First thing after Pearl Harbor

 After World War was safely won, conservatives peddled the notion that a liberal press had always been in bed with FDR. How else could you explain why the public image of such a scoundrel was so rosy?

But the story that the press loved Franklin Delano Roosevelt and that Roosevelt loved the press is bilge.

Throughout the last century, the American press was largely conservative. Three of four  newspapers opposed Roosevelt. The big newspaper chains loathed the New Deal. On their editorial pages, they debated whether Social Security was creeping socialism, outright socialism or communism.

They blistered FDR. FDR responded in kind.

But in wartime, people who don’t like each other sometimes cooperate.

After Pearl Harbor, Roosevelt spoke to journalists about the dangers of rumors and the enemies’ use of disinformation. He reminded the public — through newspapers and radio — that there was a science of propaganda, and that our enemies were actively engaged in using it to hurt the United States.

Disinformation is not a mistake. It’s intentional. It’s a weapon.

Those press conferences were remarkable. The democracy was fighting for its life. But Roosevelt took the time to talk to people about the difference between free speech and disinformation.

Counterintuitive, maybe. A lot of people thought there were more important things to talk about.

I think it was a stroke of genius: that topic was — and still is — something that democracies had best get right from the start.