| On December 7th, 1941, American war correspondent Ed Murrow and his wife Janet were invited to dinner at the White House. Throughout the day, there had been sketchy reports that the Japanese had bombed the American military installation at Pearl Harbor. But the first lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, had insisted the Murrows come anyway.
The President did not make an appearance at the table that evening. But sometime around 10:30, he summoned Murrow to his study, and in a voice seething with rage, began to reel off the losses at Pearl Harbor: the destroyed ships, the downed planes, the staggering numbers of dead and wounded.
The phrase "off the record" was never spoken. "I've got the greatest story of my life," Murrow told his wife later that night. "And I don't know if I should go with it or forget it."
The President told him exactly what had occurred and how America was in grave danger while the Pacific fleet was out of action and Murrow went home after the dinner and didn't write a word. He felt it would have been unpatriotic and would have endangered the outcome of the war to have done so. | |
