Censorship in World War I: the Action of Wilson's Committee on Public Information

"The Committee on Public Information was created by Woodrow Wilson during World War I as a government instrument for the management of public opinion during wartime. Headed by George Creel, the CPI quickly dominated two key and interwined aspects of mass communications: censorship and propaganda. Praised as "a nationalizing force at home and an Americanizing agent abroad", the Committee's overall goal was to promote the circulation of positive images of the United States and counter or prevent the spread of negative perceptions of the USA or of Great Britain and other Allied Powers. Daniela Rossini sees in the CPI's activities "a crusading attitude and a skillful combination of selective repression, centralization of information, control of the media and propaganda", that enabled Wilson's administration to manage public opinion in an unparalleled way. Censorship was not simply imposed by the government. The press, the film industry, other mass media, and the general public were urged, for the sake of honor and patriotism, to comply with CPI guidelines. In other words, the government sought to mobilize a general "self-imposed conformism" in order to achieve what amounted to high level of voluntary censorship. The CPI also undertook missions abroad. Charles Merriam led one such mission to Italy, organizing the first mass propaganda campaign in favor of he United States in that country, and offering a plan to improve Italian propaganda in the United States. Noting John Dewey's observation on the efficacy of mass methods in manufacturing popular sentiment for all kinds of causes (worth or not), this essay argues that the fabrication of consent was in fact achieved by repression of democratic rights. Daniela Rossini is careful to point out that U.S. censorship and propaganda were not so heavy handed as they were at that time in Italy, France or other European countries, but she echos arguments similar to those used by Alex Goodall regarding the contradictory nature of Wilsonian policies and their adverse effects on the functioning of democracy in the United States. The capacity of government-inspired censorship and propaganda to fabricate majority consent was proven by the CPI and the reactions of USAmerican society during World War I. This experience undermined basic U.S. assumptions about enlightened public opinion. It shed doubts on the capacity and willingness of an intelligent general public to maintain independent and diverse rational opinions. Furthermore, the author argues, it created a social atmosphere which was unfavorable to the expression of dissent, while sowing the seeds of reactionary postwar hysteria which encouraged antidemocratic attitudes of "isolationism, illiberalism and intollerance"." [from the editors' introduction