George Polk's Real World War II RecordThe fictional career of a famous newsman.

The Weekly Standard ^ | February 22, 2007 | by Richard B. Frank

[TravisBickle]

Are you saying a respected reporter had told a lie?

Are you sure about this?

This is hugh!

[Yo-Yo]

Somebody alert Dan Ra^ther. He likes to poke around in other people's service records.

[geezerwheezer]

But...but...Kinkos didn't exist during WWII, so how is Danny boy going to get the records? Amazing that both of them worked for cBS, ain't it? This says a lot about their corporate hiring practices for newsmen/war heroes doesn't it.

[Sam_Damon]

I'm just glad someone posted this on Free Republic.

Most telling is the third from last graf of the linked article, where the author described his attempts to peddle the article to the New Yorker, WaPo, and other MSM outlets.

Not surprisingly, the editors there declined -- I suspect because the article kicks over a few applecarts.

[GreyFriar]

over-glorification of military record or outright fraud?

[aculeus]

Not surprisingly, the editors there declined -- I suspect because the article kicks over a few applecarts.

And, as the author suggests, journalists like to expose frauds ... unless the fraudster is a canonized journalist-saint.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

was he a democrat?

It says in the article that he was a reporter, and a liar. Why would you expect the redundant explanation that he was a Democrat?

[ozzymandus]

Just another lying reporter. They should create a Walter Duranty Award for these shysters.

[ozzymandus]

He glorified Stalin and denied the deliberate mass starvation in Ukraine. Needless to say, he won a Pulitzer.

[litehaus]

They should create a Walter Duranty Award for these shysters

AMEN!

[zot]

"over-glorification of military record or outright fraud?"

Over glorification of military record to a degree that amounts to outright fraud.

[Interesting Times]

over-glorification of military record or outright fraud?

Oh, it's fraud all right. He was wearing pilots wings and other decorations to which he had no right.

The fact that a prestigious old media news award is named after him is oddly satisfying.

[Interesting Times]

And there's more. Some three years ago I started trying to publish the real story of George Polk. I believed that if the evidence were placed before a fair sampling of prominent outlets of American journalism, one or more of them would be interested in publishing an article and thus would vindicate the oft-repeated claim that the mission of journalism is the fearless pursuit of truth. This story has now been offered to the New Yorker, the Atlantic Monthly, the Washington Post, the New Republic, Harper's, Slate, the Wilson Quarterly, and the American Scholar. The first three declined to publish it; the others did not respond.

[x]

was he a democrat?

Probably. There was even a Democrat President in the family, James K. Polk. George's brother, William Roe Polk was in the State Department in the 1960s and wrote a family history.

[Dont Mention the War]

journalist and human rights activist Kati Marton

Who just happens to be the ex-wife of one Peter Jennings.

Funny how it all ties together.

[leadpenny]

http://www.amazon.com/Out-Iraq-Practical-Plan-Withdrawal/dp/1416534563/sr=8-1/qid=1172186558/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1/105-0384264-2419610?ie=UTF8&s=books

The same William R. Polk who co-authored "Out of Iraq" with George McGovern?