The Pittsburgh Press (October 2, 1943)
Background of news –
The President and the reporters
By Phelps Adams, North American Newspaper Alliance
Washington –
Relations between President Roosevelt and the Washington press corps were marked this week by growing resentment following the White House press conference Tuesday at which the President castigated reporters for their handling of stories concerning the impending transfer of Gen. George C. Marshall, Army Chief of Staff, to a new post.
Although the President actually did no more than read excerpts from one news story and from two editorials, without voicing any direct comment of his own, he managed by the adroit use of inflection and emphasis to unburden himself of one of the most sweeping criticisms of the press in general that has been heard at the White House in recent weeks.
The whole incident has served to stir a deep feeling of anger within the press corps, many of the members of which feel the President has done them a profound injustice. In order to understand this reaction, it is only necessary to review briefly the facts concerning the origin of these stories.
The source: Army and Navy Journal
The story that Gen. Marshall was to be removed from his present position as Chief of Staff under the influence and pressure of powerful interests first attained nationwide currency through its appearance in the Army and Navy Journal, long regarded as a semi-official publication and whose editor is a close personal friend of Gen. Marshall himself.
When reporters sought to check on this report, they had little or no difficulty in verifying its complete truth. During the period when the controversy was at its height, the regular presidential press conferences were canceled and the reporters, therefore, had no opportunity to seek confirmation or denial from the President. But they did seek and obtain full confirmation from sources, which in the absence of the President, were the most completely authoritative and fully informed.
At this point, therefore, Washington reporters found that they were by no means dealing with rumor and innuendo, as the President suggests, but were in possession of well-authenticated facts which they published.
Fully aired in Congress
The publication of these facts had an immediate aftermath that not only served to contribute to British-American disunity to a highly unfortunate degree, but also led to the publication of reports that the motives underlying the proposed transfer of Gen. Marshall were selfishly political.
The truth is that these stories ascribing the most reprehensible motives to those seeking to remove Gen. Marshall from his present post likewise were inspired to a large degree by government officials and were freely and fully discussed upon the floors of Congress.
In this way, they were reported not only in the nation’s press in its routine coverage of speeches on the floors of Congress, but they were likewise published at government expense in The Congressional Record. In this way, the government itself gave official currency to the very reports for the circulation of which the President now blames the press.