Disgraceful, unethical, war reporters charge –
AP’s story of surrender called ‘double cross,’ violation of oath
PARIS, France (UP) – All correspondents at Supreme Allied Headquarters, except those on the staff of the Associated Press, today signed a letter to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, accusing Edward Kennedy of the AP of violating a pledge of honor by filing an unauthorized dispatch on the German surrender at Reims.
They asked that the ban on the AP filing privileges from the European theater of operations be imposed.
The pledge of honor was accepted without dissent by 16 newspapermen, including Mr. Kennedy, who were flown from Paris to Reims to cover the surrender.
The letter called Mr. Kennedy’s action in sending out a dispatch in violation of this pledge “the most disgraceful, deliberate and unethical double-cross in the history of journalism.”
The letter was signed by some of the most distinguished correspondents assigned to the war, including men representing The New York Times, The Christian Science Monitor, the John Knight newspapers, including The Chicago Daily News, Time and Life Magazines, representatives of radio networks, Reuters, the United Press and the International News Service.
Gen. Eisenhower rejected the correspondents’ petition on the grounds only the War Department in Washington could discipline an entire American organization. The ban against Mr. Kennedy filing remains in effect.
Mr. Kennedy admitted he had violated his pledge not to file a dispatch on the Reims surrender until authorized to do so by SHAEF. He said he had violated it because he believed Brig. Gen. Frank Allen, SHAEF press relations officer, had no right to bind correspondents to such a pledge.
Mr. Kennedy, however, made no protest against taking the pledge when Gen. Allen called the correspondents around him in the plane on the way to Reims and told them:
Gentlemen, we are going on a mission to cover the signing of the peace. This group has been chosen to represent the press of the world.
This story is off the record until the respective heads of the Allied governments announce the fact to the world. I, therefore, pledge each and every one of you on your honor not to communicate the results of this conference or the fact of its existence until it is released by SHAEF.
Fifty-three correspondents signed the letter to Gen. Eisenhower.
SHAEF appointed a committee of three officers to investigate the method Mr. Kennedy used in filing his Reims dispatch in violation of his pledge. The committee has not reported.
The AP in New York said Mr. Kennedy telephoned his dispatch from France to London where it was put on the trans-Atlantic cable to New York.
The rule of the London censorship is that dispatches of foreign origin, travelling through London, merely can be stamped “in transit” and do not need to be submitted to the London censorship.
The assumption of the rule is that such dispatches have been censored at the source of origin.
**Such an evasion was available to all the correspondents who went to Reims, except that they had given their word that they would comply with regulations which called for their copy to be submitted to the censor at Allied Headquarters in Paris.
Today’s action by the SHAEF correspondents is unparalleled. Never before have so many correspondents signed such a denunciation of a fellow reporter as the one sent to Gen. Eisenhower today.
Discussing the imposition of the ban on the AP’s filing facilities throughout the European Theater yesterday, Gen. Allen said:
The ban was imposed for the purposes of investigation and not as a punishment. Therefore, its lifting cannot be regarded as exoneration.
The text of the SHAEF correspondents’ letter to Gen. Eisenhower:
We the undersigned SHAEF accredited correspondents have learned with utter astonishment of the decision to lift the ban on Associated Press in connection with the unauthorized publication of official news of the unconditional surrender of Germany.
It is our firm conviction that this action is most outrageously unfair treatment of those news agencies and newspapers whose correspondents have respected the confidence placed in them by SHAEF; and who as a result of so doing have suffered the most disgraceful, deliberate and unethical double-cross in the history of journalism.
‘Position incomprehensible’
Any position that the Associated Press as an organization was not guilty of any infraction of SHAEF regulations is in our opinion incomprehensible. The organization in question published the story and made no effort whatever to retract it when it became evident that its publication was a flagrant violation of SHAEF security regulations imposed on all other correspondents concerned.
Furthermore, the Paris Bureau of Associated Press distributed the story to all French newspapers. This involved activities of more than one representative of that agency.
It is an accepted fact that any organization is responsible for its personnel, especially in the case of men assigned as war correspondents to theater of military operations and even more especially in the case of men selected as bureau chiefs. (Edward Kennedy, Paris Associated Press Bureau chief.)
Pledge quoted
Each accredited SHAEF correspondent who participated in the mission in question was pledged on his honor to secrecy by Brig. Gen. Frank Allen. Gen. Allen made to correspondents involved a statement to the following effect:
“This story is off the record until the respective heads of the Allied governments announce the fact to the world. I therefore pledge each and every one of you on your honor not to communicate the results of this conference or the fact of its existence until it is released by SHAEF.”
Associated Press cannot escape responsibility for the fact that a man selected as its representative at SHAEF and who was among those present when Gen. Allen imposed his secrecy pledge deliberately circumvented SHAEF censorship in order to file his story for immediate publication in complete defiance of the pledge.
Story unauthorized
Much less can Associated Press escape responsibility for continuing to publish the story when it was evident that it was unauthorized.
To permit Associated Press to carry at the time of its authorized release any official news out of ETO concerning the surrender of Germany is in our opinion most unjust. to those correspondents who have kept faith with you.
If this decision is allowed to stand it will in our opinion completely undermine any sense of responsibility on the part of correspondents to abide by or respect in the future SHAEF rules or regulations.
Evidence of incompetence
That an Associated Press correspondent was able to telephone an unauthorized story of this to London is in itself glaring evidence of incompetence on the part of that branch of Allied military which is responsible for security in Paris.
That Associated Press should be permitted to continue to benefit from its defiance of a solemn pledge of secrecy imposed on news of such importance to the world is incredible.
Although the original action against the AP suspended all its filing privileges throughout the European Theater, this order was later amended to apply only to Mr. Kennedy.
*Commenting yesterday on the suspension of all AP filing facilities in the European Theater, Paul Mickelson, general news editor of the AP in New York, said: “The suspension is like being thrown out of Wahoo, Nebraska, after the whole thing is over.”
The United Press man assigned to the Reims trip was Boyd D. Lewis, European news manager, who filed dispatch No. 1 with the SHAEF censor when he returned to SHAEF. That dispatch was released for publication at 9 a.m. ET today.