The Press: I'll Be Judge, I'll Be Jury

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Apart from physical danger, war reporting was getting more & more difficult. General Douglas MacArthur still refused to impose military censorship (TIME, July 24), but last week the U.S. Eighth Army in Korea threatened correspondents with "disciplinary action" if dispatches gave "aid and comfort" to the enemy. Added the directive: "Criticism of command decisions or of the conduct of Allied soldiers on the battlefield will not be tolerated."

After rumblings from correspondents, Lieut. Colonel R. L. Thompson, the Eighth Army's press officer, amended the order to read: "Unwarranted criticism . . ." But correspondents were still unhappy. Echoing the dog in Lewis Carroll's "The Mouse's Tale" ("Til be judge, I'll be jury,' said cunning old Fury . . ."), Colonel Thompson had added that the Army would be "sole judge and jury" of what criticism was and was not warranted.