Editorial: News of war
Stories are still being written of the magnificent news coverage of the invasion by American correspondents. Millions of words were dispatched in a matter of hours.
The first story of the invasion to come out of France was written by a correspondent who went in by parachute hours before the first seaborne troops landed. Although he fell on his typewriter and damaged it, and was forced to write while snipers’ bullets were singing over and around him, the story was completed and dispatched on schedule.
Few who read the interesting and eagerly-awaited accounts of invasion progress realize what hardships and dangers are faced by men who make the gathering and writing of news their calling, although it takes them to far places, often at risk of their lives.
There are hundreds of these men. They are at the front in every battle zone, with the exception of the Russian front. Behind them are other hundreds serving in news and press centers, often going without sleep for hours or days that the dispatches may come through. In the newspaper offices of the United States, activity is never ended. Weary men sit at desks throughout the day and night, watching, waiting for the latest bulletins.
The American public has been so accustomed to being served news while it is still news that many persons take it as a matter of course. But covering a global war entails for every newspaper expenditure of time and money little of which the public has an inadequate conception.
The job starts with those who go out with the first fighters so that no details will be missed. It is the American way.