Broadcasting Telecasting (Jan-Mar 1956)

GOVERNMENT AMENDED EQUAL TIME PROVISION BACKED BY SALANT, OPPOSED BY FCC MAJORITY CBS vice president tells House subcommittee that Communications Act section requiring political candidates to be allowed equal air time 'stifles and suppresses public information and knowledge. . . / Commission chairman rejects 'vague standard of fairness.' THE pros and cons of a proposal to amend the "equal political time" provisions of the Communications Act were argued before a congressional subcommittee last week. The proposed amendment, HR 6810 (and S 2306, an identical bill in the Senate), would allow a radio-tv broadcaster or a network to present a political candidate on news, interview, forum, panel and debate programs without being required to make "equal time" available to the candidate's opponents, as now required under Sec. 315 (a). CBS Vice President Richard Salant, before the House Commerce Committee's Transportation & Communications Subcommittee, headed by Rep. Oren Harris (D-Ark.), urged adoption of the amendment — originally proposed last summer by CBS President Frank Stanton. FCC Chairman George C. McConnaughey on Tuesday testified against the proposal in behalf of the FCC majority. Comr. John C. Doerfer, also Tuesday, said he was in favor of the proposal, but indicated his stand was not a "full blossom" one. The proposal has been espoused by CBS and others as a solution to the problem broadcasters face under the equal time provisions. Under the present law when a qualified political can didate speaks on a broadcast facility, the station or network is required to furnish his opponent equal time, no matter how small the party he represents, under the same conditions. This has left the broadcaster open to demands by candidates of splinter and minority parties. Mr. Salant told the House group Friday that if Congress amends Sec. 315 (a), CBS will offer free time on its radio and tv networks for a modern-day electronic version of the LincolnDouglas debates between the major 1956 presidential candidates. "Put bluntly," he said, "Sec. 315 (a) stifles and suppresses public information and knowledge; its consequence is to inhibit radio and tv from fulfilling to the fullest potential their roles of informing the electorate." He said HR 6810 is designed to reach these defects by providing an effective remedy while at the same time preserving the basic principles which "we believe the Congress sought to achieve in enacting Sec. 315 (a)." He said HR 6810 will not permit favoritism among candidates, but only permits broadcasters to exercise their news and journalistic functions by informing the public. Today, he said, tv can make it possible for 115 million people to see the presidential candidates debate, and radio makes it possible for 140 million to hear them. During the Lincoln-Douglas debates in 1858 only about 75,000 people saw and heard Lincoln and Douglas, he said. Sec. 315 (a) would bar CBS from broadcasting the debates if they could be arranged next fall, he said, with the practical result of "dropping an iron curtain between voters and candidates." He said if debates could have been arranged between Gen. Eisenhower and Gov. Stevenson in 1952 and CBS had presented them free, the network also would have been required to give time to each of the 16 other candidates. The law also tends to "dilute broadcasters' efforts ... to present significant campaign issues." Describing the spate of candidates of various parties, Mr. Salant said if CBS were to give time to the two major candidates for President the network would be likely to be confronted with requests for time from all the minor parties and would have to give the same amount of time to all of them. He cited difficulties also in the network's forum-type programs during election year in that all incumbent congressmen and senators were considered as "candidates" within the meaning of the Act, so that almost all were barred from the programs. Newpapers, he said, are under no such requirements. Mr. Salant said the assumption that a broadcaster can't be trusted to exercise fairness is a dangerous premise on which to base legislation. If a broadcaster is not considered qualified to make his own journalistic decisions, then "it can only be asked by what standard did the FCC give him a license in the first place," he said. He said there are other and far more powerful safeguards against the dangers of fair play than a rule of "enforced mathematical equality in these types of programs." One of these, he said, is listener and viewer reaction. If a broadcaster were so flagrantly unfair as to favor one candidate over another, he said, both the public and political parties would be quick to react. He called public reaction the "surest safeguard" against these dangers. Another, he said, are the basic ground rules of the Communications Act, which require a broadcaster to operate in the public interest, including the airing of all significant viewpoints on any important controversial issue. He said if the bill is enacted, CBS not only will invite major candidates to appear on its programs but will give greater news coverage to leading candidates and will give free evening time for the major presidential candidates to debate the main issues. "We believe," Mr. Salant said, "that this would provide a signifcant contribution to our democracy." Mr. Salant presented several editorials and articles from newspapers endorsing the network proposal. In his testimony before the subcommittee, Chairman McConnaughey concluded that any "limited benefits" from the proposed legislation would be "more than outweighed by the dangers of discrimination to candidates and by the administrative difficulties in enforcement." Comr. Doerfer, in dissenting to the FCC majority opinion, said he was in favor of entrusting to the broadcaster the responsibility for application of the "rule of reason (fairness)" in presenting candidates. He added that there is more to the problem than "meets the eye." Chairman McConnaughey noted that broadcasters have been subject to "equal time" requirements since creation of the old Federal Radio Commission in 1927, despite "numerous FINANCING KIDDER, PEABODY 6§P CO.— •Has underwritten over $1,000,000,000 of publicly offered securities in the past ten years. • Has negotiated private financings in excess of $680,000,000 in the past five years. — We Invite You to Call Upon Our Experience. Address inquiries to: ROBERT E. GRANT Kidder, Peabody & Co. First National Bank Building Chicago 3, Illinois Telephone ANdover 3-7350 KIDDER, PEABODY & CO. NEW YORK CHICAGO FOUNDED 186S BOSTON PHILADELPHIA SAN FRANCISCO Offices and correspondents in thirty other principal cities in the United States Page 54 • February 6, 1956 Broadcasting • Telecasting