Only the radio commentators, fearful of the rule in the 1934 Communications Act against profanity, worked hard to keep their language more sedate than the President's. Newspapers, including the New York Times ("All the News That's Fit to Print") boldly printed the initials "S.O.B." in headlines. A phrase long taboo in newspapers had been given a kind of sanction by passing through the President's mouth; S.O.B. had become editorial S.O.P.
It had long seemed to be all right—even profitable—to use much gamier words, including blasphemy and obscenity, in U.S. novels. "Son-of-a-bitch" had quite a literary past, going back at least to Shakespeare...
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