Editing Attack on Pearl Harbor (section)

=== Coverage in the United States ===
[[File:USS Downes (DD-375), USS Cassin (DD-372) and USS Pennsylvania (BB-38) in Dry Dock No. 1 at the Pearl Harbor Naval Shipyard, 7 December 1941 (306533).jpg|thumb|The {{USS|Pennsylvania|BB-38|2}} behind the wreckage of ''Downes'' and ''Cassin'']]
The initial announcement of the attack on Pearl Harbor was made by the White House Press Secretary, [[Stephen Early]], at 2:22{{spaces}}p.m. Eastern time (8:52{{spaces}}a.m. Hawaiian time): "The Japanese have attacked Pearl Harbor from the air and all naval and military activities on the island of Oahu, principal American base in the Hawaiian islands."<ref>"Planes Blast U.S. Naval Bases; No Warning Is Given", ''Lawton Constitution'', December 7, 1941, Extra Edition, at 1.</ref> As information developed, Early made a number of additional announcements to approximately 150 White House reporters over the course of the afternoon.<ref>"War Brings a Tense Day to White House Press Room", ''Washington Post'', December 8, 1941, at 4.</ref>

Initial reports of the attack moved on news wires at approximately 2:25{{spaces}}p.m. Eastern time. The first radio coverage (which, at the time, represented the earliest opportunity for ordinary people to learn of the attack) was on the CBS radio network's scheduled news program, ''World News Today'', at 2:30{{spaces}}p.m. Eastern time. [[John Charles Daly]] read the initial report, then switched to London, where [[Robert Trout]] ad-libbed on the possible London reaction. The first report on NBC cut into a play, a dramatization of ''The Inspector-General'', at 2:33{{spaces}}p.m. Eastern time and lasted only 21 seconds. Unlike the later practice with major news stories, there were only brief interruptions of scheduled commercial programming.<ref>{{cite news |mode=cs2 |last=McDonough |first=John |date=December 6, 1991 |title=Hear It Now: Pearl Harbor Day Radio |newspaper=Wall Street Journal |page=A13}}</ref> 

The attacks were covered on television but the extent of it was limited; as commercial television had started just 6 months earlier, "a few thousand TV sets existed" in the United States, with most being in the [[New York metropolitan area|Greater New York City area]], and only a handful of stations existed which were all in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. [[WNBC|WNBT]] from New York was the only TV station that was regularly airing that day in the country, with the comedy movie ''[[Millionaire Playboy]]'', which was scheduled for 3:30-4:30 PM, being interrupted with the news of the attack. The other station known to cover the attacks was WCBW, also out of New York, where a special report on the attack was broadcast that evening. There are no recordings of either station's coverage, either visual or audio.<ref>{{Cite web |date=December 7, 2016 |title=A FORGOTTEN MILESTONE: TELEVISION AND PEARL HARBOR |url=https://www.tvobscurities.com/lost/forgotten-milestone-television-pearl-harbor/ |access-date=February 16, 2024 |website=Television Obscurities: Exploring forgotten TV from the 1920s to today.}}</ref>

A contemporaneous newspaper report compared the attack to the [[Battle of Port Arthur]] in which the Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the Imperial Russian Navy, triggering the [[Russo-Japanese War]], 37 years prior.<ref>{{Cite web |mode=cs2 |last=Butcher |first=Clifford F. |date=January 19, 1942 |title=Port Arthur Was 'the Pearl Harbor of 1904' |newspaper=The Milwaukee Journal |url=https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19420119&id=-e4ZAAAAIBAJ&pg=4412,1516787 |access-date=June 27, 2015 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160515202140/https://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=1499&dat=19420119&id=-e4ZAAAAIBAJ&sjid=8SIEAAAAIBAJ&pg=4412,1516787 |archive-date=May 15, 2016 }}</ref> Modern writers have continued to note parallels between the attacks, albeit more dispassionately.{{sfn|Peck|2016}}