The Liberation of the Ritz Bar

I'm a big fan of Ernest Hemingway and if you were to mention to me the liberation of Paris in WWII (August 25, 1944) - the first thing I would think of is Hemingway "liberating" the bar at the Ritz Hotel that very same day.

Today is the 61st anniversary of that day. I was curious - so I Googled "Hemingway liberate Ritz bar" and I came across this article from last year in the San Francisco Chronicle.

The article is an interesting read - chock full of anecdotes about Hemingway and his "liberation" of the Ritz bar. However, the paragraph that really caught my attention was this:

The renowned author annoyed his colleagues in the working press. They were both awed by his fame and furious that he was playing soldier, in violation of all the standing rules about correspondents staying out of the war, even though the reporters were very much a part of the war effort.

I have no trouble picturing Hemingway having a bit of a mid-life crisis (he was 45 at the time) and playing soldier would have been his equivalent of buying a new Corvette. What struck me as odd was the description of the "working press" who in their own way "were very much a part of the war effort".

Can you imagine the press being described that way today? The American press could not be described as part of the war effort today. The press today serves their own self interests and not the public good. Stories are slanted to match a certain bias and agendas are almost completely transparent (even though the press likes to crow about being a neutral purveyor of the simple truth - yeah as long as "the truth" matches the agenda). I wonder how the Hemingway of 1944 would view the press of today.

I'm pretty sure I know the answer.