Stamps Honor Distinguished Journalists

By: Five journalists who covered the most tumultuous of 20th Century times are being honored by the Postal Service.

"These distinguished journalists risked their lives to report the events that shaped the modern world," said Postmaster General Jack Potter, who announced the stamp series at the Associated Press Managing Editors Meeting in Washington Friday. The stamps are due out next year.

The journalists being honored are:

-Martha Gellhorn, who covered the Spanish Civil War, World War II and the Vietnam War. Gellhorn found unusual ways to get the story. During World War II, she stowed away on a hospital ship in the D-Day fleet and went ashore as a stretcher bearer. She was married to writer Ernest Hemingway.

-John Hersey, whose most famous work "Hiroshima" described the effects of the atomic bomb dropped on that Japanese city on Aug. 6, 1945. What began as a New Yorker article was turned into a book.

-George Polk, a CBS radio reporter who covered civil war in Greece and was murdered by unknown assailants in 1948. Long Island University established the George Polk Awards a year later. The awards are among the most esteemed journalism honors.

-Ruben Salazar, a reporter and columnist for the Los Angeles Times and news director for the Spanish language television station KMEX in Los Angeles. He was killed by a tear gas projectile fired by a sheriff's deputy while covering anti-war rioting in 1970.

-Eric Sevareid, a newspaper reporter who later was recruited to CBS radio by Edward R. Murrow. Sevareid covered World War II, reporting on the fall of France to the Germans. He was an early critic of Sen. Joseph McCarthy's anti-communism campaign.

APME is an organization of editors of newspapers served by the AP. Founded in 1846, the AP is the world's oldest and largest newsgathering organization with 243 bureaus in 97 countries. It provides content to 1,400 U.S. daily newspapers and 5,000 radio and television outlets.