Artigo Revisado por pares

Coming on like Gang Busters

2015; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 40; Issue: 4 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/00947679.2015.12059114

ISSN

2641-2071

Autores

Matthew Cecil,

Tópico(s)

Media Studies and Communication

Resumo

From 1935 to 1958, J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI battled with producers of radio shows such as Gang Busters and The FBI in Peace and War, objecting to portrayals of the Bureau. FBI officials believed that those and certain other programs undermined the Bureau's authority and legitimacy through story lines emphasizing sensational violence and the thrill of the chase rather than staid logic and scientific detection. Eventually the FBI created and promoted its own radio crime drama in an effort to control its public image, valorize its authority and justify its ongoing cultural and jurisdictional growth. The details of the FBI's efforts to control its image, as revealed by its own meticulously maintained files, offer a cautionary tale of how a government agency, particularly a law enforcement agency, carries an outsized ability to influence news and entertainment portrayals of its work.

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