The Waterbury Democrat., 1945-05-09
Double Cross On nWorScoop
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(Continued from Page D Clark, Rear Echelon Public Rela- tions officer in London.
 A message from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower's headquarters, explain ing the reason for the action against Kennedy, was received by Kent Cooper, executive director of the AP It read:
 Suspension filing privileges As sociated Press revoked and author ity now granted. correspondents other than Ed Kennedy to submit material for transmission. Kennedy suspended due self-admitted delib- crate violation SHAEF regulations and breach confidence. Investiga- tion filing story by Kennedy con- tinues and report results of finding will be communicated to you as soon as practicable"
 The first sentence in the Eisen- hover message was a reference to the fact that SHAEF at first sus- pended all filing privileges for the AT OuSllOllU lilC OpCuII ter of operations. That later was lifted to apply only to Kennedy. Then Gudebrod and Bunnelle were suspended
 Cooper replied to the Eisenhower message with a request that Ken nedy be allowed to state his case personally. He also asked supreme headquarters to state its position on the question of whether military se- curity was involved in the filing by Kennedy of the unauthorized dis patch.
 All but two correspondents who attended meeting at SHAEF yestar- day voted to ask Eisenhower to re- store the ban on the AP's filing privileges throughout the European theater of operations for 24-hour period. The AP men at SHAEF did not participate in the voting. The ones who declined to vote in the af- firmative were Larry Rue of the Chicago Tribune and John O'Con- nell of the Bangor (Me) News.
 In letter to Eisenhower, the cor respondents described Kennedy's ac- tion as "the most disgraceful, de- liberate and unethical double cross in the history of journalism
 Eisenhower replied to the cor- respondents petition to have the ban on the entire AP staff in Eur ope restored by saying that only the War Department in Washington could punish an entire American organization.
 Boyd D. Lewis, European news manager of the United Press, also was assigned to surrender the Reims surrender. He filed dispatch No. with the censorship at SHAEF after returning from Reims and it was released through regular channels yesterday mornin~,
 Lewis said Brig. Gen. Frank AL len, SHAEF public relations officer, pledged the Is correspondents in the plane on the way to ReimS to abide by SHAEF regulations and not to release their dispatches until au- thorized to do so. Kennedy was in the plane and did not dissent from the pledge, Lewis said. This is what Allen told the correspondents:
 T therefore pledge each of you on your honor not to communicate the results of the conference or the fact of it's existence until it is re- leased on the order of the public relations division of SHAEF.
 New York, May 9.-(UP)-'It seems pretty well established" the New York Herald Tribune said edi- torially today, that Edwa1c Ken nedy, chief of the Associated Press Bureau in Paris. deliberately vio lated pledge in filing ahead of time his story of the German surren- der"
 The editorial said that what is little hard to understand is that the Associated Press" after learn ing of what had happened, issued a statement in which 1t chose to re- fer to the Kennedy story as news beat-acclaimed by editors trough out the United States as one of the greatest in newspaper history" Let us differentiate ourselves from any such chorus.
 Final judgment should be with held. But aside from MT. Kennedy s responsibility to his colleaY, es and to the sanctity of the rflease- without which modern newspaper reporting would be almost impossible there is graver question: The reporter often finds himself in a dilemma between his pualic duty to convey the news and hi equally serious public duty to avoid ir- responsible or damaging disclosure With war only half won and at a moment when serious issues of policy might have been affected by his personal decision one cannot feel that MT. Kennedy solved that dilemma wisely