MMMM # 421 -- Pearl Harbor and "The Wire"

    

     The Associated Press* spread first word of the attack on Pearl Harbor 72 years ago Saturday. 
     Here are the actual AP stories, the ones that sent off alarms bells in newsrooms across the globe on December 7, 1941. 
     By the way, the news was sent out by the AP as a "FLASH"...the highest level of importance for an AP news story. It is used only VERY rarely**. A FLASH would result in the machine bell ringing twelve times. Hard to ignore, even in a loud newsroom.  For news junkies, here's an excellent column that explains how it all worked, and how the now too silent newsrooms seem more like insurance company call centers.
     You can listen to some of the first radio reports about the Pearl Harbor attack here.
     The huge commemorations memorializing the attack have

The USS Arizona.

slowed.    
     The Detroit Free Press wrote time is taking a toll. Few people who were there are alive. Japan is an Allie of the U.S. 

The USS Arizona, site of the main memorial at Pearl Harbor.

     I remember the story of an advertising executive who suggested a sales line for a then-new line of electronic products made in Japan in the 1960's:

SONY: "Those Wonderful Folks who brought you Pearl Harbor". 

     He was joking, but Sony was able to overcome memories of WWII to become an accepted brand in the U.S. 

[*PLUS: Want to read perhaps the most comprehensive statement of news values in the industry? Here is AP's.
** Pearl Harbor, The Kennedy assassination, The falling of each of the World Trade Center Towers, and most recently, for the death of Nelson Mandela.] 

[The Monday Morning Media Memo is a regular feature of TimLennox.com]