Comedy of News Flash Errors

Manawatu Times, Volume 70, Issue 191, 14 August 1945, Page 5

Comedy of News Flash Errors

MYSTERIOUS CUT-IN ON PRESS WIRE UPSETS WORLD. Received Monday, 9 pan. OTTAWA, August 12. The erroneous flash that the Pacific war had ended resulted in the premature release on the air of a recorded broadcast which Mr. Mackenzie King had prepared for the announcement of the Japanese surrender. Meanwhile officials of the Prime Minister’s office stated that no official word had reached Ottawa. In Ontario church bells pealed, sirens howled and crowds went wild in parts of Toronto, Brockville and Peterborough. It was learned that Mr. King had been at the radio station until about 6 p.m. and had made a recording for release when the official word came. The erroneous flash carried to Canada by the American radio network came ever the air shortly after 9 p.m. and the recording of the broadcast almost immediately afterwards, gave listeners the impression that Mr. King was in the atudlo. Mr. King’s office, also assuming that the announcement was official, released copies of the Prime Minister’s statement to the newspapers, and a lew minutes later when it became apparent that the information was erroneous asked that it be withheld from publication. The United Press of America issued a statement that a flash of mysterious origin saying that Japan had accepted the peace terms was fed into the United Press’s leased wire system. The flash carried a Washington dateline and was not transmitted by the United Press’s Washington bureau. The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Communications Commission were asked immediately to ascertain who could have cut in on the United Press’s wire system with the Intent to disseminate false information. The United Press in New York said the United Press’s southern trunk wire which operated through Washington was broken suddenly shortly after 9.30 p.m. with a flash carrying a Washington dateline saying that Japan had surrendered. Two minutes later the flash was killed by the United Press when it developed that it did not originate in the Washington Bureau.

The White House immediately issued a denial that President Truman had announced the Japanese surrender and this followed the United Press’s “kill” order by approximately one hour. The Bureau points out that the United Press in the south was immediately examined to see whether the interruption in the service could have originated in a regularly constituted bureau. Many newspapers not ordin arily on the United Press’s Sunday night circuit were receiving the service due to the possibility of a reply from the Japanese.

The White House Secretary (Mr. C. Ross) announced at 10.25 p.m. that the President had returned at 10 p.m. and that the officials were still waiting for word of the acceptance of the surrender terms.