The Newberry interview made me curious whether Deepstate was officially involved in art around the time when art turned to shit. I had already seen a lockstep uniformity of propaganda in tech journals and educational journals, but hadn’t been looking in art journals before.
Didn’t have to search long! The Committee on Public Information was responsible for the lockstep uniformity.
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Wilson established the first modern propaganda office, the Committee on Public Information (CPI), headed by George Creel. Creel set out to systematically reach every person in the United States multiple times with patriotic information about how the individual could contribute to the war effort. It also worked with the post office to censor seditious counter-propaganda. Creel set up divisions in his new agency to produce and distribute innumerable copies of pamphlets, newspaper releases, magazine advertisements, films, school campaigns, and the speeches of the Four Minute Men.
CPI created colorful posters that appeared in every store window, catching the attention of the passersby for a few seconds. Movie theaters were widely attended, and the CPI trained thousands of volunteer speakers to make patriotic appeals during the four-minute breaks needed to change reels. They also spoke at churches, lodges, fraternal organizations, labor unions, and even logging camps. Speeches were mostly in English, but ethnic groups were reached in their own languages. Creel boasted that in 18 months his 75,000 volunteers delivered over 7.5 million four minute orations to over 300 million listeners, in a nation of 103 million people. The speakers attended training sessions through local universities, and were given pamphlets and speaking tips on a wide variety of topics, such as buying Liberty Bonds, registering for the draft, rationing food, recruiting unskilled workers for munitions jobs, and supporting Red Cross programs. Historians were assigned to write pamphlets and in-depth histories of the causes of the European war.
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Did they pollute art?
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To reach those Americans who might not read newspapers, attend meetings or watch movies, Creel created the Division of Pictorial Publicity.[25] The Division produced 1438 designs for propaganda posters, cards buttons and cartoons in addition to 20000 lantern pictures (slides) to be used with the speeches.[26] Charles Dana Gibson was America’s most popular illustrator – and an ardent supporter of the war. When Creel asked him to assemble a group of artists to help design posters for the government, Gibson was more than eager to help. Famous illustrators such as James Montgomery Flagg, Joseph Pennell, Louis D. Fancher, and N. C. Wyeth were brought together to produce some of World War I’s most lasting images.
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The Wikipedia article says at the end:
The Office of Censorship in World War II did not follow the CPI precedent. It used a system of voluntary co-operation with a code of conduct, and it did not disseminate government propaganda.
This agrees with my experience. As I’ve noted before, the New Deal had total confidence in our ability to judge for ourselves. Most radios had shortwave bands, and the manufacturers enthusiastically advertised the ability to hear all sources. The newscasters gave the same encouragement, openly described their own efforts as propaganda, and told us what was censored and why.
Polistra's Mill 