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It is hard to read about the apology extended to Ed Kennedy, an Associated Press correspondent during World War II, and not wish that the 'news' expositors of today had a similar set of balls. The nation is the poorer for their spinelessness.
The AP fired Kennedy after he broke the story of the German surrender on May 7, 1945. Seventeen reporters in a plane flying to the surrender ceremony in Reims were sworn to secrecy as the western allies waited for Stalin to line up his own dog-and-pony show. But when the Germans announced the surrender, Kennedy broke his promise to wait for permission and filed the story, thus beating out the irate competition by 24 hours.
Kennedy was excoriated by some (many in the high flutin' competition) and defended by others.
These days, of course, we have "embedded" reporters who cover wars and other reporters who fear that they will be cut off and ostracized for breaking stories to which the sources attach condition after condition ... until, as today, it is hard not to wonder why the U.S. -- as communist countries around the world have done without blushing -- doesn't rename its media, "The Department of Agitation and Propaganda."
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