You've heard about famous World War
II correspondents like Edward R. Murrow, William L. Shirer and a young United
Press reporter named Walter Cronkite. But have you ever heard of Ed Kennedy?
He was the Paris bureau chief for
the Associated Press, and he was as brave as they come. There was no battle
zone too dangerous for him.
He also partied hard. When his
future wife – war correspondent Lyn Crost, who wrote what is still the best
book about the 442nd Regimental Team, "Honor By Fire" - first
met him, he was standing at a hotel bar in Paris with Ernest Hemingway, both men
so drunk they could barely stand.
On May 6, 1945, Kennedy was an
eyewitness to the biggest story of the war: the German surrender to the Americans
and British. He and a handful of other reporters were secretly flown to Reims,
France, to witness the signing of the surrender documents.
Then they were ordered to sit on
the story for 36 hours. Reason: Stalin wanted to hold a signing ceremony of his
own two days later in Berlin, and Truman and Churchill wanted to let Uncle Joe
have his moment of glory.
The other reporters agreed to the
embargo, and so did Kennedy, at first. But the next day he discovered that the
news was being broadcast to the German people. The embargo had been broken.
Moreover, it had been established
for political reasons, not military one. What sense did it make to give the
news to the Germans but not to Americans?
So Kennedy made his choice. He
wired news of the surrender to AP headquarters, which spread it around the world.
It was the scoop of the century. So
what was his reward? His career was destroyed.
Instead of giving him a raise, the
AP fired him; and the president of the AP apologized to the military. Even his
fellow reporters turned on him, voting 54-2 to condemn him.
Nobody else would hire him. After a
few years he finally got a job at a tiny paper in Monterey, the
Peninsula Herald, covering city council meetings, writing editorials and
editing copy with the same dedication and energy that he had devoted to the
great events of World War II.
Ed Kennedy died in 1963,
unrecognized and unhonored by his profession. But a new generation of
journalists is trying to correct this miscarriage of justice. Columnists,
reporters and editorial writers all over the country are joining forces to get Kennedy
a posthumous Pulitzer Prize.
Stories in support of this project
have already appeared in the Sacramento Bee, San Francisco Chronicle, Washington
Post, Monterey County Weekly, Modoc Independent News, Jim Romanesko.com, Editor
& Publisher, and other publications. And now it's my honor to add my small
voice to the chorus.
Kennedy wrote a memoir of his
wartime years in 1951, but he was never able to find a publisher during his
lifetime. That changed last year, when it was published by the Louisiana State
University Press.
And here's the sweetest touch of
all: The introduction was written by the AP's outgoing president and CEO, Tom
Curley, who apologized for his predecessor's actions and said, "In every
way, Ed Kennedy was right."
The Pulitzer Committee will announce
its decision next month.
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