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Oops, this is what happened

November 8, 1918

Let the blames begin.

The Daily Telegram crashed back to reality after the giddy extra edition. Advertising was back on the front page and three headlines tried to explain what went wrong. In today’s era of rapid communication the premature peace announcement would be truth tested as soon as it was released by many competing news organizations.
However even todau news organizations can be stampeded and taken in by hoaxes. Two words: Balloon Boy. A live shot from a helicopter and a satellite uplink are in the long run, no substitute for good judgement and asking questions.
Some people find this process of constant questioning and rechecking annoying but it is part of doing the job. Stories don’t emerge complete from a single source and need to be pieced together.
Savvy news consumers do the same thing as good reporters and take in information from many sources. One of the tests I evaluate information with is how an organization handles corrections. When new information comes to light do correct the record and examine and explain or do they pretend it never happened and move on to the next issue?

Roy W. Howard, president of the United Press transmitted the information on the basis of information from Admiral Wilson. Howard had been president of the service for six years and had hired reporters to interview and report the news rather than republish dispatches from foreign wires. Too often foreign news services were propaganda mouthpieces for their governments.
C.L. Day, owner of the Telegram offered a decidedly unapologetic explanation. This after all is a paper that says in the nameplate, “60 cents a month after Aug 1. and worth it.”

ADMIRAL WILSON THE GOAT
AS TO ARMISTICE REPORT

The Telegram is not disposed to offer apologies for its news association–the United Press–because the news published yesterday of the signing of an armistice between the Allies and Germany proves to be immature.
Admiral Wilson gave the information to Roy W. Howard, president of the United Press, now at Brest, France, and Mr. Howard had every reason to believe it to be authentic.
Mr. Howard is a newspaperman of the highest standing whose ability and integrity are unquestioned. The United Press today make ample explanation of the source of its announcement yesterday, placing the blame, and the blame is assumed in a signed statement by Admiral Wilson.
The United Press serves more newspapers than all of the other news agencies combined, so The Telegram has the questionable satisfaction of knowing that it was in the company of a majority of the world’s biggest newspapers.

The Howard name would again be linked to the Telegram in another way long after C.L. Day and Roy Howard had died.  In 1986 Scripps-Howard  assumed ownership of the then Telegram-Tribune.
Yes, Roy Howard’s name was appended to the Scripps orginization’s in 1922, thanks for asking.
Now called The Tribune the newspaper is owned by McClatchy.