Looking Behind the Censorships
by
[Lippincott, $3.00]
EUGENE YOUNG, cable editor of the New York Times, has been described by a former head of the press division of the British Foreign Office as one of the powerful men of America. For thirty years he has edited the news of the world for American consumption. In the process he has acquired a thoroughgoing knowledge of how nations set to work to influence public opinion on specific issues. And now, viewing the spread of ’the black plague’ of censorship over most of the world, he has felt constrained to indicate some of the appalling difficulties under which foreign news is gathered.
The author’s analysis of the means by which the dictatorships, particularly Italy, have employed the ‘build-up’ technique to further the interests of their popular heroes is informative and well documented. And he has performed a service of real consequence — may American readers appreciate it! — in revealing the care taken by the democracies to control news sources so that only favorable facts will reach the public. ‘Even in London and Paris,’ he says, ‘the governmental systems operate to choke and divert the channels of truth.’ Of the censorship exercised by our own State Department, the author writes: ‘There is no more rigid system of silence anywhere in the world. There have been important occasions when I thought the American people should know what was going on and I have learned through London or Paris what the Washington authorities were doing.’
Despite censorship and propaganda, the author feels that there are simple formulas which govern foreign policies, and he lists their essentials for Britain, France, Germany, Italy, Russia, and Japan. There is no formula for America, he shows — and who will dispute him?
Convenient though it is to have these master keys to the world’s assorted foreign policies, one cannot help feeling that they amount to little more than the basic and familiar considerations of national security on the part of the ‘Haves,’ and the oft-repeated economic and territorial claims of the ‘Have-nots.’ Moreover, in explaining Britain’s ‘muddling through’ policy as conscious and purposeful, Mr. Young seems to ascribe almost superhuman vision and resourcefulness to British political satellites. Regarding the Mussolini legend, he summons up incontrovertible evidence to support his belief that the monarchy — and the Vatican — are playing a far more important rôle in Italian affairs than the Fascist propaganda agencies permit to be generally known.
Emerging importantly from this volume is the recognition that officialdom can always get the jump in putting out its own version of the ‘news.’ Necessarily, it is often months before the press catches up with the truth, and in the meantime the initial misconception has become fixed. Mr. Young’s book ought certainly to take its place as an authoritative expose of the art of manipulating news. It casts much light upon the bewildering hodgepodge of national aspirations; best of all, it encourages the reader to interpret the daily grist of foreign news in terms of those aspirations.
JOSEPH BARBER, JR.