trajan Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 In today's Gurniard... http://www.theguardian.com/media/2014/jul/27/first-world-war-state-press-reporting Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
John_Hartley Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Interesting. Although if you read the Manchester Guardian (as it then was), there seems to be a goodly bit of "telling it like it is". Of course, there is the obvious positive spin to events but I doubt whether anyone reading the paper in early July 1916 would be in doubt as to the disaster that had happened. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Is the Grauniad treating this as a piece of new information? Surely anyone familiar with the Wartime press will know that the reportage was highly sanitised. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 28 July , 2014 Author Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Is the Grauniad treating this as a piece of new information? Surely anyone familiar with the Wartime press will know that the reportage was highly sanitised. Well, yes, most people today would know it was sanitised - but did you read the article? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Stoppage Drill Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Well, yes, most people today would know it was sanitised - but did you read the article? Liddell Hart mentions it - last few paragraphs of Ch 2 of "History of First World War" if you have a copy. He was writing in the early 1930s, but the text makes it clear that the public became aware of the truthfulness of press reports and official communiques during the course of the war. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
David Filsell Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Why should anyone be surprised at the degree of censorship. On was 1914 not 2014. It was a much less liberal country - despite a Liberal Government. At the start of the war there was little if any ability to control newspaper content and little ability to properly control journalists . In addition, and not least the army and the government were justifiably extremely concerned about the bias of a number of newspaper proprietors and their preparedness to damage the government and the national effort tith their 'revelastions'. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dust Jacket Collector Posted 28 July , 2014 Share Posted 28 July , 2014 Well, yes, most people today would know it was sanitised - but did you read the article? Mea Culpa - I admit I did rather skim read it. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trajan Posted 28 July , 2014 Author Share Posted 28 July , 2014 I happily admit that being one of those who is on the edge of WW1 studies I personally found it illuminating and new to me, even though I guessed it was probably a well-known subject! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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