A case study of Congressional hostility to agency public relations: The Federal Reserve and Senator Heflin, 1922

Abstract

This is an historical case study of one US Senator's effort to reduce the public information activities of a federal agency. In 1922, Senator Thomas Heflin, an opponent of the policies of the Federal Reserve Bank, took especial umbrage at the Bank's use of public relations to reply to his own attacks on it. This is an example of a politician trying to muzzle government public relations regardless of fairness or reciprocity.