A BIG "SCOOP"
A Big "Scoop" THE foreign newspaper correspondents in Mexico City heard of the landing of marines at Vera Cruz almost by the time the first of our whaleboats bumped its nose against the wharf, and...
...A Big "Scoop" THE foreign newspaper correspondents in Mexico City heard of the landing of marines at Vera Cruz almost by the time the first of our whaleboats bumped its nose against the wharf, and there was a desperate effort to get the news past Huerta's censors...
...Shepherd went to the censor's with this harmless-looking message: "United Press, New York...
...The United Press editors referred to a cipher code that Shepherd had sent in several months before and found this: "Our troops have entered Mexico," will read: "Films forwarded...
...It was relayed via Galveston and reached New York at 3:10 in the afternoon...
...The dispatch was immediately flashed to all newspapers with United Press service, which reached their readers with it before the other papers knew what had happened...
...The one who did not lose hope was William G. Shepherd of the United Press...
...Films forwarded in Vera Cruz...
...It was a big "scoop" for the United Press, and Shepherd became a hero in newspaper circles.— Collier's...
...Nothing that looked like a war telegram was allowed to go over the wires to the Vera Cruz cable office, which was still in the hands of Mexicans, and all the correspondents but one were in despair...
...The censors could see no war news in the dispatch, and let it pass...
...Films forwarded in Vera Cruz" meant, of course, that the American forces had landed there...
Vol. 6 • May 1914 • No. 21
