Tying up those pesky loose ends

After last Saturday’s column about the Aug. 14 anniversary of V-J (Victory over Japan) Day had hit the streets I received a terse e-mail message from fellow Alfond Arena back-bencher Dave Budge of Brewer.

I had written that famed World War II correspondent Ernie Pyle – who was killed by a Japanese sniper’s bullet on the Pacific island of Ie Shima on April 18, 1945, some four months before V-J Day ended the war – had cranked out a memorable V-E (Victory Europe) Day column, some of which I quoted.

Since V-E Day was May 8, 1945 and since April precedes May in the calendar’s game plan, Budge posed a good question: “Not to be a smart aleck, but how could Ernie Pyle write about V-E Day if he was killed four months before V-J Day?”

Picky, picky, picky.

Still, the man had a point: Even greatness has its limits. Pyle was good, but not so good that he could continue to file his dispatches from the grave and beyond like some wizened newspaperman in a Stephen King horror novel who has taken a fatal licking but, up against a mandatory final deadline, gamely keeps on ticking.

In my haste to file the column and get out while the getting was good, I had omitted a minor detail. I had forgotten to tell the clientele that Pyle had prepared in advance a rough draft of a column for release upon the end of the war in Europe, where he had served for so long before transferring to the Pacific Theater. It was found on his body the day he was killed, 20 days before the Germans surrendered.

In releasing for publication that column and a number of others after Pyle’s death, United Features Syndicate explained to readers, “We believe he would have wanted us to. As a great reporter, a great newspaperman and a great person, he would have wanted his stories to go through, despite his tragic death.”

There. For readers, who, like Budge, did the math and determined that I am even more of a dope than they had imagined, that pretty much ties up the loose ends, albeit a week late.

As the dulcet-toned veteran radio personality, Paul Harvey, would put it, “And now you know … the rest of the story.”

Like any good newspaper reporter, Pyle planned ahead. When an Allied victory in Europe seemed imminent he figured he might as well write the column in advance, rather than wait until the last minute when he might well be tied up with something more pressing, unable to give V-E Day the attention it deserved. Considering how things turned out, his foresight was laudable.

The practice is not uncommon among political writers in newsrooms across the country.

While awaiting returns from the polling places in an anticipated close election, and before things turn hectic and deadlines loom menacingly, reporters have been known to write two versions of a story for the morning newspaper. One version, with appropriate headline, explains how Candidate A won the race; the other draft tells how Candidate B pulled off the victory.

The trick, of course, is to see that the correct version gets into the paper, a job that is occasionally botched. As on the morning after the Nov. 2, 1948 presidential election, when the Chicago Daily Tribune hit the streets with its infamous “Dewey Defeats Truman” Page One headline over the sub-head, “Puts G.O.P. Back In The White House.”

The problem was that the opposite had, in fact, happened: The Democratic incumbent, President Harry S. Truman, had edged out Republican Tom Dewey and Republicans were not back in the White House, after all.

One of history’s more enduring political photographs came out of that snafu. It shows Truman at a whistle stop in St. Louis on his way to Washington, holding up a copy of the Tribune, a Chesire-cat grin on his kisser wider than his beloved Missouri River.

Several weeks ago, the New York Post published a Page One “exclusive” that had seemed like a good idea at the time, concerning Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry’s selection of a running mate. “Kerry’s Choice,” proclaimed the killer headline over a picture of Rep. Dick Gephardt of Iowa. “Democrat Picks Gephardt As Vice-Presidential Candidate” read the sub-headline. Kerry then chose Sen. John Edwards of North Carolina.

Oops.

Give the Post credit for getting one thing right, though: its story truly was exclusive. An editor said he made his decision to run the story “based on information that turned out to be inaccurate.” He declined to elaborate, and it’s probably just as well.

NEWS columnist Kent Ward lives in Winterport. His e-mail address is olddawg@bangordailynews.net