Broadcasting (Jan - Mar 1949)

BALTIMORE GAG Case in Court Wed. FIVE Baltimore stations face Baltimore Criminal Court Wednesday morning on contempt of court citations growing out of the city's Rule 904, known as the "Baltimore Gag." Presiding will be Judge John B. Gray Jr., of the Seventh Maryland Judicial Circuit. According to opinion in legal circles, four of the stations likely will be heard by the court Wednesday. They are WFBR WITH WSID and WCBM. WBAL, the fifth station cited, has raised a number of procedural issues which may bring postponement of the station's hearing. Prosecutors for the States Attorney's office will be Anselm Sadario and Harold Grady, assistants. Brief as amicus curiae was filed last week by the American Newspaper Publishers Assn. NAB announced it would file a brief at the time of the hearing. Expected to Appeal Should an unfavorable ruling be handed down by Judge Gray, at least one of the stations, WCBM, is expected to appeal to the Maryland Court of Appeals, and then to the U. S. Supreme Court, if necessary. ANPA contends in its brief that the court's Rule 904 is probably the most "stringent rule of censorship of the press and control of the dissemination of important information concerning crime" ever laid down in the United States. The ANPA declares the rule in effect "subjects every newspaper and every broadcaster within the jurisdiction of the court to punishment unless in advance of publication approval of the matter published is obtained from the court. It not only restrains publication of matters actually before the court but publication of matters that have not even reached the court." Eloquently arguing the rights of broadcasters, ANPA told the court Records Thesis JAMES A. LEBENTHAL, a Princeton U. senior from New York, departed from precedent by recording his thesis so that it can be heard instead of read. Mr. Lebenthal spent nine months gathering material for the thesis which is based on Gov. Thomas E. Dewey's strategy in winning the Republican Presidential nomination and includes recordings from the Republican Convention floor, transcriptions of the Dewey stampede on the third ballot and the New York governor's acceptance speech. Professional radio announcers helped the 20-year-old Princetonian record the 33,000-word tract on five miles of wire taking five hours to play. that its contempt rule, known as the "reasonable tendency test," was rejected "once and for all" by the U. S. Supreme Court in favor of the "clear and present danger" test. The Supreme Court's decision was issued in 1941 and the antiquated Rule 904, based on old English common law, was found to violate the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution. Contempt Abuses Reviewed After reviewing the history of contempt abuses by courts in this country, the ANPA brief said the Baltimore court "has continued to enforce its Rule 904 which is based upon a misconception of the power of a court to punish for contempt by publication and which has had the effect of placing editors and news broadcasters under court censorship." Continuing, ANPA said application of the rule "herein turns the pages of history back to those days in the mother country when publishers, writers and editors were placed under good conduct bonds and forced to submit their copy to censors for official approval before publication." This is "repugnant to our Constitutional guarantees," said ANPA, notwithstanding the fact that the Supreme Court has laid down the rule to govern all courts, including itself, in determining what constitutes contempt by publication. "The Supreme Court has held that no publication of news or editorial comment may be punished as a contempt unless the publication amounts to 'a clear and present danger to a fair administration of justice'," ANPA argued. Involves Murder Case The Baltimore stations and a radio newsman were cited for broadcasting news about a man arrested for two murders, and in advance of the trial. They carried facts officially made public by police officials who had obtained a confession from the prisoner, later found guilty. Recently the court held it had jurisdiction over WSID, located in suburban Essex outside the city limits, because its signal crossed the city lines [Broadcasting, Jan. 17]. SPONSORSHIP of three nighttime and two daytime network programs played a big part in boosting the Philip Morris Co.'s sales to record levels in 1948, Seymour Ellis, firm's assistant advertising manager in charge of radio and television, told annual sales meeting in New York this month. Philip Morris cigarettes are promoted over more stations weekly than any other single brand product, he said. tional Educational Assn.; James Stewart, actor. Richards Coordinates The student competitors wrote essays after hearing a series of background scripts voiced by Mr. Stewart; Justin Miller, NAB president; Maj. Gen. Luther Miller, Army Chief of Chaplains; Paul Bagwell, Junior Chamber president; Dr. John W. Studebaker, former U. S. Commissioner of Education. Coordinating the contest was Robert K. Richards, NAB director of public relations and publications, chairman of the joint VOD committee. Other committee members are James Dawson and Ben Miller, NAB; Robert H. Richards, Junior Chamber; James D. Secrest, RMA; Dr. Kerry Smith, Office of Education. The week in Washington will include a visit with President Truman, visits to Congress, sight-seeing, network broadcasts and telecasts, and other major events. The awards luncheon will be held at the Statler Hotel, Washington. Winners of state contests, as well as community winners, will be given certificates and in many cases have received radio sets. The Junior Chamber handled details of local and state competitions. Some 20,000 students entered the 1947 VOD contest. The four girls who won sectional eliminations were given scholarships and trips to Washington a year ago. VOD WINNFff^ Four Student Essays Chosen FOUR boys, whose spoken essays were chosen from 250,000 high school entries, will be awarded college scholarships and a week in Washington as sectional winners in the second annual Voice of Democracy contest. The boys succeed four girls who were chosen winners in the first contest a year ago. Selections were announced over the weekend by the committee of judges selected by NAB, Radio Mfrs. Assn. and the U. S. Junior Chamber of Commerce. Awards will be presented by Attorney General Tom C. Clark at a luncheon to be held Feb. 23 in Washington. The winners: Richard Caves, Bath High School, Everett, Ohio; Charles Kuralt, Central High School, Charlotte, N. C; George Morgan Jr., Hutchinson High School, Hutchinson, Kan.; Kerron Johnson, Wilson High School, St. Paul. NAB member stations participating in the contest, a feature of last National Radio Week, in the home communities of the national winners were WAKR and WHKK Akron; WAYS, WBT, WGIV and WSOC Charlotte; KWBW Hutchinson; WMIN and KSTP Minneapolis-St. Paul. The competing students wrote and voiced broadcast scripts on the topic, "I Speak for Democracy." The U. S. Office of Education, Federal Security Agency, again endorsed the competition. Eliminations were held in individual schools last November, moving into community competitions. Junior Chamber officials named local panels of judges. State winners were named by judges on the basis of transcriptions made from the orig inal broadcasts by local stations. In congratulating winners of the second contest and their sponsoring stations, Judge Miller said, "These four young men have been chosen as winners of the Voice of Democracy contest after the keenest possible competition, among a quarter of a million high school students. "I congratulate them and their enterprising station sponsors. Indeed, we must remember that thousands of other youngsters also spoke eloquently and intelligently about democracy. That they did, and that they were heard by millions on American broadcasting stations, is testimony to the vitality of our way of life." Sitting on the board of judges that heard the state winners were Margaret Culkin Banning, author; Attorney General Clark; Dr. Harry Emerson Fosdick, pastor emeritus of Riverside Church, New York; Mrs. Oveta Culp Hobby, vice president of the Houston Post, operating KPRC; Eric Johnston, president of Motion Picture Assn. of America; Frances Perkins, Civil Service Commissioner; Glenn E. Snow, Dixie Junior College, St. George, Utah, retiring president of Na Page 28 • January 24, 1949 BROADCASTING • Telecasting