Fireside chats

Template:Short description Template:For Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox event The fireside chats were a series of evening radio addresses given by Franklin D. Roosevelt, the 32nd President of the United States, between 1933 and 1944. Roosevelt spoke with familiarity to millions of Americans about recovery from the Great Depression, the promulgation of the Emergency Banking Act in response to the banking crisis, the 1936 recession, New Deal initiatives, and the course of World War II. On radio, he quelled rumors, countered conservative-dominated newspapers, and explained his policies directly to the American people. His tone and demeanor communicated self-assurance during times of despair and uncertainty. Roosevelt was regarded as an effective communicator on radio, and the fireside chats kept him in high public regard throughout his presidency. Their introduction was later described as a "revolutionary experiment with a nascent media platform."<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

The series of chats were among the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress, which noted it as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between President Roosevelt and the American people in 1933."

Origin

File:NBC microphone, National Museum of American History.jpg

NBC microphone used for Roosevelt's fireside chat radio broadcasts

Roosevelt believed that his administration's success depended upon a favorable dialogue with the electorate, possible only through methods of mass communication, and that it would allow him to take the initiative. The use of radio for direct appeals was perhaps the most important of Roosevelt's innovations in political communication.<ref name="Reedy">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp Roosevelt's opponents had control of most newspapers in the 1930s and press reports were under their control and involved their editorial commentary. Historian Betty Houchin Winfield says, "He and his advisers worried that newspapers' biases would affect the news columns and rightly so."<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> Historian Douglas B. Craig says that Roosevelt "offered voters a chance to receive information unadulterated by newspaper proprietors' bias" through the new medium of radio.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref>

Roosevelt first used what would become known as fireside chats in 1929 as Governor of New York.<ref name="Burns">Template:Cite book</ref> Roosevelt was a Democrat facing a conservative Republican legislature, so during each legislative session he would occasionally address the residents of New York directly.<ref name="Storm">Template:Cite journal</ref> His third gubernatorial address—April 3, 1929, on WGY radio—is cited by Roosevelt biographer Frank Freidel as being the first fireside chat.<ref name=Storm />{{#invoke:Listen|main}} As president, Roosevelt began making the informal addresses on March 12, 1933, eight days after his inauguration. He had spent his first week coping with a month-long epidemic of bank closings that was hurting families nationwide.<ref name="Radio Digest">Template:Cite journal</ref>Template:Rp He closed the entire American banking system on March 6. On March 9, Congress passed the Emergency Banking Act, which Roosevelt used to effectively create federal deposit insurance when the banks reopened.<ref name="Silber">Template:Cite journal</ref> At 10 p.m. ET that Sunday night, on the eve of the end of the bank holiday, Roosevelt spoke to a radio audience of more than 60 million people, to tell them in clear language "what has been done in the last few days, why it was done, and what the next steps are going to be".<ref name="Radio Digest"/>Template:Rp

The result, according to economic historian William L. Silber, was a "remarkable turnaround in the public's confidence...The contemporary press confirms that the public recognized the implicit guarantee and, as a result, believed that the reopened banks would be safe, as the President explained in his first Fireside Chat." Within two weeks people returned more than half of the cash they had been hoarding, and the first stock-trading day after the bank holiday marked the largest-ever one-day percentage price increase.<ref name="Silber"/>

The term "fireside chat" was inspired by a statement by Roosevelt's press secretary, Stephen Early, who said that the president liked to think of the audience as a few people seated around his fireside. One of the things is that listeners could see Roosevelt in his study, in front of the fireplace, and imagine they were sitting beside him.<ref name="Goodwin">Template:Cite book</ref>Template:Rp The term was coined by CBS broadcast executive Harry C. Butcher of the network's Washington, D.C., office,<ref name="Dunning">Template:Cite book</ref> in a press release before the address of May 7, 1933.<ref name=Buhite/> The phrase has often been credited to CBS journalist Robert Trout, but he said he was simply the first to use the phrase on the air.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref> The title was picked up by the press and public and later used by Roosevelt himself,<ref name="Buhite">Template:Cite book Retrieved January 2, 2013.</ref> becoming part of American folklore.<ref name="Dunning"/>

Presentation

File:Second Bill of Rights Speech.ogv

Filmed excerpt of the fireside chat on the State of the Union (January 11, 1944),<ref name="FC 28"/> in which Roosevelt discusses a Second Bill of Rights

Roosevelt customarily made his address from the Diplomatic Reception Room of the White House. He would arrive 15 minutes before air time to welcome members of the press, including radio and newsreel correspondents. NBC White House announcer Carleton E. Smith gave him a simple introduction: "Ladies and gentlemen, the President of the United States." Roosevelt most often began his talks with the words, "My friends" or "My fellow Americans", and he read his speech from a loose-leaf binder.<ref name="Dunning"/> Presidential advisor and speechwriter Samuel Rosenman recalled his use of common analogies and his care in avoiding dramatic oratory: "He looked for words that he would use in an informal conversation with one or two of his friends."<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp Eighty percent of the words used were in the thousand most commonly used words in the English language.<ref name="Mankowski">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

The radio historian John Dunning wrote that "It was the first time in history that a large segment of the population could listen directly to a chief executive, and the chats are often credited with helping keep Roosevelt's popularity high."<ref name="Dunning"/>

Each radio address went through about a dozen drafts. Careful attention was also given to Roosevelt's delivery. When he realized that a slight whistle was audible on the air due to a separation between his two front lower teeth, Roosevelt had a removable bridge made.<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp

Roosevelt is regarded as one of the most effective communicators in radio history.<ref name="Dunning"/> Although the fireside chats are often thought of as having been a weekly event, Roosevelt in fact delivered just 31 addresses<ref name=Mankowski /> during his 4,422-day presidency.<ref name="Skeens">Template:Cite book</ref> He resisted those who encouraged him to speak on radio more frequently, as shown in his response to Russell Leffingwell after the address of February 23, 1942:

The one thing I dread is that my talks should be so frequent as to lose their effectiveness. ... Every time I talk over the air it means four or five days of long, overtime work in the preparation of what I say. Actually, I cannot afford to take this time away from more vital things. I think we must avoid too much personal leadership—my good friend Winston Churchill has suffered a little from this.<ref name=" Goodwin"/>Template:Rp

Gallery

• FDR-June-28-1934.jpg

  Fireside chat on the merits of the recovery program Template:Nowrap

• FDR-September-30-1934.jpg

  Fireside chat on government and capitalism Template:Nowrap

• FDR-April-28-1935-side.jpg

  Fireside chat on the WPA and the Social Security Act Template:Nowrap

• FDR-September-6-1936.jpg

  Fireside chat on drought conditions and labor Template:Nowrap

• Radio-Press-Fireside-Chat-1939.jpg

  Radio press at fireside chat Template:Nowrap

• Newsreel-Press-Fireside-Chat-1939.jpg

  Newsreel cameras at fireside chat Template:Nowrap

• FDR-September-11-1941.jpg

  Fireside chat on maintaining freedom of the seas Template:Nowrap The black armband signifies his mourning the death of his mother, Sara Delano Roosevelt.

• FDR-Map-1942.jpg

  Fireside chat on the progress of the war Template:Nowrap

• FDR-December-24-1943.jpg

  Fireside chat on the Tehran Conference and Cairo Conference Template:Nowrap<ref name="FC 27"/>

• FDR-January-11-1944.jpg

  Fireside chat on the State of the Union Template:Nowrap<ref name="FC 28"/>

Chronological list of addresses

File:Ww1646-25.jpg

Poster quoting Roosevelt's fireside chat of December 9, 1941

File:Coal-Mines-Administration-FDR-Fireside-Chat.jpg

Poster quoting Roosevelt's fireside chat about the coal crisis. On May 2, 1943, Roosevelt issued an executive order that placed coal mines under the control of the U.S. government.

Template:Abbr	Date	Topic	Length<ref name="FDR Library">{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>	Template:Abbr
1	Sunday, March 12, 1933	On the Banking Crisis	13:42	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
2	Sunday, May 7, 1933	Outlining the New Deal Program	22:42	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
3	Monday, July 24, 1933	On the National Recovery Administration	Template:N/a	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
4	Sunday, October 22, 1933	On Economic Progress	Template:N/a	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
5	Thursday, June 28, 1934	Achievements of the 73rd U.S. Congress and Critics of the New Deal	Template:N/a	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
6	Sunday, September 30, 1934	On Government and Capitalism	27:20	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
7	Sunday, April 28, 1935	On the Works Relief Program and the Social Security Act	28:08	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
8	Sunday, September 6, 1936	On Drought Conditions, Farmers and Laborers	26:49	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
9	Tuesday, March 9, 1937	On the Reorganization of the Judiciary	35:28	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
10	Tuesday, October 12, 1937	On New Legislation to be Recommended to Congress	27:42	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
11	Sunday, November 14, 1937	On the Unemployment Census	14:16	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
12	Thursday, April 14, 1938	On the Recession	40:42	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
13	Friday, June 24, 1938	On Party Primaries	29:02	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
14	Sunday, September 3, 1939	On the European War	11:25	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
15	Sunday, May 26, 1940	On National Defense	31:32	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
16	Sunday, December 29, 1940	On the "Arsenal of Democracy"	36:53	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
17	Tuesday, May 27, 1941	Announcing Unlimited National Emergency	44:27	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
18	Thursday, September 11, 1941	On Maintaining Freedom of the Seas and the Greer Incident	28:33	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
19	Tuesday, December 9, 1941	On the Declaration of War with Japan	26:19	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
20	Monday, February 23, 1942	On the Progress of the War	36:34	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
21	Tuesday, April 28, 1942	On Our National Economic Policy and Sacrifice	32:42	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
22	Monday, September 7, 1942	On Inflation and Progress of the War	26:56	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
23	Monday, October 12, 1942	Report on the Home Front	29:25	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
24	Sunday, May 2, 1943	On the Coal Crisis	21:06	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
25	Wednesday, July 28, 1943	On the Fall of Mussolini	29:11	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
26	Wednesday, September 8, 1943	On the Armistice with Italy and the Third War Loan Drive	12:38	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
27	Friday, December 24, 1943	On the Tehran and Cairo Conferences	28:29	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
28	Tuesday, January 11, 1944	On the State of the Union	30:20	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
29	Monday, June 5, 1944	On the Fall of Rome	14:36	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>
30	Monday, June 12, 1944	Opening the Fifth War Loan Drive	13:02	citation	CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Reception

Roosevelt's radio audiences averaged 18 percent during peacetime, and 58 percent during the war.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref> The fireside chats attracted more listeners than the most popular radio shows, which were heard by 30 to 35 percent of the radio audience. Roosevelt's fireside chat of December 29, 1940 was heard by 59 percent of radio listeners. His address of May 27, 1941, was heard by 70 percent of the radio audience.<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp

An estimated 62,100,000 people heard Roosevelt's fireside chat on December 9, 1941—two days after the attack on Pearl Harbor—attaining a Hooper rating of 79, the record high for a Presidential address.<ref name="NYT May 1946"/> Approximately 61,365,000 adults tuned on February 23, 1942, for Roosevelt's next fireside chat, in which he outlined the principal purposes of the war.<ref name="NYT May 1946">Template:Cite news</ref> In advance of the address Roosevelt asked citizens to have a world map in front of them as they listened to him speak. "I'm going to speak about strange places that many of them never heard of—places that are now the battleground for civilization," he told his speechwriters. "I want to explain to the people something about geography—what our problem is and what the overall strategy of the war has to be. ... If they understand the problem and what we are driving at, I am sure that they can take any kind of bad news right on the chin." Sales of new maps and atlases were unprecedented, while many people retrieved old commercial maps from storage and pinned them up on their walls.<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp The New York Times called the speech "one of the greatest of Roosevelt's career".<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp

Novelist Saul Bellow recalled hearing a fireside chat while walking in Chicago one summer evening. "The blight hadn't yet carried off the elms, and under them, drivers had pulled over, parking bumper to bumper, and turned on their radios to hear Roosevelt. They had rolled down the windows and opened the car doors. Everywhere the same voice, its odd Eastern accent, which in anyone else would have irritated Midwesterners. You could follow without missing a single word as you strolled by. You felt joined to these unknown drivers, men and women smoking their cigarettes in silence, not so much considering the President's words as affirming the rightness of his tone and taking assurance from it."<ref name="Goodwin"/>Template:Rp<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

This level of intimacy with politics made people feel as if they too were part of the administration's decision-making process and many soon felt that they knew Roosevelt personally. Most importantly, they grew to trust him. The conventional press grew to love Roosevelt because they too had gained unprecedented access to the goings-on of government.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref>

While many people revered Roosevelt for giving the speeches, there are some who have seen them as more detrimental than beneficial. A major criticism Template:Weasel inline given about the fireside chats was this: "It can be argued that it is impracticable, that it rests on false assumptions about the nature of the American people, public opinion and Congress, and that the benefits of such a course are likely to be out‐weighed by the evils." Fireside chats are a way to address the public directly, but besides that there is no way to control what the public does with that information, or how they use it. Another major critique among the usage of fireside chats is that by using them, one is more likely going to appeal to one side of an issue, essentially alienating anyone who is not in agreement. "The President may appeal successfully to a minority, even a majority, for its support, but if he does so by simultaneously creating a bitter, recalcitrant opposition that denies his authority and would resort even to violence to resist his policies, can one say that this is a successful President?"<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>

Legacy

Every U.S. president since Roosevelt has delivered periodic addresses to the American people, first on radio, and later adding television and the Internet. The practice of regularly scheduled addresses began in 1982 when President Ronald Reagan started delivering a radio broadcast every Saturday.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> Currently, presidents use newer and more advanced forms of communication using specific social media outlets to project to bigger groups of people. Recent presidents also use news broadcast stations to their benefit to communicate more efficiently with bigger audiences. President Barack Obama used the social media network Twitter for the first time in 2009 to address the public, much like Roosevelt did while giving his famous fireside chats.<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

Accolades

The series of Roosevelt's 30 fireside chats were included with the first 50 recordings made part of the National Recording Registry of the Library of Congress. It is noted as "an influential series of radio broadcasts in which Roosevelt utilized the media to present his programs and ideas directly to the public and thereby redefined the relationship between the President and the American people."<ref>{{#invoke:citation/CS1|citation |CitationClass=web }}</ref>

See also

• 1600 Daily

Further reading

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External links

• Franklin D. Roosevelt Presidential Library and Museum, a repository of historical information relating to the history of Roosevelt and his administration; it is partnered with the Roosevelt Institute
• The Real Deal: Media and the Battle to Define Roosevelt's Social Programs at the University of Virginia: audio with editorial and cartoon reactions.
• Vincent Voice Library at Michigan State University, with many Roosevelt speeches in MP3 format