Clip 1938B

Effectively a puff piece for the FBI

In the context of budget discussions, threatening to cut the staffing of the FBI, J. Edgar Hoover and his men are presented in the most favourable light possible, as stalwart and super-competent warriors against crime. In reality, of course, the Bureau had a habit of letting serious organized crime alone, preferring to pursue suspected Communists and other political subversives, and relatively small-time criminals whose importance they exaggerated for the sake of publicity.