British Anti-Nazi Propaganda 1940

The German News Agency and the News.  This was a piece of British gray propaganda¹ designed to be distributed throughout Europe. There is no publisher listed nor place of publication note, nor date. As this copy was in the Library of Congress collection, there is a receiving date stamped on it of April 16, 1940, so I know that this publication is no older than that. 10x8", 28pp. Good condition. Provenance: Library of Congress, with their surplus/duplicate rubber stamp on the rear cover. $95

The pamphlet is presented to show the different forms of journalism in reporting one particular event--the pursuit of the Graf Spee, from December 14^th-21^st 1939, from final pursuit to the scuttling on the 17^th ,  and a few days afterwards. The idea was to present coverage that was real and neutral compared to one that was biased and propagandized. To that end the news coverage of events were to be followed by the AP and UP on the one hand and the Detusches Nachrichten bureau on the other. Each section of news (noted by day and hour) were summarized in two columns, for the reader to make comparisons. The end result are long columns of blank space where the German News Agency makes no comment, while there is running commentary by the AP and UP. Also there is a substantial difference in reporting when the Allies and Germans report on the same thing--for example, in the battle that led to the eventual end of the Graf Spee, the German agency reported it as a successful battle, which was hardly the case. From where I sit, this is a convincing document. 

Notes:

1. This is definitively identified so by J. Michael Waller in Strategic Influence: Public Diplomacy, Counterpropaganda, and Political Warfare, pg 141.