THE EDITOR RESERVES THE LAST COLUMN
The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column IN a recent poll of the Washington newspaper correspondents, the Saturday Review of Literature asked this question: "Which newspaper is the most flagrant...
...The campaign has, moreover, to activate the latent predispositions of most of those who are undecided...
...On the basis of answers from persons who actually went to the polls, the survey showed that about one» half of the voting sample made up its mind before May and did not change its vote intention...
...At least half the people had their minds made up in May—six months before the election—and they had formed their judgments on the basis of events during the entire period between elections and not on what they were told during the campaign...
...The persons polled were shown the front page of the newspaper they regularly read, a list of political articles appearing in mass magazines with the highest circulation in the area, and a list of the five main radio speeches which had been on the air the day preceding the interview...
...The chemical influence is necessary to bring out the picture, but only the picture pre-structured o-n the plate can come out...
...another 30 per cent made up its mind as soon as the candidates were nominated by the conventions, and the other 20 per cent "hesitated long enough to be considered at least theoretically susceptible to propaganda influences...
...Its general finding on the subject we've been discussing, that "a considerable part of the population was scarcely touched by the political content" of newspapers, magazines, and radio programs is grounded on careful research and scientific sampling...
...It is heartening to learn that the people do not fall for the campaign whoop-dee-do which the high-powered publicity and advertising specialists throw at them during every campaign...
...The strongest, the survey shows, was face-to-face contact...
...It would be no surprise to most Americans to learn that violent partisans like the Tribune and PM, which flaunt their peeves and prejudices all through their pages, have no effect in determining the outcome of elections...
...Erie County has a population of about 46,000 people, half of whom live in the industrial community of Sandusky and the other half in the surrounding rural area...
...Anyone who follows these papers through the current political campaign know how sound this judgment is...
...Smashing Some Myths Lazarsfeld and his colleagues are quick to assert that the results do not suggest "that a party could give up campaigning and win...
...M.H.R...
...The stereotype of the impartial voter weighing all the evidence offered by both political parties is just another political myth," say the experts who conducted the survey...
...PM's passionate affection for Mr...
...The Tribune and Times-Herald carry their bitter bias against the President into every story and headline...
...The county was chosen, we are told, because for decades it has come closest to the national average in the Presidential elections...
...It is even more heartening to discover that most people make up their minds on the basis of acts between elections, rather than on the talk .cFuring campaigns...
...The Editor Reserves . . . The Last Column IN a recent poll of the Washington newspaper correspondents, the Saturday Review of Literature asked this question: "Which newspaper is the most flagrant in angling or weighting the news to suit its own editorial opinions...
...Minds Made Up In May The Fall issue of the Public Opinion Quarterly contains a superb summary of the book, Votes In The Making, to be published shortly by the American Council of Public Affairs...
...What is somewhat surprising, though, is to be told that the press and radio generally—and the magazines to boot—-have relatively little influence in making votes one way or the other...
...What are the chemical influences most useful in bringing out the picture...
...If the report is disillusioning in some respects, it is encouraging in others...
...The political pulling power of press and radio was tested in October, when the campaign was nearing its peak...
...The most provocative conclusion of the survey was that relatively few votes are changed during the campaign...
...Dewey are shriekingly apparent on every page...
...The Chicago Tribune, its first cousin, the Washington Times-Herald, and New York's PM finished one, two, three, with no other paper even close...
...The campaign is like the chemical bath which develops a photograph...
...The results are striking: A total of 46 per cent had been "exposed" to no political items on the radio, 49 per cent to not a single political item in the paper they read, and 74 per cent to no political items in the mass magazines...
...Propaganda has to reinforce and keep in line the vote intentions of the approximately 50 per cent of the voters who have made up their minds before the campaign starts...
...Another myth, it seems, is the stereotype of the newspaper editor or radio commentator "moulding public opinion" in a political campaign...
...Lazarsfeld, who is director of Columbia University's Office of Radio Research, and his associates conducted an intensive study of Erie County, Ohio, during the campaign of 1940...
...Roosevelt and its loathing of Mr...
...The summary, entitled "The Election Is Over," was prepared by one of the joint authors of the book, Paul F. Lazarsfeld, and is one of the most absorbing commentaries on American politics and elections I have ever seen...
Vol. 8 • October 1944 • No. 44
