1950 Third Report, U.S. Advisory Commission on Information (Summary)

Summary of 1950 Third Semiannual Report Recommendations, United States Advisory Commission on Information

Chairman: Mark F. Ethridge

• Publisher of the Louisville Times and the Louisville-Courier Journal; president of the National Association of Broadcasters in 1938; sent to the Balkans to study the postwar situation in 1945 for the U.S. Department of State; American delegate to the United Nations Commission of Investigation in 1947 to research the border disputes in Greece; served as U.S. representative on the U.N. Conciliation Commission for Palestine in 1949; served as chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission of Information from 1948 to 1950; vice president and director of The Associated Press from 1950 to 1960; vice president and editor of Newsday in New York in 1963, retired a year later to teach journalism at the University of North Carolina until 1968. 

Other members: Erwin D. Canham (Editor of the Christian Science Monitor), Philip D. Reed (Chairman of General Electric), Justin Miller (President of the National Association of Broadcasters), Dr. Mark A. May (Director of the Institute of Human Relations)

Summary:  This report was written in 1950 during the first segment of the Cold War and the second Red Scare.  President Harry Truman was on a mission to fight Communist propaganda and noted at a luncheon of the American Society of Newspaper Editors that “[our] task is nothing less than to meet false propaganda with truth all around the globe.”  The Commission stated that more funding would be needed for the Department to be effective.

Major Recommendations:

• Increase funding for physical facilities and operating costs for the “Campaign of Truth” to combat the psychological threat of Communist propaganda.

The ACPD has not located a copy of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information’s third report from 1950.  A brief summary of highlights from the third and fourth reports can be found in the attached PDF.  A full copy of the Commission’s fourth report from 1951 exists here.