1944 headlines — today?

Here’s a really fascinating article written in the present day, but about D–Day. It’s meant to show how the operation would have been reported by the world’s current media.

In an as yet unfolding apparent fiasco, Supreme Allied Commander, Gen. Dwight David Eisenhower’s troops got a rude awakening this morning at Omaha Beach here in Normandy.

Due to insufficient planning and lack of a workable entrance strategy, soldiers of the 1st and 29th Infantry as well as Army Rangers are now bogged down and sustaining heavy casualties inflicted on them by dug–in insurgent positions located 170 feet above them on cliffs overlooking the beaches which now resemble blood soaked killing fields at the time of this mid–morning filing.

More darkly, this phase of the war, commencing less than six months before the next general election, gives some the impression that Roosevelt may be using this offensive simply as a means to secure re–election in the fall.

Underlining the less than effective Allied attack, German casualties — most of them innocent and hapless conscripts — seem not to be as severe as would be imagined. A German minister who requested anonymity stated categorically that “the aggressors were being driven back into the sea amidst heavy casualties; the German people seek no wider war.”

But it wouldn’t have been reported like this today, and there are a few good reasons for that.

First, the entire world had looked on in literal horror and fear as Germany grew and became more grotesque and threatening. Second, the entire world was in agreement that Germany had to be completely neutralised. Third, it was at the time arguably the world’s most effective fighting–machine. Fourth, like other citizens, modern–day journalists would have recognised all the above. They would also have recognised the need for high morale on the home front in the face of such a threat, and would not have written such speculative reports.

And finally, every journalist — nay, every single individual — of today, when faced with such an enemy, would categorically avoid and dismiss any electioneering conspiracies. The watchword would be morale for the first few days of World War II, whether it happened in 2004 or 1944.