Broadcasting (July - Dec 1939)

ON THEIR WAY to the carillon floor of the Golden Gate Exposition's Tower of the Sun, from where they recently described — at a height of more than 400 feet above San Francisco Bay — the Pacific Fleet's passage past the Exposition for CBS, are Bob Garred (top) and Jack Gregson, KSFO, announcers, smiling pleasantly despite their burdensome equipment. which he said was "censorship after the fact". This "surveillance", he pointed out, is the type of cen i I sorship most widely used in the j(i "censored countries", rather than ! "before the fact censorship." It is ' ' particularly delicate in operation because it is impossible for any one to say, for instance, what the reaction to a particular news broadcast would be in a foreign country, ! j he explained. {I Cautioning the FCC against i'l freezing standards, which he said would be done by arbitrarily en' forcing the international broadcast rule, Mr. Mason said compliance with the cultural provision would he difficult because it has been impossible to find a complete definition of culture. Charging contradiction "between the letter and the spirit of the rule", he declared, i "You can't freeze standards in the ij newspaper business, and after all, I this is journalism of the air." America Preferred Boyd W. Bullock, assistant manager of General Electric broadcastI ing in charge of international I broadcasts, in opening the concluding session July 17, said that although broadcasting uncensored news would not be well accepted by the leaders of some countries, correspondence from listeners all over the world has indicated that "the foreign listener likes to get uncensored news and programs typically American". Admitting the objective j to be good, he continued, it should I not be stated in the rule because ; the official statement connotes that "program content must necessarily be examined, and this constitutes censorship, whether done before orafter the broadcast". ; "We'd have to take each program and measure it against each qualification of the rule, because if we didn't we would feel we would be subjected to criticism at least," Mr. Bullock pointed out. He also declared that it was not so much the fear of not complying that was bothering broadcasters, but the fear of not knowing how to comply, and not so much the fear of intent on the part of the FCC as the possible interpretation in foreign countries that American programs were censored, which he said could stifle the present world-wide acceptance of American programs as representing censor-free thought. Evans Wants Standards Reemphasizing points of his testimony given at previous FCC hearings, S. Howard Evans, of the National Committee on Education by Radio stressed the need for the FCC to set up definite standards for radio programs as " one of the best ways to insure the freedom of radio in the face of controls of which it is and must continue to be subject". He declared that so long as there was no "previous restraint", the power to review was one of the "'wide latitudes" of the FCC in allocating facilities. "While the Commission has begun to act on nontechnical aspects of radio regulation, it has not developed any standards to be used as a guide for such action," Mr. Evans pointed out. "The result is that the Commission is free to exercise its broad and undefined powers of discretion almost without limit and thus by a process of indirection or intimidation might exercise over stations a degree of control which it could never assert direct] y. "I consider the woi-ding of this proposed rule to be unfortunate. As I see it, the Communications Act itself is almoj^t entirely negative in its declaration that no broadcasting can take place except under Federal license. In my judgment the duty of the Commission is to clarify the Act not by the issuance of further negative rules but by positive declarations of what can and should be done under the Federal license. A much happier wording would seem to have been one in which the Commission emphasized that an international broadcasting service should be designed to produce cultural and goodwill programs rather than that intei'national broadcast stations 'shall render only' a cultural and goodwill service." Urges Minor Changes Called by A. B. Landa, counsel, Walter S. Lemmon, president of World Wide Broadcasting Corp., explained that the scope of WorldWide's program policies was narrower even than provided in the rule, and that it was working News or Drama ABOUT the time the transcribed Edward G. Robinson show, Big Town, wound up July 14, WSM, Nashville, got a news flash on the mine explosion at Providence, Ky., which trapped 38 miners. Immediately it broadcast a bulletin, forgetting for the moment that the Big Town episode had just concluded an account of the crusading managing editor's fight against a dangerous mine in the Big Town community, climaxed by a mine cave-in which trapped several miners. When the WSM announcer flashed the spot news, listeners began calling to find out if the Providence mine tragedy was to be dramatized the following week — few had realized it was an actual news bulletin, unconnected with the paralleling drama preceding. Mr. Lemmon on the stand, and declaring that sufficient latitude for good culture-promoting broadcast service was provided under the rule, quoted Matthew Arnold in defining culture as "an ever-changing becoming, not a state". Mr. Landa, in making his concluding argument, following that of Mr. Sherley, declared that although he was not speaking in favor of censorship, it was the "duty of the Commission" to establish "certain guideposts and certain limitations" for international broadcast activities. He said also that a legal difference exists between "international free speech" and "domestic free speech" as well as between international broadcasting and domestic broadcasting. J to establish a "world university of the air", as contrasted to NBC's "newspaper of the air" and CBS' and GE's "riagazine of the air". He declared that although changes in wording might be made in 42.03(a), intent of the rule would not affect the present operation of the World-Wide facilities, since it lies well within the regulation. Prof. John C. 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