Dewey blasts curbs placed on war news
Several cases cited by New Yorker
New York (UP) –
Governor Thomas E. Dewey, a possible candidate for the Republican presidential nomination, charged last night that apparently “newspapers are being denied the right to print all the news” and laid part of the blame to “administration policy.”
Mr. Dewey told the annual meeting of the New York Press Photographers Association:
Unfortunately there have been increasing signs of late that our newspapers are being denied the right to print all the news.
Vital news withheld
Important matters have repeatedly been withheld for months until they leaked out and became the subject of such widespread gossip that they could no longer be suppressed.
He mentioned several alleged instances of news suppression.
He asserted:
Only now do we learn, because it leaked out, of the shooting down of 23 transport planes and the killing of 410 American paratroopers in Sicily, eight months ago. Even after a presidential broadcast, we still know precisely nothing of what really happened at the much-heralded conference in Tehran.
Pravda’s attacks cited
We only know of the disquieting evidence of disunity which have since occurred in the Pravda attacks on the British and the Vatican, followed by the startling repercussions, brought out by the President’s announcement of the three-way division of the Italian fleet.
He said that it was understood that certain news of a military nature should be withheld but that:
The events of which I speak have not been suppressed to keep information from the enemy so much as to keep them from our own people.
Mr. Dewey praised the U.S. press in cooperating with voluntary censorship, but added that:
The stakes in this war are too high for it to be fought in the dark. The issues are too momentous. It is time we had light as we fight for freedom.