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05/30/07
AP Press Release
Associated
Press releases new book about the stories behind its coverage
of history
NEW YORK -- A team of former and current Associated Press
journalists reveals the compelling stories behind some of
history's biggest stories in the first book about the news
cooperative in more than 60 years.
Breaking News: How the Associated Press has Covered War,
Peace, and Everything Else, published by Princeton Architectural
Press and richly illustrated with images from the AP's archives,
recounts the challenges of reporting on armed conflicts, major
trials, aviation milestones, presidential elections, the struggle
for civil rights, the White House and disasters such as the
9/11 terror attacks.
The book also highlights the cooperative's intrepid foreign
correspondents -- such as Wes Gallagher, shown on the cover
as he dashed for a phone to report on the verdict in the 1946
Nuremberg war crimes trial -- and iconic images, including
Joe Rosenthal's photo of the flag raising atop Mt. Suribachi,
Iwo Jima, in 1945.
The AP previously released David Halberstam's foreword in
Breaking News to honor the journalist after his untimely
death in a car crash in April. Halberstam, who covered the
Vietnam War for The New York Times, recalled his first-hand
experiences with AP’s Saigon bureau.
Others who compiled the book's behind-the-scenes accounts
include Richard Pyle, Fran Mears, Walter Mears, Nancy Benac,
the late Howard Benedict, Darrell Christian, Tom Jory, Mike
Feinsilber, Larry Heinzerling, Hal Buell, Jerry Schwartz,
Terry Hunt, Cal Woodward and Sally Jacobsen. Their anecdotes
are buttressed by records and documents newly uncovered by
The AP Corporate Archives.
Other highlights:
· In 1849, Daniel H. Craig was hired to establish the
agency’s first office outside the U.S., in Halifax,
Nova Scotia, where newspapers on ships from Europe could be
obtained before they reached Boston. As AP’s first foreign
correspondent, Craig delivered exclusive news of an attempt
to assassinate Queen Victoria in London that year, and it
was relayed to AP in New York by ship, horseback and telegraph.
· AP photographer James "Ike" Altgens, who
happened to be positioned 30 feet from the Presidential motorcade
when the shots rang out, captured the only professional images
from the scene of President Kennedy's assassination.
· After Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated in
Memphis in 1968, AP reporter Kathryn Johnson was welcomed
into the King household in Atlanta over several days, sometimes
cooking bacon and eggs for mourners and hungry children, but
also filing stories about Jacqueline Kennedy’s condolence
call and other comings and goings.
· April 14, 1970, AP correspondents Paul Recer and
Hoke Nobel decided to stay on the scene after filing their
stories that Apollo 13 was on its way to the moon, while the
rest of the press corps at the Houston Space Center attended
a fancy reception. When Mission Control first heard the calm
words: “Houston, we’ve had a problem,” only
AP was there, and they had filed thousands of words on the
near-disaster before other media knew what was going on.
· Will Grimsley, one of the most honored sports writers
in history, donned a blazer and a souvenir Olympic shield
and strode through the Olympic Village gate, looking every
bit the Olympic official to become the only print reporter
to get in to the Olympic Village compound in Munich to cover
what was eventually referred to as the Munich Massacre in
1972.
· In April 2004, AP’s Denise Grones and Antoinette
Konz of the Hattiesburg American were covering a routine speech
about the Constitution by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia
at a Mississippi high school. During the speech, a deputy
federal marshal demanded they erase their digital recordings
of the Justice’s remarks. After AP and the American
protested, Justice Scalia apologized in a letter to Grones
saying, “In the future, I will make it clear that recording
for use of the print media is no problem at all.”
The book helps readers track the evolution of journalism as
newspapers, radio, television and the Internet compete for
primacy, influence and reach. AP President and CEO Tom Curley
says in his preface to the 432-page hardcover: "As Breaking
News makes clear, it's not enough to just cover what
happens -- you have to get that news out. One reason for our
longevity has been an ability to adapt quickly to new technology."
An AP exhibit, also called Breaking News: How the Associated
Press has Covered War, Peace and Everything Else, accompanies
the book's publication. Many of the $35 book's nearly 200
photos are on display. The public relations firm Linden Alschuler
& Kaplan, Inc., in New York, is working with the AP and
the publisher on international promotion for the book, the
exhibit and related content.
To find out more about Breaking News go to the book's
AP Web site at http://www.ap.org/breakingnews/
or to the publisher's site
here.
ABOUT THE AP
The Associated Press is the essential global news network,
delivering fast, unbiased news from every corner of the world
to all media platforms and formats. Founded in 1846, AP today
is the largest and most trusted source of independent news
and information. On any given day, more than half the world's
population sees news from AP.
On the Net: www.ap.org
Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720
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