Roosevelt's Radio Takeover

Michael Socolow, who teaches journalism at the University of Maine, has this choice anecdote today in an op-ed piece in the Boston Globe about the day 64 years ago when Germany and Italy declared war on the United States:

At some point on that day, President Roosevelt told press adviser Stephen Early that the government needed to acquire one of the national radio networks. Now that America was at war, the government's requirement for unmediated and direct communication was essential. Early telephoned Federal Communications Commission chairman James L. Fly and ordered him to speak to David Sarnoff, NBC's chairman. Fly and Sarnoff were "to work out, confidentially for the time being, ways and means by which the government can utilize the [NBC] Blue Network for the period of the war." Roosevelt, Early told Fly, suggested that the government could "rent the Blue Network facilities for the duration of the war and for the use of such time as the government needs in order to disseminate its own information."

Ultimately, federal officials thought better of the idea. Still, as Socolow points out, the story shows that government's interest in bypassing the media and taking its message directly to the people is nothing new. (Thanks, A.L.)