The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Conclusion

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

A September 1979 Progressive magazine article by former AP reporter Samuel Day Jr., entitled “A `Clarification’,” revealed “how Westinghouse helped the AP rewrite a nuclear article.” As Progressive magazine noted:

“…A story about a little-known and controversial new atomic reactor began moving on the wires of the Associated Press to newspaper offices across the country on Tuesday, July 3. The story, filed in advance for publication on Sunday, July 15, dealt with an experimental device called the `fast flux test facility [FFTF]’ in the desert of central Washington…The story went on to tell about the big facility that Westinghouse Corporation is building in the sagebrush of the Columbia River Basin to pave the way for the nuclear power plants of the future…There was one thing that neither wire editors nor newspaper readers knew: AP’s report on the problems of Westinghouse’s FFTF had been reviewed, rewritten, and re-edited with the help of the Westinghouse Corporation…The story was revised in New York in consultation with the Seattle bureau, which forwarded a detailed critique by Westinghouse…”

In a 1986 Nation (12/6/86) column, Alexander Cockburn also revealed that AP. apparently attempted to suppress news about the emerging Contragate scandal at the request of Oliver North and/or the Reagan White House. According to Cockburn:

“On March 16, 1985, the AP’s Middle East bureau chief Terry Anderson, was kidnapped in Lebanon…Later that year, two AP reporters based in Washington, Robert Parry and Brian Barger, began investigating shady dealings by the contras and the activities of Oliver North. They amassed damning detail from a multiplicity of sources, including Federal officials indignant at what they perceived to be the Reagan Administration’s complicity in drug trafficking by the contras…

“…Among those aware of Parry and Barger’s research, it was no secret that the two were frustrated by what they considered to be unwarranted and extraordinary caution exercised by their superiors at AP notably by the Washington bureau chief, Charles Lewis…In fact, the story finally put on the wires on January 19 was a shrunken version of earlier drafts, having fallen victim to an editorial prudence that seemed inexplicable. Details were cut, names excised and the story finally put on the wires at the bottom of the news cycle…Oliver North—was in contact with their superiors at AP...As one person working in the Washington bureau at the time remarks: `Lewis insisted on editing the [Parry and Barger] stories while talking to North. That was a clear conflict of interest and he should have been smart enough to step aside.’”

The AP has also apparently not been too interested in transmitting much news over its wires which challenges the accuracy of the U.S. Establishment’s “Report of the President’s Commission On The Assassination of President John F. Kennedy.” The Warren Report, which AP published in the 1960s, contained “an introductory note” by AP Special Correspondent Saul Prett which stated the following:

“Did one unbalanced mind rob us of a President and another, of his murderer? And if we say that and if we see that, are we then close to sensing that the sick of the world, though unknown to each other, may form as dangerous a conspiracy as any political plot from the left or from the right?

“…The Commission was appointed by President Johnson. It was headed by the Chief Justice of the United States, composed of distinguished citizens, and had at its disposal all the investigative resources of a proud government. Here, then, are its answers…”

In the early 1990s, AP still seemed to reflect a pro-U.S. Establishment political bias in its editorial policies. Among the AP-provided news stories New York Newsday printed in its May 18, 1993 issue, for instance, was one headlined “Lawmakers: Clinton’s AIDS, Cancer Research Plan Hurts Other Programs,” which began with the paragraph “President Bill Clinton’s plan to raise spending on AIDS and breast cancer research shortchanges other federally funded research into diseases such as Alzheimer’s, diabetes or strokes, some lawmakers complained last week”—but failed to include any quotations from either AIDS or women’s health activists in the news story.

Downtown telephoned in the early 1990s the then-office of an AP corporate spokesperson named Mike Bass at 50 Rockefeller Plaza in Midtown Manhattan, and attempted to ask him for AP’s official response to the criticism that its news service is editorially-biased. Bass was unavailable for comment, but the AP employee who was screening his calls replied: “Before I can find someone to answer that question, they’ll want to know the name of the person who made this criticism.”

After Downtown replied that U.S. academics involved in media studies like Michael Parenti have made this criticism, the AP employee informed Downtown that AP spokespeople would need to know some specific ways in which their news service was being criticized for being editorially-biased, before they would respond to Downtown’s inquiry.

When Downtown noted that AP has been criticized for slanting its news reports by not interviewing enough of a variety of sources, slanting its coverage of nuclear power issues to please Westinghouse, and slanting its coverage of the Contragate scandal to please the Reagan Administration, the AP employee said she’d try to obtain an official AP response by the end of the day.

But when Downtown telephoned AP at the end of the day, it was again told by another AP employee that no one at AP was available for comment.

So if you’re still waiting for the institutionally racist AP News Trust to use its special influence to provide U.S. newspaper and newspaper website readers, radio listeners and TV viewers with much variety in news items, much investigative reporting about Big Media conglomerates, the super-rich, the CIA and the JFK Assassination Conspiracy, or much daily news about U.S. antiwar and anti-imperialist left radical activists, you may end up waiting a long, long time for the news—despite AP’s extensive network of leased satellite circuits, submarine cables and radio transmissions.

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

 (end of article)

(The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown).

 

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 6

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

The editorial policies of the institutionally racist AP have long been criticized by U.S. antiwar radicals for their pro-U.S. Establishment political biases. In 1912, for instance, U.S. antiwar radical presidential candidate Eugene Debs wrote the following in a letter of protest to the general manager of AP:

“Pardon me if I give you just an instance or two of my personal experience. During the heat of the Pullman strike, when the Pullman cars were under boycott, the Associated Press sent out a dispatch over all the country that I had ridden out of Chicago like a royal prince in a Pullman Palace car while my dupes were left to walk the ties. A hundred witnesses who were at the depot when I left testified that the report was a lie, but I could never get the Associated Press to correct it. This lie cost me more pain and trouble than you can well imagine, and for it all I have to thank the Associated Press, and I have not forgotten it.

“During the last national campaign, at a time when I was away from home, the Associated Press spread a report over the country to the effect that scab labor had been employed to do some work at my home. It was a lie, and so intended. I had the matter investigated by the chief union organizer of the district, who reported that it was a lie, but I was never able to have the correction put upon the wires. That lie is still going to this day, and for that, and still others I could mention, I have also to thank the capitalistically owned and controlled Associated Press.”

After his expose’ of the U.S. meat packing industry in the best-selling 1905 muckraking novel, The Jungle, created some popular pressure for passage of some kind of pure food law, Upton Sinclair attempted to interest AP in sending more news about the unhealthy practices of this industry over the AP wires. But although “The Associated Press was the established channel through which the news was supposed to flow,” according to Upton Sinclair’s The Brass Check, “the channel proved to be a concrete wall…as thick as all the millions of dollars of all the vested interests of America can build it.” According to Sinclair, “I first telephoned, and then sent a letter by special messenger to the proper officials of the Associated Press, but they would have absolutely nothing to do with me or my news” and “Throughout my entire campaign against the Beef Trust, they never sent out a single line injurious to the interests of the packers, save for a few lines dealing with the Congressional hearings, which they could not entirely suppress…”

In a 1937 article, Fortune magazine also noted that in 1926 “an AP reporter, at the insistence of Assistant Secretary of State Olds, wrote a dispatch about the `specter of Mexican-fostered Bolshevik hegemony’ in-between the U.S. and the Panama Canal” which proved to be “a piece of utter claptrap.” Fortune also observed that former Nation publisher Oswald Garrison Villard once declared the AP wire service “constitutionally incapable of doing justice to the underprivileged.”

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

 (end of part 6)

(The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown).

 

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 5

 

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

As Downtown (6/24/92) previously noted, former Watergate Scandal investigative reporter Carl Bernstein, in an unpublicized 1977 Rolling Stone magazine article entitled “The C.I.A. And The Media,” wrote that: “Other organizations which cooperated with the C.I.A. include the American Broadcasting Company [ABC], the National Broadcasting Company [NBC], the Associated Press…”

Like other institutionally racist Big Media organizations,  the institutionally racist AP also has a long history of discrimination against women. A study by Lucy Komisar, cited in Women And The Mass Media by Matilda Butler and William Paisley, revealed that in 1970 at AP there were “no women in management positions and no women heading any of the 38 domestic or 6 foreign bureaus” and at AP’s then-Midtown Manhattan office there were only “7 women out of 52 editors and reporters” in 1970. Women And The Mass Media also noted that in 1972 Time magazine reported that U.S. women were only “11 percent of Associated Press’s nationwide news staff of 1050.”

The same book also revealed that “in 1973, the Wire Services Guild charged the Associated Press [AP] with discriminating against its female and minority members” and that “In May 1978, the EEOC found that AP did discriminate by not recruiting, hiring and promoting women” and “did not hire minorities as newspeople.” Women And The Mass Media also noted that “EEOC data for the end of 1977” showed that “males are 100 percent of the assistant bureau chiefs, 98 percent of the bureau chiefs, 97 percent of the correspondents, 90 percent of the news editors, and 85 percent of the newspeople.”

As late as the early 1990s, about 88 percent of AP’s U.S. bureau chiefs were still male, as were 75 percent of AP’s U.S. correspondents. All but two of the seats on AP’s board of directors were also still filled by men. And AP’s chairman, vice-chairman, president and general manager, as well as its six vice-presidents, were still all men in the early 1990s. 

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

 (end of part 5)

(The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown).

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 4

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

The historical origins of institutionally racist AP go back to 1848 when six Downtown Manhattan daily newspaper publishers, led by New York Herald publisher James Gordon Bennett, decided to share the telegraph costs of news-gathering and, thus, reduce their individual newspaper news-gathering costs. As then-Boston Globe publisher General Taylor said in 1900:

“Mr. Bennett called the other newspaper proprietors together and proposed that they take a [telegraph] report of two hours and divide the expenses. That was the origin of The Associated Press.”

But Bennett, like AP, was never too famous for either the quality of his journalism work or for using the special influence he possessed in the world of Downtown Manhattan journalism to promote equal rights for African-American people and the radical democratization of U.S. society. As The Early Black Press In America, 1827 to 1860 by Frankie Hutton recalled:

“In particular, the New York Herald founded by James Gordon Bennett in 1835, said to be one of the most profitable newspapers of its time, was criticized as being such poor journalism as to `vitiate all correct tastes, corrupt all the social and moral habits, and morally degrade human beings.’ Bennett had no qualms about using violent and sensational news to sell his newspaper…”

And, in his Bennett’s `New York Herald’ and The Rise Of The Popular Press book, James Crouthamel asserts that “Bennett was consistent in defending the rights of the South and its institutions of slavery,, in his belief in Negro inferiority and in his view that the antislavery movement was the major threat” and “consistent with his belief in Negro inferiority Bennett opposed extension of the franchise to blacks and integrated education in the North.”

By the 1870s, around 200 U.S. newspapers were utilizing the AP wire service to secure international news and national news by telegraph for their readers, without having to hire their own national and foreign correspondents. As a result, according to Development of American Journalism by Sidney Kobre, by the 1870s “control of the wire service meant that someone might shape the thinking of newspaper readers everywhere.” And, in fact, during this period “a handful of men in charge of the monopoly” apparently fabricated AP news on occasion whenever it dealt with politics, economics or other controversial issues, according to AP, The Story Of News by Oliver Gramling.

Around this time, the original Downtown Manhattan newspaper publishers-dominated AP began calling itself “United Press.” Later in the 19th-century, a competing news-gathering wire service organization—the Associated Press [AP] of Illinois—was established by rival Midwestern newspaper publishers which came to replace the original AP/”United Press” organization. As a result, in 1893 the Associated Press [AP] of Illinois was reorganized as a national press association, with the name of “Associated Press [AP],” under a revised set of rules. Following an adverse Illinois court decision, the AP was again reorganized as a New York-chartered non-profit cooperative in 1900.

Between 1900 and the early 1940s, “nearly all newspapers which took membership in it were guaranteed that no newspaper that might later be established in their respective cities would be permitted to join the national Associated Press without the consent of The Associated Press members in those cities” and “the promise of exclusivity was considered by all members to be a `franchise’ and that is what they called it…,” according to Kent Cooper And The Associated Press: An Autobiography. Led by newspaper publisher E.W. Scripps, however, those newspaper publishers who were denied the right to print AP news because a local A.P.-affiliated competing newspaper already held the AP “franchise” in their cities organized a competing news agency wire service in the U.S.—United Press—in the early 20th century.

But after the AP board of directors refused to allow the Chicago Sun to join the AP and publish AP-furnished news in Chicago in the early 1940s, the Department of Justice finally prosecuted the AP for violating the Sherman Anti-Trust Act. A federal court then found AP guilty and the AP News Trust’s board of directors was forced to discontinue its policy of allowing AP-affiliated newspapers to monopolize the printing of AP-furnished news items in each U.S. city. In the early 1940s, the AP also began to furnish its regular news report to radio stations, instead of just to newspaper subscribers.

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

The Ochs-Sulzberger Dynasty’s New York Times apparently relied heavily on its AP-provided copy during the early part of the 20th century, before it became as lucrative a media operation as it was in the 1990s. According to former AP Executive Director Kent Cooper, New York Times 1990's publisher Sulzberger’s great-grandfather—Adolph Ochs—once said the following with regard to AP:

“I owe more loyalty to the Associated Press than I can express. For when I bought the New York Times, with its Associated Press membership, I had no money left with which to buy special correspondence. So the New York Times reached prosperity practically on The Associated Press news service alone. Though we now spend a great deal for our own specials, The Associated Press still remains our prime reliance. Therefore, for the property value the New York Times has now become, I owe most to the Associated Press."

In the late 1950s, AP’s United Press competitor in the U.S. took over the Hearst media empire’s International News Service to form United Press International [UPI]. But by 1985, UPI was facing financial bankruptcy, in part “because the AP reaped so much more revenue from newspapers it could engage in never-ending price wars to woo away UPI. broadcast clients,” according to Down To The Wire: UPI’s Fight For Survival by Gergory Gordon and Ronald Cohen. The same book also noted that “as UPI. had shriveled AP had grown, its budget soaring toward $300 million a year.” And as the New York Times (8/26/91) also noted, in 1991 UPI was again on the verge of bankruptcy due, in part, to the “competition from AP” which had “squeezed UPI’s revenues”—until the Saudi royal family decided to purchase UPI in 1992.

 (end of part 4)

 The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown).

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 3

 

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

In the 1990s, among the Big Media representatives who sat next to each other on the institutionally racist AP board of directors to discuss how AP could best serve as a tool of their supposedly competing Big Media enterprises were the following wealthy people:

New York Times Company Director and Chattanooga Times Publisher Ruth Sulzberger Holberg;

Newhouse Media Conglomerate Advance Publications/Newark Star-Ledger/Parade magazine/Vogue/Conde’ Nast/New Yorker Owner Donald Newhouse;

Times-Mirror/Newsday Vice-Chairman and Los Angeles Times Publisher W.Thomas Johnson;

Knight-Ridder/Philadelphia Inquirer Chairman of the Board James Batten;

Cincinnati Enquirer Chairman of the Board and Fifth Third Bancorp director William Keating;

WJTV Broadcasters of Mississippi Chairman and United Missouri Bancorp Director David Bradley;

Providence Journal President and Director Stephen Hamblett; and

Hibernia Corp./Hibernia National Bank of New Orleans and South Central Bell-Birmingham Director Joe Dorsey Smith. Jr.

[And in 2007, the AP board of directors then included the following wealthy folks:

MediaNews Group Vice-Chairman and CEO William Dean Singleton;

McClatchy Company Chairman, President and CEO Gary Pruitt;

Chicago Tribune Company Chairman, President and CEO Dennis FitzSimons;

Hearst Corporation President and CEO Victor Ganzi;

Arkansas Democrat-Gazette Publisher Walter Hussman Jr.;

New York Times Regional Media Group President and CEO Mary Jacobus;

Washington Post Publisher and CEO “Bo” Jones;

Lee Enterprises Inc. President and CEO Mary Junck;

E.W. Scripps Company President and CEO Kenneth Lowe;

Gannett Company Retired Chairman Douglas McCorkindale;

Newhouse Media Conglomerate/AdvanceNet Chairman Steven Newhouse;

ABC News President David Westin; and

Cox Newspapers President Jay Smith. ]

Although the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service and the New York Times Service were supposedly set up to compete with A.P. for media outlet subscribers and readers, representatives of the parent companies of both the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service and the New York Times Service also sat on the A.P. board of directors, ironically. And, coincidentally, neither the Washington Post-Los Angeles Times News Service nor the New York Times Service has apparently been too eager to provide their subscribers with news that is too critical of the A.P. News Trust’s special influence. 

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

[In 2020, the AP now includes the following wealthy folks:

Newhouse Media Conglomerate Advance Publications Director and Senior Executive Officer Michael Newhouse, who also sits on the board of Charter Communications (which owns Spectrum Networks);

Hearst Media Conglomerate President, CEO and Director Steven R. Swartz (whose media conglomerate owns 33 television stations and at least three daily newspapers/newspaper websites);

E.W. Scripps Company Vice-Chairman Richard A. Boehne (whose media conglomerate owns 60 local television stations);

Gannett Company/TEGIA Inc. Media Conglomerate Former President and Director and Wellesley College Trustee Gracia C. Martore, who also sits on the corporate board of FM Global and the corporate advertising industry's Omnicom Group;

Graham Media Group President and CEO Emily L. Barr (whose media firm owns 7 television stations), who also is the National Association of Broadcasters Chairperson for Television; and

Cox Media Group Former President Bill Hoffman (whose former media conglomerate owns 3 newspapers and around 86 radio stations), who also is a  member of the National Association of Broadcasters TV, ABC News and the Zionist movement's Anti-Defamation League [ADL] Southern Region boards as well as the current president of Hoffmann Communications Inc.]

(end of part 3)

(The following article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown. )

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 2

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

The son of Ohio Democratic Congressional Representative George Cooper—Ken Cooper—was institutionally racist AP’s general manager and executive director for much of the first half of the 20th Century. In his 1959 autobiography, Kent Cooper And The Associated Press, AP’s former executive director also referred to AP’s special influence by observing that “there is no other organization on earth whose product touches the daily lives of so many people as does that of the Associated Press” and that AP news was being distributed by “several thousand newspapers, radio and television stations” by the late 1950s.

By the 1980s, The International News Services by Jonathan Fenby estimated that “1500 newspapers and 5700 broadcasting stations” distributed AP news in the United States and about 8850 foreign media organizations also were the recipients of AP-provided news. The same book also noted that “The AP’s radio and television members get two services: a special news wire edited and written for broadcasters and an audio service of voice reports and sound recordings.” In 1988, Introduction To Mass Communications also revealed that “The Associated Press…collects and distributes news in 108 countries” and “more than 1500 news staff members serve AP around the world in 222 news bureaus.”

 In 1991, the World Book Encyclopedia estimated that AP was collecting and distributing news in six languages to media outlets in 115 countries. To supply AP news rapidly to its affiliated newspapers and broadcasters, AP “uses an extensive network of leased satellite circuits, submarine cables and radio transmissions,” according to The World News Prism by William Hachten.

One reason why institutionally racist AP doesn’t often send news that is too critical of either other institutionally racist Big Media institutions, or the people who own Big Media outlets, over its wires is that AP is controlled by Big Media owners—not by AP employees, newspaper or news website readers, radio listeners or TV viewers. AP-affiliated newspaper owners and broadcasters in the U.S. elect a board of 18 directors from among Big Media owners and this AP board of directors appoints AP’s chief executives. In 1937, Fortune magazine also noted that “in corporate matters—the allotment of assessments, the hours that members shall be allowed to publish editions containing AP news, the quarrels between members—the board’s decision is final” and “It acts as both judge and jury.”

The AP board of directors “has summary authority to cut off the news report, or recommend expulsion, or impose fines” on AP members and “In past years the board’s fines have totaled as much as $2,000 at a single meeting, ranging from $10 to $15 against small papers and up to $1,000 against the rich ones,” according to Fortune. The same magazine also revealed that by 1937 “at least half of the AP’s membership has thus been disciplined at one time or another.”

Fortune described how AP’s board of directors functioned in the 1930's:

 

“The Directors meet in a paneled room on the seventh floor of the AP headquarters in New York City, soundproofed from the quarter of an acre of chattering printers on the floor below. Eighteen chairs are ranged around three sides of a long rectangular oak table and in front of each is a heavy brass ash tray. Nine months a year the chairs stand empty; but for two or three days in January, April and October they are occupied by the directors—the most imposing group of men in U.S. journalism…No cabinet or council anywhere sits with more gravity or with a deeper consciousness of authority.”

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

In the early 20th Century, a researcher named Kittle “made a study of the members of the AP’s board of directors and found that 14 of them were `conservative or ultra-conservative’” publishers whose papers were “huge commercial ventures, connected by advertising and in other ways with banks, trusts, companies, railways and city utility companies, department stores and manufacturing enterprises” and which “reflect the system which supports them,” according to The Brass Check by Upton Sinclair.

And in his 1959 autobiography, former AP executive director Kent Cooper wrote that “some newspapers are indeed owned by copper mining companies, by railroad companies, newsprint and a wide variety of other manufacturers, by bankers, politicians, oil companies, church organizations and men of great wealth who have wanted to own newspapers to satisfy their ego or just for the fun of it” and “such diversified interests are joined into one group under the name of The Associated Press.”

Among the Big Media owners who sat on the AP board of directors together during the first half of the 20th Century were the publishers of the supposedly competing New York Times, Atlanta Constitution, Washington Star, Baltimore Sun, Philadelphia Bulletin, St. Louis Globe-Democrat, Spokane Spokesman, Minneapolis Tribune, Cleveland Plain-Dealer, Chicago Tribune, and Des Moines Register & Tribune.

(end of part 2) (This article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown)

The AP News Trust's Pre-1990's Hidden History Revisited: Part 1

 

Wikicommons photo by Alterego

“The dominant and largest institution in the world news system is AP, a cooperative owned mainly by American newspapers…AP’s central role is undisputed. By the agency’s count, more than a billion people have daily access to AP news…”

The World News Prism by William Hachten in 1987

“While having an abundance of numbers and giving an appearance of diversity, the mass media actually are highly centralized outlets that proffer a remarkably homogenized fare.”

Inventing Reality by Michael Parenti in 1986

“If there is in this country a strictly capitalist class institution it is the Associated Press.”

Eugene Debs in 1912

Although the Big Media newspapers, radio news departments and television stations are supposed to be competing with each other, the same news headlines and major news items usually appear in every U.S. Establishment newspaper, news website, radio newscast or TV news show each day.

One reason it often appears that one organization, alone, decides which items are most newsworthy is that one organization—the institutionally racist Associated Press [AP] sends over its wire service much of the copy which Big Media newspapers re-print or repost on websites and U.S. radio and TV announcers read over the airwaves.

Since every Big Media member of the AP News Trust receives the same copy of news headlines and news items from the AP’s wire service, news junkies who wish to receive some variety in their daily news coverage are not likely to find too much variety (unless they surf around alternative media blogs and web sites on the internet)—no matter which AP-affiliated daily newspaper or newspaper website they pick up or which AP-affiliated radio or TV station they switch on.

The special influence of AP has long been recognized by alternative U.S. journalists. As the early 20th-century muckraking writer Upton Sinclair wrote in his 1921 book, The Brass Check: A Study of American Journalism:

“There is the problem of the Associated Press, the most powerful and most sinister monopoly in America. Certainly there will be no freedom in America, neither journalistic freedom nor political freedom until the monopoly of the Associated Press is broken; until the distribution of the news to American newspapers is declared a public utility under public control…"

Sinclair also observed that when the bohemian radical Downtown Manhattan magazine Masses “published a cartoon representing the president of the Associated Press as pouring a bottle labeled `Poison’ into a reservoir entitled `Public Opinion’ in the early 20th Century, “The Associated Press caused the arrest of Max Eastman and Art Young on a charge of criminal libel” and AP then “issued an elaborate statement attacking the Masses and defending their own attitude toward the news, which statement was published in practically every paper in New York.”

Victor Rosewater also noted in his 1930 book, History of Cooperative News-Gathering In The United States, that “the accusation most obstinately pursuing the Associated Press has been that it was a gigantic news monopoly, immunizing members against competition even while ruling them with a high hand…”

In a 1937 article, Fortune magazine characterized AP as “a cooperative for the transfer of news, some which it gathers itself, a little of which comes from the outside by exchanging arrangements, but the great bulk of which it draws directly from the 1,300 dailies…that make up its membership."

Fortune also noted that “after sorting, rewriting and editing, the AP parcels this news supply back among the 1,300 members (of whom fully 1,000 are wholly dependent on it for outside news) which then display it to some 35,000,000 people…of the 38,000,000 in the U.S. who buy daily newspapers” and “thus the AP might be called a clearinghouse.” The sorted, rewritten and edited news supply which AP wires back to its affiliated newspapers is then usually re-printed “under familiar (AP) logotype in the date lines,” according to Fortune.

Associated Press/AP Board of Directors in 21st-century

(end of part 1)

(This article originally appeared in the July 7, 1993 issue of the now-defunct Lower East Side alternative weekly, Downtown)

Fidel Castro's 1994 Characterization of U.S. Political System Revisited

Former Cuban President Fidel Castro and supporters in 1994

In a January 28, 1994 speech in Havana--which the U.S. corporate media wasn't too interested in broadcasting--then-Cuban President Fidel Castro described the U.S. Power Elite's two-party political system in the following way:

"The United States also has one party, because the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are more alike than two drops of water.

"The empire is a single-party structure...The empire's role of world police is determined by a single-party structure. Just look at what's happening now, in 1994, now that the cold war is over and there's no socialist bloc, the Pentagon's funds haven't been touched, its budget hasn't been cut by so much as a red cent. Why else would it need such enormous armed forces if not to act as a world police force, if not to intervene worldwide. It's crystal-clear; the U.S. government cuts everything but the defense budget. It is truly incredible, completely bereft of logic, and after it has said the cold war is over. It looks like it is getting ready for a hot war against the Third World countries. That's why it wants military bases all over the place, because it wants to intervene everywhere..."

In the same speech, Castro also asserted that "because Cuba stands firm, because Cuba defends its sovereignty, because Cuba defends its independence, Cuba must be punished, blockaded, starved into surrender, blown up from within, so as to wipe out even the memory of Cuba because the U.S. government won't forgive Cuba for the way our heroic people have stood firm for the last 35 years." Castro also complained in 1994 that "they invade us through their mass media, they make us see not what we are interested in seeing but what they want us to see" and "through the transnational news agencies they control almost all the news and they give their self-interested versions of what is happening in the world." 

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Conclusion

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In an October 19, 1945, headlined "Germans Indicted In Massacre Of 11,000 Poles In Katyn Forest," for example, the New York Times reported that "if the" July 1941 "crime was committed after the date when the Germans overran their last resting place it could not have been committed by the Russians" and "the Germans overran the Katyn Forest in 1941."

Then in a March 12, 1946 article, headlined "Pravda Denounces Churchill's Speech As Threat Of War," the New York Times reported that the then-Soviet Union's Pravda newspaper declared in an editorial:

"What does the proposal of Churchill come to? The formation of an Anglo-American military alliance that would assure Anglo-American rule throughout the world...and make a policy of force the dominant factor in the development of the world...

"...Churchill convulsively grabs for the coat-tails of Uncle Sam...in the hope that an Anglo-American military alliance would enable the British Empire, although in the role of a junior partner, to continue the policy of imperialist expansion..."

But in its October 16, 1946 issue, the New York Times printed an article about what eventually happened to some of the Nuremberg Trial defendants, following their convictions of war crimes and crimes against humanity, headlined "Goering Ends Life By Poison, Ten Others Hanged;" and which included the following names of the ten German war criminals who were hanged: "Joachim von Ribbentrop, former Foreign Minister; Field Marshal Gen. Wilhelm Keitel, chief of the German High Command; Ernst Kaltenbrunner, head of the Gestapo; Alfred Rosenberg, Minister for Occupied Territories; Hans Frank, who led in the killing of thousands of Poles; Wilhelm Frick, former Minister of the Interior; Julius Streicher, leader of Nazi anti-Semitism; Fritz Sauckel, director of the German General Staff; Col. Gen. Alfred Jodl, head of the German General Staff; and Arthur Seyss-Inquart, who sold out Austria..."

And in a December 12, 1948 article, headlined "Tojo And 6 Others Hanged By Allies As War Criminals," the New York Times listed the following names of the Japanese war criminals who were hanged: Hideki Tojo, former dictator of Japan; Koki Hirota, former Premier of Japan; General Kenji Doihara; General Iwane Matsui; General Akira Muto; Seishiro Itagati, former War Minister; and General Hitaro Kimwa. (end of article)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 9

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In a February 14, 1945 article, headlined "RAF Hits Dresden Heavy Night Blow," for example, the New York Times reported that "The RAF...sent 1,400 aircraft over Germany last night and delivered a smashing blow to Dresden in support of the Red Army's drive on that city;" and in a February 17, 1945 article, the New York Times also noted that "The German-controlled Scandinavian Telegraph Bureau said today that 70,000 persons had been killed in this week's Allied bombings of Dresden."

Then, on March 16, 1945, the New York Times published an article that was headlined "Giant Tokyo Fires Blackened B-29's;  while on April 13, 1945, the New York Times published an article that was headlined "President Roosevelt Is Dead." And on May 1, 1945, the New York Times published an article headlined "Mussolini and Mistress Hang."

But in a May 2, 1945 article, headlined "Hitler Dead In Chancellery, Nazis Say Admiral In Charge," the New York Times next reported that "Grand Admiral Karl Doenitz, proclaiming himself the new Fuehrer by Hitler's appointment, said that the war would continue."

In a May 8, 1945 article the New York Times next reported that 4 million were killed at Oswiecim in Poland from 1939 to 1944 according to the Soviet Union's Extraordinary State Commission's findings. And around five weeks before Democratic U.S. President Harry S. Truman ordered the U.S. war machine to drop atomic bombs on civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki in early August 1945, the New York Times published an article on July 2, 1945 which indicated in its headline that in Japan "4,000 Tons Of Fire Missiles Bring Ruin To Four Enemy Cities." (end of part 9)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 8

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate..

On August 11, 1943, for example, in an article headlined "Russia Still Asks For Second Front," the New York Times reported that "many believe Allies have the power to open big drive, yet are not willing to do so;" while a September 16, 1943 article in the New York Times was headlined "Mussolini `Sets Up New Kind of Regime'."

Then, on May 7, 1944, the New York Times published an article headlined "Gandhi's Release Widely Approved."

An article, written in Geneva, Switzerland by Daniel T. Brigham, headlined "Inquiry Confirms Nazi Death Camps: 1,715,000 Jews Said To Have Been Put To Death By Germans" (which may not have been featured much on the front page of the NYC-based newspaper) was also published in the New York Times on July 3, 1944.

Then, on July 21, 1944, the New York Times printed an article headlined "Fuehrer `Bruised;' Bomb Wounds 13 State Officers, One Fatality;" and on July 23, 1944, a New York Times article was headlined "Red Army Drives Show No Signs Of Flagging; German Debacle Worse Than That Of Russians In First Month Of War."

In its August 6, 1944 issue, the New York Times next printed an article headlined "Partisans Claim Much of Warsaw."

But on October 4, 1944, the New York Times published an article headlined "Warsaw Gives Up After 63-Day Fight Losses Put Above 300,000."  (end of part 8)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited; Part 7

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In a June 13, 1942 article, for example, headlined "Gandhi Seeks To Oust U.S.-British Forces," the New York Times reported from New Delhi, India that "Mohandas K. Gandhi is about to unleash a large-scale `quit India' campaign in which American as well as British forces will be urged to get out of India immediately." And in an August 9, 1942 article, headlined "21 Seized In India," the New York Times reported that "Mohandas K. Gandhi and other Indian Nationalist leaders were arrested today within a few hours after the All-India Congress party had approved a resolution authorizing a mass campaign of civil disobedience to support its demands for immediate Indian independence."

Then, in a November 25, 1942 article by Jame MacDonald, a London-based reporter (that may not have been emphasized on the front page of the New York City-based newspaper), headlined "Himmler Program Kills Polish Jews: Slaughter Of 250,000 In Plan To Wipe Out Half In Country This Year Is Reported," the New York Times stated:

"...Polish authorities gave out statistics showing that up to Oct. 1 [1942] about 250,000 Polish Jews had been killed under the Himmler program, put into effect this year...Declaring that the Nazi program to reduce the number of Jews in Poland by 50 per cent this year was a `first-step toward complete liquidation,' the report said:

"`...The Germans have mobilized a special battalion under the command of S.S. men...The victims when caught are driven to a square where old people and cripples are selected, taken to a cemetery and shot there...The remainder are loaded into goods trucks [freight cars] at a rate of 150 to a truck that normally holds 40...The doors are sealed...

"`Whenever the trains arrive half the people are dead. Those surviving are sent to special camps at Treblinka, Belzec and Sobibar [in Southeastern Poland]. Once there the so-called settlers are mass-murdered...'"

And on December 18, 1942 the New York Times published an article headlined "11 Allies Condemn Nazi War On Jews: United Nations Issue Joint Declaration Of Protest On `Cold-Blooded Extermination;'" while on February 11, 1943 the New York Times pushed an article headlined "Gandhi Starts Fast To Protest Arrest."

On March 2, 1943, the New York Times then published an article, headlined "Save Doomed Jews, Huge Rally Pleads: 21,000 Filled Madison Square Garden Rally, in which it reported that a message was read from Chief Rabbi J.H. Hertz of Great Britain at this rally which said:

"It is appalling to think that whole of mid-European Jewry stands on brink of annihilation and that millions of Jewish men, women and children have already been slaughtered with fiendish cruelties which baffle belief, but equally appalling is the fact that those who proclaim the Four Freedoms have so far done very little to secure even the freedom to live for 6,000,000 of their Jewish fellow  men by readiness to rescue those who might still escape Nazi torture and butchery..."

Then March 3, 1943, the New York Times published an article headlined "Gandhi Fast Ends, Aim Not Achieved;" and on July 26, 1943 the New York Times published an article headlined "Mussolini Ousted With Fascist Cabinet." (and of part 7)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 6

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In a December 5, 1941 article, headlined "Australia Girds For Pacific War," for example, the New York Times reported from Melbourne, Australia that "a War Cabinet meeting in which service chiefs participated has completed comprehensive plans to put Australia on a new emergency footing if war spreads to the Pacific."

And in a December 7, 1941 article, headlined "Japanese Herald `Supreme Crisis': U.S. Is Held Aggressive, Press Intimates Efforts For Negotiated Settlement May Soon Be Abolished," the New York Times reported that "Japan indicated early today that she was on the verge of abandoning efforts to achieve a settlement of Pacific issues by diplomatic negotiation at Washington."

Then in a December 8, 1941 article, headlined "Tokyo Acts First," the New York Times noted that "Japan went to war against the United States and Britain today with air and sea attacks against Hawaii, followed by a formal declaration of hostilities."

But in another December 8, 1941 article, headlined "Japan Wars On U.S. And Britain: Makes Sudden Attack On Hawaii," the New York Times stated:

"Sudden and unexpected attack on Pearl Harbor and other United States possessions in the Pacific early yesterday by the Japanese air force and navy plunged the United States and Japan into active war...There were unconfirmed reports that German raiders participated in the attacks...The news of these surprise attacks fell like a bombshell on Washington. President Roosevelt immediately ordered the country and the Army and Navy onto a full war footage...

"...The White House took over control of the bulletins, and the Navy Department, therefore, said it could not discuss the matter or answer any questions how the Japanese were able to penetrate the Hawaiian defenses or appear without previous knowledge of their presence in those waters..."

And in a third December 8, 1941 article, headlined "Hull Denounces Tokyo `Infamy': Brands Japan `Fraudulent' In Preparing Attack While Carrying On Parleys, the New York Times stated:

"Japan was accused by Secretary of State Hull of making a `treacherous and utterly unprovoked attack' upon the United States and of having been `infamously false and fraudulent' by preparing for the attack while conducting diplomatic negotiations with the professed desire of maintaining peace.

"But even before he knew of that attack, Mr. Hull had vehemently brought the diplomatic negotiations to a virtual end with an outburst against Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura, the Japanese Ambassador, and Saburo Kurusi, special envoy, because of the...reply they delivered to his document of November 26...

"...Japan charged that the United States was `conspiring' with Great Britain in the Far East...The document revealed definitely that the Japanese Premier had sought to meet President Roosevelt last August [1941] for a conference, but that this was refused..."

Then, in a June 8, 1942 article, headlined "West Coast Finishes Removing Japanese; 100,000 Sent Inland, Leaving Only The Incapacitated," the New York Times reported that "except for a handful of ill or otherwise incapacitated persons and a still smaller number considered irreplaceable in their work, not one of about 100,000 Japanese remained at liberty today in that roughly 150 mile-wide strip of the three coast states and Arizona which was their home when war began..." (end of part 6)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 5

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In its July 27, 1941 issue, for example, the New York Times published an article from Tokyo, dated July 26,1941, by Otto Touschus which stated:

"Within a few hours after President Roosevelt's order freezing Japanese assets and credits in the United States was announced, the Japanese Government retaliated by freezing the assets and credits of American and Philippine nations and corporations within the Japanese Empire...Therewith...has begun an open economic war between the United States and the British Empire on the one hand and the Japanese Empire...It risks, in the words of the ultra-nationalist Nicki Nichi...but `one step from armed warfare.'...As regards the American and British freezing orders, it is generally admitted here that it is bound to have a crippling effect on Japan's trade..."

And in a September 21, 1941 article, headlined "Aim Of President Is War, Nye Says," the New York Times stated:

"Senator Gerald P. Nye appealed last night to `all loyal Americans' to oppose President Roosevelt's foreign policy program...on the grounds that it represented a deliberate attempt by the President and British leaders to involve this country against its will in the war...."

Then, in a November 1, 1941 article, headlined "Reuben James Hit: First American Warship Lost In War Torpedoed West Of Iceland," the New York Times stated:

"The United States lost its first warship in the Battle of the Atlantic when the destroyer Reuben James was torpedoed and sunk last night west of Iceland while on convoy duty...Forty-four members of the crew had been rescued. It was without word, however, as to the fate of the other members of the crew of 120 officers and men which make up her complement..."

And on November 5, 1941, the New York Times published an article headlined "Japanese Ask U.S. To Reverse Stand Or Face Conflict."

But in a November 12, 1941 article, headlined "President Warns Nation Is Facing World War Again," the New York Times reported that "President Roosevelt declared in his address that this country may be forced by Germany into another war..."

Then on December 1, 1941, the New York Times published an article headlined "U.S. Principles Rejected By Japanese As `Fantastic.'"

Yet in a December 4, 1941 article, headlined "Singapore Doubts Japanese Threats: Arrival Of The British Fleet Is Expected To Cause Tokyo To Order General Retreat," the New York Times stated:

"Political observers here say the arrival of the British fleet brought powerful new pressure on the Japanese in connection with the Washington negotiations and believe it may be decisive in forcing Japan to drop her plans for new aggressions and to begin a general retreat."  (end of part 5)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 4

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

Seven weeks before German Imperialism's Nazi war machine invaded the Soviet Union on June 22, 1941, for example, the New York Times published an article, from Berne, Switzerland and dated May 1, 1941 by Daniel T. Brigham, headlined "Russia Reported Bolstering Lines: Said To Be Increasing Forces In Ukraine, Poland And Estonia Against Reich," which stated:

"...Russia was reported here today to be taking extensive steps for the immediate bolstering of already strong Soviet forces in the Ukraine, Poland and Estonia in preparation for a worsening of Russian-German relations in the near future, which, it is said, might even lead to war...Russian apprehension is further heightened by an increasingly acrimonious tone in the Axis press in reference to the Soviet Union..."

Then, in a May 28, 1941 article, headlined "A Call To Nation: President Takes Step Permitted Only When War Threatens," the New York Times stated:

"President Roosevelt tonight proclaimed that `an unlimited national emergency exists,'...The United States, he declared, will not permit Germany to dominate the high seas...

"The President...stated that, with further American naval units transferred...to the Atlantic, this government intended to assure war supplies reaching Britain...`The delivery of needed supplies to Britain is imperative,' he declared. `This can be done; it must be done; it will be done.'..."

And in an article from Ankara, Turkey that was dated May 29, 1941, headlined "Nazi Troops Pouring To Russian Borders" and published, 23 days before German imperialist troops attacked the Soviet Union, on May 30, 1941, the New York Times stated:

"Further confirmation was received from diplomatic sources today that the German High Command is withdrawing German troops from the Balkans and concentrating a formidable army on the Russian frontier in Rumania and Poland..."

Then, on June 14, 1941, Daniel T. Brigham sent another article from Berne, Switzerland, headlined "Clash Is Expected Soon, Germans Are Expected to Attack," that the New York Times published on June 15, 1941 (a week before the Soviet Union was attacked) which stated that "indications point to military action, probably along the Russian-German dividing line in Poland, within the next 10 days."

Yet a June 17, 1941 article by Walter Duranty was headlined "Soviet-Nazi Deal Held More Likely Than Clash Despite Rumours" by the New York Times; although part of this New York Times article stated:

"...I have just received an uncensored letter from a competent friend in Moscow, dated April 27 [1941], stating:

"`Various indications are that the Germans intend eastward action in June [1941]. Many folks here now take it very seriously.'...

"There are other items that appear to herald a speedy Russsian-German clash...The presence of German troops in Finland is admitted..."

And in a June 22, 1941 article from Ankara, Turkey that was written by C.L. Sulzberger on June 21, 1941 and headlined "Big Armies Mass On `Eastern Front': All Along Russian Frontiers Troop Movements Suggest Clash May Be Near," the New York Times stated:

"For some time rumors have circulated setting the actual date for war's outbreak...German troops have been filing through Slovakia from the West...Sano Mach, the Minister of Interior, announced at Bratislava that a `German liberation' of the Ukraine was imminent..."

Then, in a July 9, 1941 article written by its London reporter and headlined "Litvinoff Exhorts Britain To Invade: Former Commissar In A Radio Plea From Moscow Advises Quick Drive On Reich," the New York Times stated:

"In a radio appeal by Maxim Litvinoff, Russia tonight urged Great Britain to hurl her full weight against Germany in the West while the Red Army withstood the shock of the Nazi war machine in the East and thus force Adolf Hitler to wage war on two fronts.

"The former Soviet Foreign Commissar and longtime foe of the fascist dictators, implying that the moment was ripe for a British invasion of the Continent, said that the battle of Russia was forcing Herr Hitler to `withdraw more and more forces from the West to the East.'..." (end of part 4)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 3

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In a July 21, 1940 article, for example the New York Times stated: 

"...If Great Britain can withstand Nazi attempts at conquest in the coming weeks until uncertain weather begins, United States production of all types of material and munitions for modern warfare will be sufficiently increased by spring to give the British tremendous, and perhaps decisive, supply aid, high Administration circles stated today...By May 10 of next year [1941], it will be possible to sell the British enough to meet their needs...With the Nazis threatening Great Britain, this country must spend every cent it can for defense as quickly as possible..."

And in a September 4, 1940 article, the New York Times stated:

"...Fifty United States destroyers were coming to help Great Britain...The British fleet at one stroke acquired fifty 1,200-ton destroyers as an offset to the 30 lost since the beginning of hostilities.

"These destroyers are badly needed at this stage of the war...The most open indication yet of Anglo-American cooperation...It provides timely reinforcement of the British Navy in the task of maintaining control of the Atlantic..."

But in a November 1, 1940 article, headlined "Nehru Seized In India For Pacifist Speech," the New York Times stated:

"Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru, former president of the Indian Congress party, was arrested near Allahabad this evening after a meeting with Mohandas K. Gandhi.

"He was one of two men chosen by Mr. Gandhi to make anti-war speeches as part of the plan of limited civil disobedience...Pandit Nehru was arrested under the Defense of India Rules, charged with delivering an objectionable speech at Gorakhpur recently..."

Then, in a November 18, 1940 article, headlined "First Drafted Men Enter Army Today," the New York Times reported that "the Army will get its first drafted men tomorrow, two months and two days after President Roosevelt signed the Selective Service and Training Bill..."

Yet in a November 27, 1940 article, the New York Times noted:

"Admiral Kichisaburo Nomura...said today there was no issue between Japan and the United States that could not be solved without recourse to war...`There are few--if any--Japanese who want war with the United States.'...He said he viewed any possible United States embargo upon Japan as 'dangerous'..."

But in a February 16, 1941 article by Dean Dinwoody, headlined "Lease-Lend Bill Extends Wide Power Of President," the New York Times stated:

"Under the Constitution, the President has two great powers legislation cannot affect...:

"To conduct the foreign relations of the United States;

"To act as Commander-in-Chief...

"The latter power places in the President the supreme command over all the country's military forces and the sole authority to direct and employ these forces in time of peace and war. This authority of the President, however, is dependent upon the exercise by Congress of its complementary constitutional powers `to raise and support armies,' and `to provide and maintain a navy.'

"The constitutional power of the President to conduct foreign relations also is an exclusive power...which the administration is utilizing in support of its lease-lend bill..." (end of part 3)

`New York Times' Coverage of 1932 to 1948 History Revisited: Part 2

Between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times newspaper claimed to always be providing its readers with accurate information about what was going on during the 1932 to 1948 period of world history. But between 1932 and 1948, the New York Times sometimes printed articles that turned out to be historically accurate; and sometimes also printed articles that turned out to be historically inaccurate.

In a November 22, 1939 article, headlined "Gandhi Warns Britain On India's Role," for example, the New York Times noted that "Mohandas K. Gandhi told Britain bluntly today that...they could not participate in the" then-inter-imperialist "war against Germany unless they obtained in return `complete freedom for India...'" from being ruled by UK imperialism's government. And in a January 5, 1940 article (that, perhaps, may not have been featured on the New York City newspaper's front page), headlined "Jews Lay Torture To Nazis In Poland," the New York Times stated:

"...Jewish sources cite excerpts from reports by the German police in Lodz itself--excerpts, Jews say, that have been printed in the Schlesiche Zeitung of Breslau. The police are quoted as saying there have been wholesale executions in Lodz and at least 100 Jews shot. The German police, it is added, reported that 1,000 Jews surrounded a synagogue when the police wanted to search it and hundreds were killed when the police opened fire. The synagogue was burned..."

But in a May 11, 1940 article by Harold Denny, headlined "Allies See Victory In Low Countries: Military Leaders Emphasize Strength Of The Defenses Of Netherlands And Belgium," the New York Times stated:

"London, May 10--Though the scope and exact objectives of Germany's sudden invasion of the Low Countries cannot be defined this early, military leaders express complete confidence in the ability of the British and French to defeat Germany if the new operations takes the nature of a wheel into Northern France, such as Britain's little army faced in 1914.

"The German armies will meet far more effective opposition than they encountered in the last war..."

Then, after UK imperialism and French imperialism's allied military forces failed to defeat German imperialism's military forces in the Low Countries in May and June 1940, the New York Times, in a July 3, 1940 article, headlined "Gandhi Appeals To Britain To Seek Peace With Nazis," reported:

"Mohandas K. Gandhi tonight appealed to all Britons to cease hostilities with Germany and urged that they settle their differences with `non-violent methods.'

"The Indian Nationalist leader urged Britain not to enter `undignified competition with the Nazis in destructive power.'..."
(end of part 2)