Frankie Cordeira Jr.

Description: AP Rebuts 'Aided Nazis' Charge; Acknowledges 'Missteps'... In March 2016 a German historian Harriet Scharnberg argued that The Associated Press was complicit in allowing the Nazis to portray a war of extermination as a conventional war. Her research prompted the review which was written by Larry Heinzerling an adjunct assistant professor at the Columbia Graduate School of Journalism and a former editor at the agency. Ms. Sharnberg said Thursday that she was preparing a statement in response to the review. While the Nazi regime cracked down on the local and international press in 1933 The Associated Press was able to report in Germany until the United States entered the war in late 1941. That access did not come without condition or compromise. In 1935 the news organization complied with a Nazi edict by firing or reassigning six employees the Germans considered to be Jewish the review said. It made the difficult decision because it believed it was critical for A.P. to remain in Germany and gather news and photos during this crucial period the agency said in a statement. The agencys German photo service provided photos to German media and worked under the supervision of the Propaganda Ministry. The review said staff members faced constant pressure from officials with some doing a better job of resisting Nazi demands than others. Photo captions were sometimes altered or published under misleading or offensive headlines in German media with no evidence that the agency protested. One German photographer Franz Roth was described in the review as an ardent Nazi who was employed on staff and sometimes as a freelancer. Beginning in 1942 Germany sent censored photos from Germany and German-occupied Europe to Associated Press offices in New York and London in exchange for agency photos from the United States the report revealed. The arrangement was approved by United States officials the review said and Associated Press management considered the photos from Germany crucial in covering the war. The photos were reviewed by censors in either the United States or Britain. Although the exchange necessitated dealing with the Nazi regime it was The A.P.s belief then and now that the photos gave the U.S. public a much fuller picture of the war than could have been obtained otherwise the report said. The Associated Press said it worked to keep its photo service objective and free of propaganda at times clashing with Nazi censors. Louis P. Lochner the agencys Berlin bureau chief won the Pulitzer Prize in 1939. Viewed from the perspective of more than 80 years hindsight The A.P. in the totality of its conduct fulfilled its mission to gather the news in Germany forthrightly and as independently as possible for the benefit of its audience and for the benefit of the truth the report said. Due in large part to The A.P.s aggressive reporting the dangers of the Nazis ambitions for domination in Europe and their brutal treatment of its opponents were revealed to the wider world. Continue reading the main story
By Frankie Cordeira Jr.
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