Early to the Rescue

No one loves censors, but some--like those at SHAEF--are especially unloved. Said the New York Times's crack Drew Middleton: "The worst [censorship] I have experienced in five years." The OWI's brash George H. Lyon (former Buffalo Times editor) risked a reprimand by calling SHAEF policy "stupid," and was straightway backed up by his boss, Elmer Davis.

Correspondents first took up SHAEF-sniping in earnest when it held up definite news of the German counteroffensive for four days. Since then SHAEF's 100 newsmen's chief gripe has been that stories cleared elsewhere, published, and therefore no longer involved in "military security" still could not be sent from SHAEF. Last week, SHAEF meted out the strongest punishment since D-day to a censorship violator: it canceled the credentials of BBC Correspondent Cyril Ray, who had an eleven-hour "scoop" on one story by simply bypassing censorship.

This week, the War Department arranged to send brusque, bustling White House Secretary Steve Early to SHAEF as trouble shooter. Franklin Roosevelt's press handyman, whose ancestors include Confederate General Jubal Early, was a staff member on World War I's famed Stars & Stripes, used to be a newspaperman himself.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.