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Full Wartime Censorship Placed on Korean War News [56 years ago, today]
Waterloo Daily Courier, front page | January 9, 1951 | UP

Posted on 01/09/2007 11:14:25 AM PST by syriacus

Full Wartime Censorship Placed on Korean War News

U. S. Eighth Army headquarters, Korea. –(UP) –

The US.Eighth Army imposed full wartime censorship on news coverage of the Korean War Tuesday and threatened to courtmartial newsmen who deliberately report any troop movements without authorization.

Veteran war correspondents agreed the regulations were the most inclusive they had ever received from any army headquarters.

The rules placed correspondents under the complete jusrisdiction of the army and forbade any crisicism of the Allied conduct of the war.

The regulations, succeeding the present security censorship, provide that all dispatches filed to publications throughout the world will be screened for military information which might injure the morale of UN troops or their government.


TOPICS: Your Opinion/Questions
KEYWORDS: koreanwar; onthisdateinkorea; wartimecensorship
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I'll try to post the rest of the front page article.
1 posted on 01/09/2007 11:14:27 AM PST by syriacus
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To: syriacus

Nice.

A moment to honor our brave Korean War vets out there, of which my pops is one (2nd Division).

And another moment to remember a time in our great history when journalists got the smackdown they deserved.


2 posted on 01/09/2007 11:18:44 AM PST by fleagle
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To: syriacus

While that is all well and good, and I agree, it is also over 1/2 a century ago and it's just not the same world as then.


3 posted on 01/09/2007 11:19:55 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: syriacus

They should start lining up reporters and editors on the firing squad now.


4 posted on 01/09/2007 11:20:39 AM PST by pissant
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To: syriacus

Fair and balanced coverage and film from CNN imbed Arva Damon with 3rd Brig on Haifa St, Bagdad.
10 hour firefight.


5 posted on 01/09/2007 11:20:41 AM PST by larryjohnson (USAF(Ret))
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To: larryjohnson
The new First Rule of Warfare is keep the reporters and photographers out until the surrender ceremony.
Ditto no photogs in military prisons, at large on military compounds, etc.
6 posted on 01/09/2007 11:27:54 AM PST by Eric in the Ozarks (BTUs are my Beat.)
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To: syriacus

Hmmm...

http://www.mikenew.com/koreatreason.html
http://www.mikenew.com/koreatreason.html


7 posted on 01/09/2007 11:28:36 AM PST by gunnyg
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To: syriacus
article continues:
Mention of the following matters was specifically forbidden:
  1. Identity of organizations in the combat and communications zones, unless anounced in communiques. When announced, no place names will be used.
  2. Quoting officers in any way, except as specifically authorized
  3. Stating that any sector in Korea is occupied by American troops until the enemy has established it as a fact.
  4. Stating that any town or village in the combat zone is accupied [sic] by American or Allied forces unless it is essential to a news story.
  5. The mention of any base port, communications center or other point on a communications line. [newspaper's emphasis]
  6. Ship or rail movements, unless authorized
  7. Any discussion of Allied air power
  8. The mention of number of troops, unless authorized.
  9. The effect of enemy fire or bombarment, unless authorized.

Also listed as unauthorized was information on the strength, efficiency, morale, or organization of Allied forces.

Under this rule, no mention may be made of reinforcements, equipment, arms, plans and forecasts of future operations, or positions or descriptions of camps.

Casualties may not be revealed before official publication. [Paper's emphasis]

The Eighth Army ruled that any violator of the code will be suspended from all privileges.

"He may be subject to disciplinary action because of an intntional violation of these and other rebulations, either in letter or in spirit, and in extreme cases of offense where investigation proves the circumstances warrant the correspondent may be placed in arrest to await deportation or trial by courtmaritial,' the announcement said.


8 posted on 01/09/2007 11:28:48 AM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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To: fleagle
"...when journalists got the smackdown they deserved..."

Just like Bill Belichek after the Patriots/Jets game on Sunday...:)

9 posted on 01/09/2007 11:33:23 AM PST by rlmorel (Islamofacism: It is all fun and games until someone puts an eye out. Or chops off a head.)
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To: stuartcr

Yes. It was before the Sixties...the hippies weren't in charge then.


10 posted on 01/09/2007 11:33:58 AM PST by rlmorel (Islamofacism: It is all fun and games until someone puts an eye out. Or chops off a head.)
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To: rlmorel

You're right, the people that were in charge then, are pretty much dead now.


11 posted on 01/09/2007 11:35:28 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: stuartcr
While that is all well and good, and I agree, it is also over 1/2 a century ago and it's just not the same world as then.

Somebody tell the Dems, who love to say

"The Iraq War has lasted longer than WWII."
"Iraq is a lost cause, just like Vietnam."

it's just not the same world as then.

Thank heavens! We lost 3,000 Americans in the first 5 weeks in Korea.

We lost almost 14,000 Americans in the first 6 months in Korea.

We lost over 20,000 Americans in the first 12 months in Korea

By the time Truman left office (2 1/2 years after the "police action" in Korea began) 30,000 Americans had died.

12 posted on 01/09/2007 11:39:59 AM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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To: syriacus

It's true, it really isn't the same world as back then.


13 posted on 01/09/2007 11:41:51 AM PST by stuartcr (Everything happens as God wants it to.....otherwise, things would be different.)
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To: stuartcr
You're right, the people that were in charge then, are pretty much dead now.

Yes. They have to be as old as Byrd (or as Gerald Ford was Ford was a member of the House when Truman sent troops to Korea to "fight bandits")

Defense Arming to Require Taxing 'Until it Hurts', Lima News (Lima, OH), January, 1951

President Truman said today the nation must be taxed "until it hurts" to arm the free world against the menace of Communist aggression.

Secretary of the Treasury Snyder, it was learned, believes despite widespread recommendations for "pay-as-you-go" financing, taxation steep enough to pay out of hand for the huge re-armament effort would rip the nation's economic fabric.

Any hope that sizeable new federal deficits could be avoided by increased taxes appeared to be fading as members of the new Congress sized up probable outlay and came to a tentative conclusion that the government will need somewhere in the region of $75,000,000,000 in the coming fiscal year. That is $25,000,000,000 more than the record $50,000,000,000 collections of this year.

The President gave his warning "it is necessary to tax until it hurts" in a conciliatory letter to Sen. Byrd (D-Va), with whom Mr. Truman has often clashed. The senator made the letter public today.

The letter immediately aroused talk of a possible nation retail sales tax, or other forms of taxation on all or most of the nation's commerce.

Byrd did not advocate any specific tax plan in giving his opinion of what might be necessary if the national budget hits $75,000,000,000 to $80,000,000,000 a year.


14 posted on 01/09/2007 11:46:59 AM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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To: syriacus

This just shows how full of crap libs are when they say that Bush has imposed unprecedented restrictions on the First Amendment and is "the most secretive administration in history."


15 posted on 01/09/2007 11:47:35 AM PST by Steve_Seattle
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To: stuartcr
It's true, it really isn't the same world as back then.

Yet historical themes tend to repeat.

And Democrats have been allowed to pick and chose the comparisons the which the MSM makes.

16 posted on 01/09/2007 11:49:52 AM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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To: Steve_Seattle
This just shows how full of crap libs are when they say that Bush has imposed unprecedented restrictions on the First Amendment and is "the most secretive administration in history."

Indeed.

17 posted on 01/09/2007 11:50:32 AM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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To: syriacus
Need to add to your tagline:

IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks , and Kim Jong-Il would have summer palaces in Seoul and Tokyo.

18 posted on 01/09/2007 12:02:30 PM PST by bassmaner (Hey commies: I am a white male, and I am guilty of NOTHING! Sell your 'white guilt' elsewhere.)
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To: gunnyg

That's some serious tinfoilhattery, right there.


19 posted on 01/09/2007 12:04:37 PM PST by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: bassmaner
IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks , and Kim Jong-Il would have summer palaces in Seoul and Tokyo.

Yes! And millions more Koreans would be starving and enslaved.

20 posted on 01/09/2007 12:05:40 PM PST by syriacus (IF Truman cut + ran after 3,000 deaths, THEN the Korean War would have ended in 5 weeks.)
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