

4. "Four Minute Men | Surveillance and Censorship | Echoes of the Great War: American Experiences of World War I” Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.

5. Mastrangelo, Lisa. “World War I, Public Intellectuals, and the Four Minute Men: Convergent Ideals of Public Speaking and Civic Participation.” Rhetoric and Public Affairs, vol. 12, no. 4, 2009, pp. 607–633.