This set of essays offers new insights into the journalistic process and
the pressures American front-line reporters experienced covering World
War II. Transmitting stories through cable or couriers remained
expensive and often required the cooperation of foreign governments and
the American armed forces. Initially, reporters from a neutral America
documented the early victories by Nazi Germany and the Soviet invasion
of Finland. Not all journalists strove for objectivity. During her time
reporting from Ireland, Helen Kirkpatrick remained a fierce critic of
that country's neutrality. Once the United States joined the fight after
the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor, American journalists supported the
struggle against the Axis powers, but this volume will show that
reporters, even when members of the army sponsored newspaper, Stars and
Stripes were not mere ciphers of the official line.
African American reporters Roi Ottley and Ollie Stewart worked to
bolster the morale of Black GIs and undermined the institutional racism
endemic to the American war effort. Women front-line reporters are given
their due in this volume examining the struggles to overcome gender bias
by describing triumphs of Thérèse Mabel Bonney, Iris Carpenter, Lee
Carson, and Anne Stringer.
The line between public relations and journalism could be a fine one as
reflected by the U.S. Marine Corps' creating its own network of Marine
correspondents who reported on the Pacific island campaigns and had
their work published by American media outlets. Despite the pressures of
censorship, the best American reporters strove for accuracy in reporting
the facts even when dependent on official communiqués issued by the
military. Many wartime reporters, even when covering major turning
points, sought to embrace a reporting style that recorded the
experiences of average soldiers. Often associated with Ernie Pyle and
Bill Mauldin, the embrace of the human-interest story served as one of
the enduring legacies of the conflict.
Despite the importance of American war reporting in shaping perceptions
of the war on the home front as well as shaping the historical narrative
of the conflict, this work underscores how there is more to learn.
Readers will gain from this work a new appreciation of the contribution
of American journalists in writing the first version of history of the
global struggle against Nazi Germany, imperial Japan, and fascist Italy.
