On the 77th anniversary of the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor and other U.S. military installations in the Philippines, Guam, and Wake Island, Donald Trump marked the occasion by tweeting: “FAKE NEWS—THE ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” Trump’s tweet was sent at 10:08 pm on December 6. At around 10:00 pm on December 6, a man with a southern accent phoned the CNN bureau in New York and warned it that five bombs had been placed in the building. “CNN Tonight,” which was broadcasting live, was forced off the air and the building was evacuated. The news network was forced to rely on taped programming.
Mr. Trump, who has made common cause with neo-Nazis and “America First” nationalists, chose an inopportune time to repeat his mantra that the press is the “enemy of the people.” On December 7, 1941, the day that President Franklin Roosevelt said would “live in infamy,” it was radio, the only broadcast media of its day, that kept the American people informed of the Japanese attack on the United States and the events that would lead to a declaration of war against Japan. There was hardly a person in the United States who considered the press as the “enemy of the people.” The “enemy” was Japan and its Axis allies in Europe, Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy.
Perhaps, we have again seen in Mr. Trump’s latest outburst, on this particular anniversary, the product of a New York City household, where Trump’s father, Fred Trump, expressed sympathies for the policies of Adolf Hitler and his Axis allies. On Memorial Day 1927, Fred Trump was arrested by New York police at a Ku Klux Klan rally in Queens that was being staged in conjunction with a march by pro-Benito Mussolini fascists in The Bronx. It does not take a historian to conclude that Trump’s father may not have been “on side” during the years leading up to the Japanese attack and in the war years that ensued.
Rather than berate the press, as is currently the situation with Trump Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders, Roosevelt’s Press Secretary, Stephen T. Early, kept the newspaper, wire service, and radio reporters covering the White House with the breaking news that a stunned nation eagerly awaited and consumed.
The following radio bulletins were certainly not considered by any sane person to be “fake news:
WOR Radio, New York: “We interrupt this broadcast to bring you this important bulletin. . . Flash. Washington. The White House announces Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. Stay tuned for further developments.”
CBS’s “The World Today” featured the White House release about the attack being announced by John Charles Daly.
Honolulu radio station KGMB broke into its regular programming with this announcement: “Alright now, listen carefully. The island of Oahu is being attacked by enemy planes. The center of this attack is Pearl Harbor, but the planes are attacking airfields as well. We are under attack. There seems to be no doubt about it. Do not go out on the streets. Keep under cover and keep calm. Some of you may think that this is just another military maneuver. This is not a maneuver. This is the real McCoy! I repeat, we have been attacked by enemy planes. The mark of the rising sun has been seen on the wings of these planes and they are attacking Pearl Harbor at this moment. Now keep your radio on and tell your neighbor to do the same. Keep off the streets and highways unless you have a duty to perform. Please don’t use your telephone unless you absolutely have to do so. All of these phone facilities are needed for emergency calls. Now standby all military personnel and all police—police regulars and reserves. Report for duty at once. I repeat, we are under attack by enemy planes. The mark of the rising sun has been seen on these planes. Many of you have been asking if this is a maneuver. This is not a maneuver. This is the real McCoy.”
From the rooftop of a building in downtown Honolulu came this, at great risk to the reporter’s life: “Hello, NBC. Hello, NBC. This is KGU in Honolulu, Hawaii. I am speaking from the roof of the Advertiser Publishing Company Building. We have witnessed this morning the distant view a brief full battle of Pearl Harbor and the severe bombing of Pearl Harbor by enemy planes, undoubtedly Japanese. The city of Honolulu has also been attacked and considerable damage done. This battle has been going on for nearly three hours. One of the bombs dropped within fifty feet of KGU tower. It is no joke. It is a real war. The public of Honolulu has been advised to keep in their homes and away from the Army and Navy. There has been serious fighting going on in the air and in the sea. The heavy shooting seems to be . . . a little interruption. We cannot estimate just how much damage has been done, but it has been a very severe attack. The Navy and Army appear now to have the air and the sea under control.”
Because morning newspapers had already published their first editions, they came out with extra editions later on Sunday, December 7, with headlines that were in all capital letters, providing real news, not the ALL CAPS gibberish constantly emitted from Mr. Trump’s smart phone, such as his latest diatribe against the press. The Honolulu Star-Bulletin’s extra edition headline screamed out in words: “WAR! OAHU BOMBED BY JAPANESE PLANES.”
The Washington Post’s headline read: “Japan Declares War Against U.S.”
The New York Times headline read: “Japan Wars on U.S. and Britain; Makes Sudden Attack On Hawaii; Heavy Fighting At Sea Reported.”
Mr. Trump used the occasion of Pearl Harbor Day to attack the press. On December 7, 1941, radio stations interrupted their regular broadcasting to keep the American people informed of the breaking news, not “fake news,” but, like the KGMB reporter called it, “the real McCoy.” On the eve of December 7, 2018, CNN was forced to interrupt its normal broadcasting to deal with a potential bomb attack. In this case, the attack did not originate from a foreign power but from a mentally unbalanced occupant of the Oval Office. Any sane American should now be calling for Mr. Trump’s removal from office by any and all legal means possible. Those members of the press who risked their lives, with some paying the ultimate sacrifice, in covering the events of World War II would demand it if they were alive today.
Wartime journalists like Ernie Pyle, Edward R. Murrow, Walter Cronkite, Charles Collingwood, Andy Rooney, Winston Burdett, Max Brand, Richard C. Hottelet, Howard K. Smith, Hal Boyle, Eric Sevareid, Homer Bigart, Frank E. Bolden, John B. Bartholomew, Cecil Brown, Bill Lawrence, Frazier Hunt, John Cashman, Bill Downs, Bill Shirer, John Lardner, Stanley Johnson, Larry LaSueur, John MacVane, Jim McGlincy, Mary Breckinridge Patterson, Roi Ottley, Robert Neville, and many other American, as well as Allied reporters, deserve much more respect on this particular day than to be referred to as “fake news” by the demented vulgarian in the White House.
Previously published in the Wayne Madsen Report.
Copyright © 2018 WayneMadenReport.com
Wayne Madsen is a Washington, DC-based investigative journalist and nationally-distributed columnist. He is the editor and publisher of the Wayne Madsen Report (subscription required).
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When it comes to “fake news” let’s admit that for the middle east, Israel, the Arabs and Islam the msm has been lying to us for years, no, make that decades. You won’t find me shedding a tear for American mainstream journalists. What a bunch of liars!