Editing Committee on Public Information (section)

===Media incidents===
One early incident demonstrated the dangers of embroidering the truth. The CPI fed newspapers the story that ships escorting the First Division to Europe sank several German submarines, a story discredited when newsmen interviewed the ships' officers in England. Republican Senator [[Boies Penrose]] of Pennsylvania called for an investigation and the ''[[New York Times]]'' called the CPI "the Committee on Public Misinformation."<ref>Fleming, ''The Illusion of Victory,'' pp. 119-120.</ref> The incident turned the once compliant news publishing industry into skeptics.<ref>Mary S. Mander, ''Pen and Sword: American War Correspondents, 1898-1975'' (University of Illinois, 2010), 46. Creel believed his story was correct, but that opponents in the military who were jealous of his control of military information minimized what happened en route.</ref> There is some confusion as to whether or not the claims are correct based upon subsequent information published by the CPI.<ref>{{Cite book|last=Creel|first=George|url=https://archive.org/details/howweadvertiseda01cree|title=How We Advertised America: The First Telling of the Amazing Story of the Committee on Public Information that Carried the Gospel of Americanism to Every Corner of the Globe|date=1920|publisher=Harper & Brothers|language=en}}</ref>

Early in 1918, the CPI made a premature announcement that "the first American built battle planes are today en route to the front in France," but newspapers learned that the accompanying pictures were fake, there was only one plane, and it was still being tested.<ref>Fleming, ''The Illusion of Victory,'' pg. 173. Creel blamed the Secretary of War for the false story.</ref> At other times, though the CPI could control in large measure what newspapers printed, its exaggerations were challenged and mocked in Congressional hearings.<ref>Fleming, ''The Illusion of Victory,'' pg. 240.</ref> The committee's overall tone also changed with time, shifting from its original belief in the power of facts to mobilization based on hate, like the slogan "Stop the Hun!" on posters showing a US soldier taking hold of a German soldier in the act of terrorizing a mother and child, all in support of war bond sales.<ref>Fleming, ''The Illusion of Victory,'' pg. 247.</ref>