Paxety Pages

SIXTY years ago today, a north Houston boy born in Madisonville, Texas, was crawling across the slate roof of the Reichstag building in the heart of Berlin. Nazi snipers tried to pick him off , before he reached his objective. Twenty of his own buddies were laying down enfilading fire that kept them from stopping PrivatePvt. R.C. Woods, Bobby to his friends, from reaching his goal.

Bobby's goal was the Nazi flag flying over the Reichstag, the German legislative building. Sounds like a good story, huh? A group of Americans taking down a symbol of Naziism.

Big problem.  Berlin fell on May 2, 1945 - 22-days before Bobby Woods' story. And if fell to the Russians, not the Americans. There's even famous film of the Russians raising their own flag over the Reichstag.  And General Eisenhower has long been criticized for stopping his army at the Elbe River, some 70-miles from Berlin. How could Bobby Woods have captured the Nazi flag weeks after is had been taken down?

These questions are not answered in the story. In fact, the Chronicle story lacks something that is very important in every piece of journalism - attribution.  Who told the reporter this story? The reporter doesn't say.  I can infer that the family of Bobby Woods told the story to Espy, but he doesn't attribute.  Espy does report that Woods himself died in 1968.  The story reports that others American soldiers signed the flag after it was captured - did Espy contact any of them for confirmation? He doesn't say.

We've seen many news organizations get into trouble by reporting based on one source.  Is this another expample? I've emailed Espy asking these questions. We'll see if he replies.

Thanks to Florida Cracker for the link to the story.