Matt Cecil Papers Cecil, Matthew Allen, Robert S. (Robert Sharon), 1900-1981 Allen, Steve, 1921-2000 Alsop, Joseph, 1910-1989 Alsop, Stewart Associated Press Freedom of Information Act (United States) Government and the press Press and politics Mass media Public relations Censorship Communism Anti-communist movements Organized crime Radio broadcasters Television journalists Publishers and publishing News agencies Cecil, Matthew United States. Federal Bureau of Investigation Hoover, J. Edgar (John Edgar), 1895-1972 Kennedy, John F. (John Fitzgerald), 1917-1963 The Matt Cecil Papers comprise photocopied Federal Bureau of Investigation files on hundreds of twentieth-century journalists, editors, broadcasters, publishers, news organizations, and related government officials, obtained by Matthew Cecil through the Freedom of Information and Privacy Acts. The materials document FBI monitoring, contacts, and public relations activities during the J. Edgar Hoover era and after. Inclusive dates span 1918 to 2000, with the bulk from the 1930s to the 1970s. The collection consists of FBI case files, correspondence, memoranda, routing slips, teletype messages, surveillance reports, news releases, interviews, essays, investigations, clippings, and magazine tearsheets. Files are organized by creator or entity and include broadcasters, columnists, reporters, writers, cartoonists, editors, publishers, federal agents and government officials, news agencies, periodicals, and film, radio, and television programs. Examples include files on figures such as Steve Allen, Eric Sevareid, Dorothy Kilgallen, I. F. Stone, Westbrook Pegler, and Ed Sullivan; editors including James Wechsler and Freda Kirchwey; publishers including William Randolph Hearst and Katharine Graham; agencies and outlets such as Associated Press, United Press International, the Chicago Tribune, the New Republic, and the Nation; and entertainment properties and programs including the FBI radio series and television series and Hearst Metrotone News. Topic files include materials on public relations practitioners, academic and political figures, and organizations such as the Society of Former Special Agents. Documentation includes standard FBI redaction sheets inserted where pages were withheld under Title 5 U.S.C. 552 and 552a. Some photocopies are light or blurred as noted by FBI reproduction statements. A subset of folders is marked water damaged; papers are dry but warped and may be brittle. The papers provide primary evidence of FBI interactions with and assessments of the news media, publishing, and entertainment industries, with emphasis on the Bureau’s public relations strategies during the Hoover era. The records support research on government and the press, media history, and the professional activities of individual journalists and editors. Topical coverage includes Communism, McCarthyism, organized crime, kidnapping, threats, the Kennedy assassination, and smear campaigns, offering source material for studies of twentieth-century American political culture, information control, and media influence. 1918-1972 29.0 linear feet (29 records boxes) http://137.216.132.72/index.php//UA-53-23-Matt-Cecil-Papers SDSU-Archives UA 053.023 eng http://137.216.132.72/index.php//south-dakota-state-university-archives-and-special-collections-2 South Dakota State University Archives and Special Collections __Information request form:__ [Ask Us!](https://www.sdstate.edu/sdsu-archives-special-collections/researcher-registration-form) [In Copyright](http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/) This Item is protected by copyright and/or related rights. You are free to use this Item in any way that is permitted by the copyright and related rights legislation that applies to your use. 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