The terrorist enemy has perfected the use of a weapon
that is more deadly than all the suicide bombers, rocket propelled grenades
and improvised explosive devices combined. Sadly, that weapon is our
national media.
In Michael S.
Sweeney's "Secrets of Victory", a review at: http://uncpress.unc.edu/chapters/sweeney_secrets.html , he accurately states, "Voluntary domestic censorship was one of
the shared sacrifices of war for American journalists. On one hand, World War II
was perhaps the most newsworthy event of the century, offering opportunities for
lucrative and significant "scoops." On the other hand, no nation can fight a
modern war by refusing to exercise some control of information. Journalists who
wrote or broadcast stories about wartime secrets would, in effect, be handing
the enemy a weapon. To prevent the disclosure of sensitive information during
wartime requires a restraint that is distasteful to democracies; but if
successful, such censorship can become what one memoir of World War II describes
as a "weapon of silence." The dynamic question of the war for American
journalists was whether they would agree to restrain themselves or report some
of the biggest stories of their careers."
Armond "Si" Simmons
Pell City, AL 35128
104 Wadsworth Lane
205 338 7378