The advertisement for the Washington Post’s iPad app starring Bob Woodward and Ben Bradlee that was roundly mocked by the snarkosphere (you can watch it here if you’ve somehow missed it til now) is somehow less weird and more…part of a continuum now that a tipster has pointed us toward this WW2-era newspaper promotional video.

Made to teach the “good, hearty stock” of Minneapolis how their newspapers were produced and throw in a little good old back-patting and self-congratulating along the way, you can almost see the anguish behind these reporters’ and columnists’ eyes. They don’t want to be doing this video, they want to be doing their jobs, which included shouting, smoking, and a little bit of writing.

But then as now, when management says they’re going to make a video, by gum they make a video.