J. Edgar Hoover's FBI - Controlling the Message | 4

American History Tellers

Wondery

Society & Culture, Kids & Family, History, Education For Kids

4.7 • 18.3K Ratings

🗓️ 1 May 2019

⏱️ 46 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

The rise of fascism and World War II shifted the FBI’s focus in the 1940s from fighting midwestern outlaws to catching Communists. To Hoover and the FBI, nearly anyone on the political left was suspect, potentially part of a Soviet conspiracy to overthrow Western democracies. In reality, the American left was fragmented. But again and again, Hoover would use the threat of Communism to go after the Bureau’s enemies. He would resort to exhaustive surveillance, including wiretaps, bugging and prying into personal lives to keep in check outspoken journalists and any other critics who threatened Hoover’s ironclad control of the media.

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Hey, prime members, you can listen to American History Tellers add free on Amazon Music,
0:05.6	download the app today.
0:09.4	Imagine it's June 15, 1945.
0:21.0	You're in the Fort Worth airport on a layover, waiting to board a plane to Mexico City.
0:26.3	As you wait in the terminal for your flight, two men approach.
0:29.9	One of them is wearing a police uniform, the other a gray suit, white shirt, black tie,
0:34.9	and a fedora.
0:36.6	The police officer speaks first.
0:38.2	Ma'am, I'm Officer Jones of the Fort Worth Police Department and this is Agent Conway
0:42.2	of the FBI.
0:43.2	And we speak with you for a moment?
0:45.2	Yes, of course.
0:46.2	How may help?
0:47.5	Please, follow us.
0:49.4	You notice other passengers staring at you, no doubt wondering what crime you may have
0:53.3	committed, but you gather your bags and follow them to the small meeting room.
0:57.8	Police, have a seat, ma'am.
1:00.6	Conway settles into a corner watching silently.
1:03.8	Officer Jones begins reading you questions from a typewritten sheet.
1:07.4	Are you the wife of George Celdis?
1:09.5	I am Helen Larkin's Celdis, yes.
1:12.2	Does your husband publish in fact newspaper?
	...

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