German journalism takes its orders regularly from government officials, and the once great newspapers like the Berliner Tageblatt can no longer be distinguished from the rabid National Socialist organ, the Voelkischer Beobachter says Leland Stowe in the August number of Scribner’s in an article “Propaganda Over Europe.”
Mr. Stowe, Paris correspondent of the Herald Tribune and president of the Anglo Press Association in the French capital, declares that the press situation in Germany is similar to that in France and Italy.
Propaganda in France, the writer states, is pretty well managed by the steel and munitions makers. Mr. Stowe points out that Le Temps, long regarded as the semiofficial organ of the government, “still carries a weight in keeping with that great tradition. About two years ago, a majority of the shares of the paper passed into control of the Comite des Forges, the famous steel trust. Another organ of much influence, the Journal des Debats, though owned by a titled right wing conservative, enjoys the blessing of the de Wendels, the leading munitions manufacturers of the country. Directly or indirectly, the French steel kings can influence or control the news that reaches many millions.”
The control of the press and radio in Italy, the article says, are under complete government control. The writer concludes that “no thoughtful observer can pretend that impotent and deformed public opinions as they now exist, offer any substantial bulwark to European peace in the critical months and years immediately ahead.”
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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.
