The Press: Backfire

The New York Journal-American last week splashed an eight-column headline:

OPA? NO!! THESE NEW YORK WOMEN DENOUNCE AGENCY AS CAUSE OF BLACK MARKET. Under pictures of seven Manhattan housewives were bold-face quotes. Samples: “I am getting fed up with OPA. . . .” “The OPA has done little but create black markets. . . .”

To the enterprising editors of PM, who love OPA as heartily as Hearst detests it, the stunt had a fishy smell. When one of the seven women called PM to say she had been misquoted (she had been asked by a Hearstling to comment on black markets, not on OPA), reporters checked with the other six. PM forthwith reproduced the Journal display, gleefully noted that all seven ladies really liked OPA, ran the natural counter-headline: OPA? YES!!—HOW HEARST LIED SEVEN TIMES. . . .