The Roosevelts

[Cinjin]

The anti-FDR crowd likes to make out that he ordered the press not to take pictures of him in his wheelchair or showing his braces. They want to pretend it was some kind of secret that he had "polio". However, there were plenty of such pictures from his days as governor. And it's hysterical to think that the Press would follow such an order, especially the newspapers who despised the ground he rolled on.

What actually happened there is a combination of two things. The first thing is the fact that everybody in those days either had a family member or a friend/acquaintance that had the disease. It was endemic in the population. The second thing was something we don't see in today's Press, courtesy. There was simply no need to show his disability, it did nothing for the story, so they skipped it.

One could argue that that continued courtesy is what kept it generally "unspoke of" in front of the public and thus the appearance of a kept secret.

(just playing devil's advocate - I don't actually have a real opinion on it.)