(Mirror.)
Associated Press, which has described itself as the “marine corps of journalism” (“always the first in and the last out”) was the only western news agency able to stay open in [the Third Reich], continuing to operate until the U.S. entered the war in 1941. It thus found itself in the presumably profitable situation of being the prime channel for news reports and pictures out of the [Third Reich].
In an article published in academic journal Studies in Contemporary History, historian Harriet Scharnberg shows that AP was only able to retain its access by entering into a mutually beneficial two-way cooperation with the [Third Reich].
The New York-based agency ceded control of its output by signing up to the so-called Schriftleitergesetz (editor’s law), promising not to publish any material “calculated to weaken the strength of the Reich abroad or at home”.
A useful revelation and summary. Unfortunately, this piece also takes a detour towards the end just to remind everybody of how awful the DPRK is, because it wouldn’t be The Guardian without a deep dose of liberal horseshit, would it?
Further reading:
The A and P of Propaganda: Associated Press and Nazi Photojournalism
Making a New American Identity: The Associated Press and Nazi Germany, 1933–1938