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On This Day In 1945: Reporter Fired For Biggest Scoop In History
In World War II's final moments in Europe, Associated Press correspondent Edward Kennedy gave his news agency perhaps the biggest scoop in its history.
He reported, a full day ahead of the competition, that the Germans had surrendered unconditionally at a former schoolhouse in Reims, France.
For this, he was publicly rebuked by the AP, and then quietly fired.
The reason: The veteran reporter was accused of breaking a pledge that he and 16 other correspondents had made to keep the surrender secret for a time, as a condition of being allowed to witness it. This was done so Russian dictator Josef Stalin could formally announce the defeat in Berlin.
Kennedy viewed the embargo as a political security issue, rather than a military one, and felt compelled to report the surrender, especially after learning that German radio had already broadcast the news.
In 2012, almost 50 years after Kennedy's death, then-AP President and CEO Tom Curley apologized for the way the company had treated the journalist.
Ed Kennedy, pictured below, was one of 17 reporters taken to witness the ceremony.
He and the others were hastily assembled by military commanders, then pledged to secrecy by a U.S. general while the group flew over France. As a condition of being allowed to see the surrender in person, the correspondents were barred from reporting what they had witnessed until authorized by Allied headquarters.
Initially, the journalists were told the news would be held up for only a few hours. But after the surrender was complete, the embargo was extended for 36 hours—until 3 p.m. the following day.
Kennedy was astounded.
"The absurdity of attempting to bottle up news of such magnitude was too apparent," he would later write.
Nevertheless, he initially stayed quiet. Then, at 2:03 p.m., the surrender was announced by German officials, via a radio broadcast from Flensburg, a city already in Allied hands. That meant, Kennedy knew, that the transmission had been authorized by the same military censors gagging the press.
Furious, Kennedy went to see the chief American censor and told him there was no way he could continue to hold the story. Word was out. The military had broken its side of the pact by allowing the Germans to announce the surrender. And there were no military secrets at stake.
The censor waved him off. Kennedy thought about it for 15 minutes, and then acted.
Seventy years after the scoop, the AP is making Kennedy's original story and photographs available...
Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western allies and the Soviet Union at 2:41 a.m. French time today. (This was at 8:41 p.m. Eastern war time Sunday, May 6, 1945.)
The surrender took place at a little red school house that is the headquarters of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower.
The surrender was signed for the Supreme Allied Command by Lt. Gen. Walter Bedell Smith, chief of staff for Gen. Eisenhower.
It was also signed by Gen. Ivan Susloparov of the Soviet Union and by Gen. Francois Sevez for France.
Gen. Eisenhower was not present at the signing, but immediately afterward Gen. Alfred Jodl and his fellow delegate, Gen. Admiral Hans Georg von Friedeburg, were received by the supreme commander.
They were asked sternly if they understood the surrender terms imposed upon Germany and if they would be carried out by Germany.
They answered yes.
Germany, which began the war with a ruthless attack upon Poland, followed by successive aggressions and brutality in concentration camps, surrendered with an appeal to the victors for mercy toward the German people and armed forces.
After signing the full surrender, Gen. Jodl said he wanted to speak and received leave to do so.
"With this signature," he said in soft-spoken German, "the German people and armed forces are for better or worse delivered into the victor's hands.
"In this war, which has lasted more than five years, both have achieved and suffered more than perhaps any other people in the world."
* * *
After being fired by the AP, Kennedy took a job as managing editor of the Santa Barbara News-Press in California, and then went on to become publisher of the Monterey Peninsula Herald. He died at age 58 after being struck by an automobile.
Kennedy's family had held on to the manuscript for decades before his daughter, Cochran, began looking for a publisher.
She said that even though she was only 16 when her father died, she got the impression he still took great joy in his career, despite the episode.
Curley said Kennedy's daughter approached him around the same time he had become interested in the matter while helping with work on the book "Breaking News: How The Associated Press Has Covered War, Peace, and Everything Else." The publication of Kennedy's memoir prompted the AP's apology, Curley said.
He called Kennedy's dismissal "a great, great tragedy" and hailed him and the desk editors who put the surrender story on the wire for upholding the highest principles of journalism.
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Censorship and propaganda.
That war could have ended in 1939 had it not been for the traitorous John D Rockefeller and Henry Ford. What a waste of life...needless.
War is a racket.
I see the killing of non-state sanctioned reporters goes way back.
not sure of the point of this story...? The guy agreed to not publish if allowed access... he published anyway. He's a hero? Sounds like a shmuck. I agree with a lot of the comments, but if you give your word, you should keep it. He'd probably do well in todays news corps.
Dissent is what America was founded on.
Looks like he was holding up the values the American people were told the country stood for. Sadly, not only has the state abandoned those values, judging from your comment, it looks like modern day Americans feel the same way.
We are all used to seeing destruction in a third world country. This is for those of you who are unfamiliar with what it looks like in a first world country.
http://www.notesofberlin.com/2015/05/berlin-im-juli-1945-was-fuer-ein-beeindruckendes-zeitdokument.html
Sobering.
Watch this. Hellstorm - Exposing The Real Genocide of Nazi Germany - YouTube
Based on the book of the same name, the documentary was just released on May 1st, 2015. At the conclusion, the author comes on to wrap it up and says "People say they got what they deserved." Is this what people will be saying about America and Americans?
THE AP PAYS IT'S repoters to lie, not to tell the truth.....Just like the rest of the socialist Chosenite media
Why do dumbfuck Americans keep calling Fascists, Socialists? It's a rhetorical question. No need to answer.
Why do dumbfuck Americans keep calling Fascists, Socialists? It's a rhetorical question. No need to answer.
Dissent is to openly disagree. Deceit is to lie or break an oath.
If the deal was a few hours then the army broke the deal by 1. extending the time period and 2. allowing German radio to broadcast it.
Deceit is to lie or break an oath. Or a peace treaty.
Unless he had his fingers crossed.
how many more people would die because they decided to hold off for another 36 hours?? coupe thousand? maybe more? guess those lives wouldnt be weighing on you if you knew the war was over but men were still killing each other believing it was still on. more likely it was so fuckers like the Rothchilds and Rockafellers could sell or buy stocks in either countries markets before the news broke.
News were already on the radio, so...
He might have dodge the issue by simply stating German radio is reporting the surrender - which would not have violated his oath of what he witnessed.
Did you or the 8 people who upvote actually read the article? That was my thought as well until I read where it describes how the military announced it via radio earlier than the agreed-upon time so he then did his job. If we had real journalists like this today, I'm willing to be we would have less assholeage in our government and banking system.
I wonder if he knew Hitler et al. were gone off to Argentina by the time this came down. That would have been a bigger news story. It just goes to show you war is a racket.
From the book Wall Street
http://reformed-theology.org/html/books/wall_street/chapter_04.htm
The Standard Oil group of companies, in which the Rockefeller family owned a one-quarter (and controlling) interest,1 was of critical assistance in helping Nazi Germany prepare for World War II. This assistance in military preparation came about because Germany's relatively insignificant supplies of crude petroleum were quite insufficient for modern mechanized warfare; in 1934 for instance about 85 percent of German finished petroleum products were imported. The solution adopted by Nazi Germany was to manufacture synthetic gasoline from its plentiful domestic coal supplies. It was the hydrogenation process of producing synthetic gasoline and iso-octane properties in gasoline that enabled Germany to go to war in 1940 — and this hydrogenation process was developed and financed by the Standard Oil laboratories in the United States in partnership with I.G. Farben.
Evidence presented to the Truman, Bone, and Kilgore Committees after World War II confirmed that Standard Oil had at the same time "seriously imperiled the war preparations of the United States."2 Documentary evidence was presented to all three Congressional committees that before World War II Standard Oil had agreed with I.G. Farben, in the so-called Jasco agreement, that synthetic rubber was within Farben's sphere of influence, while Standard Oil was to have an absolute monopoly in the U.S. only if and when Farben allowed development of synthetic rubber to take place in the U.S.:
Regrettably, the Congressional committees did not explore an even more ominous aspect of this Standard Oil — I.G. Farben collusion: that at this time directors of Standard Oil of New Jersey had not only strategic warfare affiliations to I.G. Farben, but had other links with Hitler's Germany — even to the extent of contributing, through German subsidiary companies, to Heinrich Himmler's personal fund and with membership in Himmler's Circle of Friends as late as 1944.
What's your point? That it should be a crime for an American company to collaborate with a nation that later goes to war with us? Wouldn't that be an ex post facto law?
Did you miss that last sentence? They were still dealing with the NAZI regime in 1944.
General George S. Patton stated simply: "We fought a wrong enemy!". After it, he was killed in an "accident".
America soldiers were dying fighting for the Zionist banking mafia in the City of London and the Wall Street who brought the Great Depression.
He did not read it.
Why will he challenge his preconceived programming?
That is just too uncomfortable as he will have to admit that it was not a just war.
To me TT, its more like a cynical attempt to brush off the heavy implications of your post and prop up the Good War fantasy / myth we have all been fed. Bernays would approve.
You can downarrow it all that you want.
Even the New York Tines had an expose on this you ignorant fucks. It will not change the truth.
Enjoy some pictures, downarrowing dipshits...
https://images.search.yahoo.com/search/images;_ylt=A0SO8z1oIUxVTKYAMfBXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEyYjJyZzJqBGNvbG8DZ3ExBHBvcwMyBHZ0aWQDQjAwMThfMQRzZWMDc2M-?p=Standard+Oil+and+Nazi+Germany&fr=yfp-t-252
Well played.
No AP "reporter" (state propogandist) would dare do something like that today.
Prescott Bush: Does business with Hitler.
Ronald Reagan: Invites the Taliban into the White House. Calls them "Freedom" fighters. Trades arms to Iran in exchange for them delaying release of Americans.
George H. W. Bush: Does business with the bin Laden family.
Dick Cheney: Sells prohibited items to Saddam through Halliburton's Italian branch.
George W. Bush: Gets memo in August, 2001 entitled 'bin Laden determined to strike in the US using airplanes' and does nothing.
“If my sons did not want wars, there would be none.” Gutle Schnaper RothschildALL wars are bankers wars
Magoo: ALL wars are bankers wars
And the banksters are really after gold, or "Gold Wars."
.
Good point.
STOP NOW ignoring these!
http://showrealhist.com/yTRIAL.html
Back when journalist meant reporting stuff that happened. Not speculating on national television all day, repeating whatever "officials" tell them to say, and torturing the subjunctive to the point of saying nothing for hours on end. And they didn't get their news by Monitoring Twitter feeds and YouTube for people who actually witness things.
USA refused to accept refugees from Europe during ww2.
I don't know where you find this "back when journalist meant reporting stuff that happened"...
USA refused to accept refugees from Europe during ww2.
Ever heard of operation paperclip?
Kind of important.
If my memory serves me, that was AFTER WW2 was already essentially over.
still making saturn motor and 1st step on moon possible by a fucking nazi.
no offence, whole europ shared same ressources on that time..
no need to ask why they let the shit on kiev actually, they are all old friends....
i'm sick of this circus.
Once upon a time news reports looked like technical briefs about events that happened, full of lies and omissions as they were. Nowdays we get to read about some reporter's opinion on the news, and why they are good or bad, and what should be done to prevent/encourage that from happening.
"If you don't read the paper you are uninformed, if you do, you are misinformed." Samuel Clemens
Different now but still the same.
I never heard that quote before. I'm using it.
You may also like : "if voting actually changed anything , they'd make it illegal"
Another winner from mark twain
boobs
Censorship.
Brian Williams was also there.
He was probably giving his hero, Stalin, a rim job.
they should have let the Russians steamroll the German filth all the way to Atlantic Ocean until there was nothing left of them
The European War ended exactly how its financiers wanted it to: Russia with millions upon millions dead, and in possession of all the "treasure" still remaining in Romania, Poland etc.
Operation Overlord's purpose was indeed related to defeating the Nazis, but even more related to keeping the Red Army out of Normandy.
You mean Edward Kennedy actually died BEFORE Chappaquidick?
How Heroic.........
It was the inspiration of Weekend at Bernies!
http://www.sott.net/article/296032-Restoration-of-Historical-Truth-Russi...
The reason: The veteran reporter was accused of breaking a pledge that he and 16 other correspondents had made to keep the surrender secret for a time, as a condition of being allowed to witness it. This was done so Russian dictator Josef Stalin could formally announce the defeat in Berlin.
Rest of the story. Russia win the war when Russian troops took Berlin.
USA and UK bombed Dresden after the end of the WAR, and Czech Republic not long before the end so soviets didn't get plants...
so called "allies" come to Germany before Stalin and demand that General of Russian troops had to sing a win treaty.
You don't know it, because you didn't read BOOKS.
Dresden bombings took place in Feb. '45 (13-15, iirc), which was during the war. Maybe you should pay attention while you're reading.
You should open the books and read about it. You americans are total scum, nothing more
http://www.canada.com/nationalpost/news/issuesideas/story.html?id=d8df4f...
You know nothing about ww2.
From the article you posted:
"And then, beginning on the night of Feb. 13, the most beautiful city in Germany was suddenly set on fire from end to end, by a scientifically designed bombing pattern that swept away its architecture and roasted and melted and buried at least 40,000 of its citizens."
If the date is issue, what am I missing here?
Is Hitchens a liar?
"- Christopher Hitchens is the author, most recently, of Thomas Jefferson:
Author of America.
(Copyright) 2006, News Corporation, Weekly Standard,All Rights Reserved."
Kowali - GFY, ignorant Canuckistanian douche. I read about it when I was a teenager, and I at least understood what I was reading - much unlike you.
What is your point? After wandering the ethical wilderness for 40 years, Hitchens in this article defends the bombing.
'May 9th: Russian Victory, NATO Defeat'
"...Surrender of elements of the German armies in Italy and Austria on May 2nd and German forces in northern Europe, on May 7th, were at first claimed by the western allies to be the official surrender of Germany, and were not recognised as such by the Soviet government, since they were in violation of the agreement of the European Advisory Committee of the three Big Powers, that was finalised in March, 1944. That agreement required that the surrender would be one event, would be of the German government itself, not just of army elements in impossible positions, and was to take place at the seat of government from which German aggression had been launched, Berlin..."
http://bit.ly/1IlgZVn
"With this signature," he said in soft-spoken German..........
"the German people and armed forces are for better or worse delivered into the victor's hands........."
Indeed.
70 Years Later in 2015, Germany ?
"Nuff Said"
I don't trust the government control over what they tell people. It's raining again here in Southern California tonight. It rains every week. Can't wait until this drought ends and I can wear my summer jogging clothes to college. Damn global warming has the Antarctic ice at record levels according to modern technological readings. Any more warming and the entire earth is going to go off balance and shift its spin. We are all going to end up like wooley mamoths with salads frozen in our mouths. War on drugs has been so effective opium production is at record levels. Unemployment has dropped so much there is no one standing out in front of the 7/11s begging for money. The 7/11s have shut down too. Anyhow back to writing my essay on evil during the middle of the 19th century. Glad I don't have to write about truth in the 21st century.
So were going to smear the Allied victory .... with this flap ?
50 years after the guy dies, long enough for everyone to be involved to be dead, the truth comes out and nobody cares.
To suggest however that the same things are going on today will get one labeled a nutjob conspiracy theorist.
Then in fifty years it will turn out they were right and nobody will care.
The reporter was not exactly a dissident. He was angry he would not be the first to relay the news back to the american continent, like Brian Williams did at Waterloo, and knew he had minutes to do so before any of the other reporters were to do so. The story, though, beautifully illustrates a point i made earlier: You can do whatever the hell you want, as long as you are willing to pay a price if caught.
Maybe in 50 years AP will come clean about Obama.
It was a publicity stunt.......Ike wanted a "surrender" in Rheims but only had a minor Red Army officer to hand so cut a deal with the Germans on 7 May to delay it going into effect for 48 hours to allow them to move troops to US captivity and away from the Red Army which continued fighting for 2 more days.
The British had their symbolic "surrender" to Montgomery on Lueneburg Heide which was basically German troops surrendering to 21st Army Group on 4 May.
Stalin had Keitel surrender to Zhukhov 8 May in Berlin
If not for Russia, all of you would be speaking German. :-)
One wonders how many other secrets are out there that won"t be released because those secrets might harm the pharmaceutical industry, the politicians and the military complex.
"..Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Western allies and the Soviet Union.."
Wrong. Germany surrendered unconditionally to the Soviet Union. The Western allies played the background.
?? What were the Soviets doing in Reims, France?
Hehe, Reims, eh? The last try to surrender to the "friends". Unfortunately Stalin said - the surrender act MUST be signed in Berlin. So it was - 9 May 1945 Moscow time. Nail this in your head.
This guy was a whistleblower like Assange and Snowden.
Kudos to them.
By not further delaying the announcement, this reporter saved soldier's lives while politics preferred to sacrifice more.
Whoever was involved in the conspiracy of delaying public announcement of unconditional surrender should be brought up on war crime charges.
"the highest principles of journalism" ha ha ha ha ha ha!
There are no "journalists" anymore. Stories are circulated and copied from one source to another. Just google an event and look at the 100 stories about the same subject from different "sources" of "news" that say the same exact thing to the word. Witness also the TEEVEE news broadcasts that say the same thing to the word--- all reading the script.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TM8L7bdwVaA
The real "biggest scoop of the century" is the Usurper in the White House, of origins unknown. They ignore that one like the plague.
The good guys lost. The white race lost. I lost.
"Germany, which began the war..."
My favorite myth of all time, even more than "they hate us for our freedom"
It was delayed one day to coincide with Harry Trumans birthday, May 8, (1884)