“Press Every Angle”: FBI Public Relations and the “Smear Campaign” of 1958

Abstract

When criticized by writer Fred J. Cook in The Nation, FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover and his associates declared a communist-organized smear campaign was under way and quietly called upon a trusted team of adjuncts in the press and Congress to offer a timely and “objective” defense of his organization. United by their anti-communist ideology and employing an information subsidy provided by FBI investigators, defenders in the press and Congress criticized The Nation, portraying the publication as outside the mainstream while changing the subject to more FBI-friendly topics. The lengths to which Hoover and his defenders went to counter criticism published in The Nation demonstrates the tremendous value FBI officials placed on maintaining a positive public image. The willingness of members of the press to come to Hoover's defense demonstrates the value an association with the FBI held for adjuncts in the press and Congress.