8 - Wednesday, June 19, 1985 - North Shore News a ie News, not truth ensorship in the democracies is a matter of C fashion, much like the length of women’s skirts. Sometimes up, sometimes down. But you never see the whole leg. . I've been reminded of that by a book written by George Seldes in 1929, The book is entitled You Can’t Print That, and Mr. Seldes was a newspaper correspondent who had his frustrations. - Which was why he wrote the book— something media people do when they can't get their stuff in the paper. The greatest suppression of news takes place in time of war, of course. In war, as U.S. Senator Hiram Johnson said in 1917, the first casualty is truth, But there are reasons for that. The safety of the tribe is supreme. So war correspon- dents become propagandists. When they don’t (as in Viet- nam) and when the other side sticks to its official line, you know who wins. But when the nation is truly threatened, and in other times of crisis, most people want to be told lies. A gvod example was the Battle of Jutland in 1916. The Germans would have had to sink the whole British Grand Fleet before our side would have admitted that the Germans got the better of that indecisive engage- ment. But as Seldcs makes Bt Tke Sermans had only 27 capital ships compared to 45 for the British Yet they inflicted twice the losses on the British... clear, they did. The Germans had only 27 capital ships compared to 45 for the British. Yet they inflicted twice the losses on the British that the British in- flicted on them, and — despite Allied propaganda to q7 DAY GUARANTEED INSTALL the contrary — did put to sea again. You can look up a British Encyclopedia (1 consulted Chambers') and still find the old myths about a British victory, Then there are our at- titudes to the dictatorships. Mussolini was once very popular in the West, and ia the 1920s that meant that North Americans didn't get the true story of Fascist Ha- ly. Musso was a good guy. He was anti-Bolshevik. He made the trains run on time. And Italy was able to float big loans in New York. The Italian press quickly became totally subservient to the dictator, and the foreign press was bribed. Those foreign correspondents who didn’t toe the line were toss- ed out. Even big political trials went unreported or-in- adequately reported. In one famous instance, states Seldes (the Matteoti case), “Only one paper - the New York World - was able to report the truth. The other newspapermen simply broke their hearts and kept quiet.'’ This old book also laid it on the line with regard to the U.S.S.R. In the 1920s, the regime there was. already murderous and working up to being even more so. Yet idiotic churchmen toured the land proclaiming it to be some kind of Shangri La, and reporting to that effect to their North American congregations. (They're still doing it, as witness Billy Graham’s nonsense of a couple of years ago.) Nor was there any lack of Western reporters who were eithei commies themselves or felt they ought to give Communism a chance. Seldes quickly saw through it all. Another who did so was Britain’s Malcolm Mugecridge. But his paper, the dotty Manchester Gaur- dian, didn't want to listen, and quit running his stories. The same sort of thing hap- pened 10 years later when a Times correspondent in Berlin started sending stuff hostile to the Nazis. The Times editor didn’t want to upset Mr. Hitler. And even said so. Some of today’s shib- boleths are the same, some different. An example of the kid-gloves treatment in in- ternational politics is the reverence with which Israel is treated even though its policies are often harmful to Western interests. Nor does anyone dwell much on the enormous Dangegeld that Jewish groups manage to ex- tort out of American yzov- ernments on behalf of Israel, Discretion is the better part of valor. What Mr. Seldes now thinks of such things 1 don’t know. But, at 94 years of age, he's still writing. MADE RING THE CAR BRiw TOTHE | MAN BMW | THE ULTIMATE DRIVING MACHINE BMW. MUNICH GERMANY 9835-9344 Get organized with the “PREMIER closet organizeg custom cut to your existing closet area. Installed price. (Up to 8 feet) 108 Bowser Ave North Vancouver With purchase of PREMIER | system you'll receive a set of sliding or bi-fold mirrored closet doors with champagne frame at... (must be same closet) Closet renovatons available. FREE IN-HOME ESTIMATES Park Shore Motors Ltd. 9 85-9344 | Limited time offer to June 25th