The Press: Another Phony

Now it was U.P.'s turn to blush and bluster. At 9:34 Sunday evening U.P. teletypers flashed: WASHINGTON: JAPAN ACCEPTS SURRENDER TERMS OF ALLIES.

Two minutes later the same machines stuttered: EDITORS, HOLD UP THAT FLASH. But the damage had been done.

The Mutual Network broke into Double or Nothing to spread the news, and premature celebrations were touched off in Manhattan's Times Square, in Canada, where the canned voice of Prime Minister Mackenzie King was promptly put on for a victory broadcast, and even in Australia.

The U.P. screamed that it had been hoaxed, asked the FBI to investigate. Somewhere along its eastern trunk...

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