*** Welcome to piglix ***

Edward Kennedy (journalist)


Edward Kennedy (c. 1905 – November 29, 1963) was a journalist best known for being the first Allied newsman to report the German surrender at the end of World War II, getting the word to the Associated Press in London before an official announcement was made. This angered Allied commanders who, for political reasons, had imposed a news embargo until the official surrender announcement. After being forced stateside, Kennedy was fired by the AP for his actions. In 2012, the Associated Press apologized for the incident, saying "It was handled in the worst possible way."

The documents for Germany's surrender in World War II were signed on May 7, 1945, at 2:41 a.m. local time at General Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters in Reims, France. Edward Kennedy, as the AP's Paris bureau chief, had been among a group of reporters hastily assembled aboard a C-47 aircraft, and only told they were to cover the official signing once aloft. After the ceremony, however, they were told that instead of a few hours of embargo, they were being asked by Eisenhower to hold the news for 36 more hours in order to permit Joseph Stalin to hold a ceremony in Soviet-occupied Berlin.

After a German radio station in Allied-controlled Flensburg broadcast the news, however, Kennedy believed that military censors must have allowed it. Evading wartime censorship, he phoned the AP bureau in London and reported the surrender. The story moved on the AP wire at 9:36 a.m. EST, mid-afternoon in France.

The official announcements of the surrender varied from German foreign minister Lutz Graf Schwerin von Krosigk early May 7, to Winston Churchill on May 8, and Joseph Stalin on May 9 (accounting for the Soviet Victory Day). The formal cessation of hostilities was at 23:01 hours on May 8.


...
Wikipedia

...