American newspapers by printing, almost verbatim and in great quantity, news issued by official Nazi sources in Dr. Goebbel’s Ministry of Public Enlightenment and Propaganda unwittingly did a great disservice to democracy, it is stated in an article on “The War of Nerves in the News,” which appears in the current issue of the Contemporary Jewish Record, out tomorrow.
The article, written by Sidney A. Freifeld, urges a “revaluation of news criteria in the face of a campaign of psychological warfare that is wholly new to America and which our working press has been called upon to face for the first time.” It states that “having long ago learned to cope with domestic press agentry, the American press can surely adapt itself to handle Nazi press agentry, which threatens everything for which America and its free press stands.”
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
