Broadcasting Telecasting (Apr-Jun 1958)

GOVERNMENT continued COMMENT LIMITED ON INTERIM REPORT • Schwartz says it repeats • FCC commissioners silent Dr. Bernard Schwartz, fired two months ago as chief counsel of the House Legislative Oversight Subcommittee, last week said the subcommittee's recently released interim report [Lead Story, April 7] "basically repeats all of the charges made in my original memorandum." He also charged the subcommittee is operating on "borrowed steam." Appearing on College News Conference (ABC-TV. Sunday 2:30-3 p.m.) April 6, Dr. Schwartz told his youthful interrogators the "report is a good one [but] in certain respects it does not go far enough." This is especially true, he said, in that it tells the FCC to author its own code. He felt Congress should legislate such a code and that it should contain "criminal sanctions." With Congress home for the Easter recess (it reconvenes again today [Monday]), official reaction last week to the report was practically nil. All six FCC commissioners declined to comment. There still has been no indication of the time or subject of the next phase of hearings to be held by the subcommittee. Rep. Oren Harris (D-Ark.), chairman of the oversight subcommittee and its parent Commerce Committee, and other subcommittee members were not in Washington last week. However, several hearings (on non-broadcast matters) by other subcommittees of the House Commerce Committee were announced last Monday and these will involve most members of the oversight subcommittee. The "whitewash" charge against the subcommittee was repeated in the television appearance last week by Dr. Schwartz, who said it held hearings on the Miami ch. 10 grant "solely because the committee was on the spot." He said unauthorized public • disclosure of his Jan. 4 memorandum [Lead Story, Jan. 27] was "the only thing that induced the committee to hold public hearings." The memorandum charged members of the FCC with official misconduct and malfeasance in office; Dr. Schwartz later accused then Comr. Richard A. Mack of "pledging" his vote in the ch. 10 case. By a 7-3 vote, the committee had decided not to go into the misconduct charges and ch. 10 case, Dr. Schwartz stated. In "leaking" the report to the press, he said he was just trying "to get the public spotlight on this so it could not be hushed up." On the Miami ch. 10 grant, Dr. Schwartz said: "The decision on its face was so wrong that you began to wonder." The subcommittee, he observed, was "in the position of a group of fanatic vegetarians who were suddenly made the trustees of a butcher shop and told to promote the sale of meat." Dr. Schwartz further charged the subcommittee has not gone beyond what was investigated while he headed the staff. "Everything that has been developed . . . at the recent hearings was material developed while I was chief counsel," he charged. "So far as I know they have developed nothing of any importance in the two months since I have left. Indeed, the investigating staff has been immobilized during that time. How long can they continue on borrowed steam?" Robert W. Lishman, who succeeded Dr. Schwartz as chief counsel of the subcommittee, said last week his predecessor "undoubtedly was a diligent" individual but that there is "nothing in our files to show the results of that diligence. . . . Our files are extremely bare. ... I found them extremely disorganized." Although Dr. Schwartz said, during the tv interview, he had 17 tv cases under study, Mr. Lishman stated "there is an extreme lack of factual materials"' in the subcommittee files except on the Miami grant to National Airlines. (Rep. Harris has stated the investigators have 20-25 other comparative decisions under study.) In future hearings, Mr. Lishman promised last week, "smear techniques" will not be used and the subcommittee will have full facts and proof before names or charges are issued. Hitting the appointment of John S. Cross to succeed resigned Comr. Mack, Dr. Schwartz said the President had an opportunity to appoint a "really outstanding" person but instead "chose a man . . . described as a pedestrian bureaucrat." Stations Remain in Lamb Suit As Court Dismisses Owner Firms Two owners of Nashville tv stations were dismissed Wednesday as defendants in fouryear-old libel suits totaling $1 million, but charges against the two tv stations — WLACTV and WSM-TV — remained in court. Broadcaster-publisher Edward Lamb filed the suits in 1954, charging that he had been libeled by former Rep. Pat Sutton (D-Tenn.) in a 26V2 -hour telethon. One suit sought $500,000 damages from Rep. Sutton, WSMTV and its owner, National Life & Accident Insurance Co. The other sought the same amount from WLAC-TV, its owner, Life & Casualty Insurance Co., and the congressman. During the telethon on the two tv stations and six radio stations, Rep. Sutton reportedly referred to Mr. Lamb as an "avowed Communist." Mr. Lamb, at that time, was facing an FCC hearing on renewal of the license for his WICU-TV Erie, Pa. The FCC did not renew the license until 1957. Anti-Pay Tv Sentiment Heavy In Survey of Michigan District The residents of Michigan's Sixth Congressional District are 8-1 against pay tv, according to a survey taken by Rep. Charles E. Chamberlain (R-Mich.). One question in a 16-point questionnaire mailed by the congressman to constituents early in February asked: "Do you approve of the proposal to establish pay television on a trial basis?" All but 2,000 of the approximately 11,800 replies were tabulated by IBM, with 7,870 voting against a toll tv trial, 1,030 for a trial and 831 with no opinion. The remaining 2,000 responses were tabulated by Rep. Chamberlain's office and showed similar results. Of the overall total, 81% were against pay tv, 11% for a test and 8% expressed no opinion. Of those who expressed an opinion on the subject, "hundreds" commented on their reasons, Rep. Chamberlain's office said last week. Prior to the questionnaire, the congressman had received "as much mail on pay tv as on any domestic issue," his office reported. Opponents Set to Face Smathers Bill Hearing Opponents of a bill (S 2834) which would prohibit radio and tv licensees from publishing music or manufacturing or selling records will get their first chance to testify this week when hearings by the Communications Subcommittee of the Senate Interstate & Foreign Commerce Committee resume. The witness list for the Tuesday-throughThursday hearings includes several musicians and state broadcasting association presidents. The bill in question was introduced last summer [Government, Aug. 26, 1957] by Sen. George Smathers (D-Fla.). If it becomes law, the bill would force networks and the many stations owning stock in BMI to sell their interests and also would require the same groups to dispose of recording companies. Two weeks of testimony by proponents of the bill already has been taken [Government, March 24, 17] by the subcommittee, headed by Sen. John O. Pastore (D-R. I.). Sen. Pastore announced that after testimony this week, the hearings will reconvene May 6 with further testimony by opponents of the bill. Also, he said, the FCC will be asked to testify in late May or early June. The parent Commerce Committee has two hearings on broadcasting matters scheduled next week: April 22-23 on S 582 (by Sen. William Langer [R-N. D.]) prohibiting the advertising of alcoholic beverages in interstate commerce; beginning April 24 on S 2119 (by Commerce Committee Chairman Warren Magnuson [D-Wash.]) appropriating up to $1 million to each state for educational television. Witnesses scheduled to testify against the measure this week include — Tuesday — Sydney M. Kaye, board chairman and general counsel of BMI; James Howe, president, WlRA Ft. Pierce, Fla., and president of Florida Assn. of Broadcasters; Gene Autry, cowboy personality, multiple-station owner and member of ASCAP; Harrison Kerr, dean of College of Fine Arts, Oklahoma U.; Milton Mitler, president, WADK Newport, R. I., and president of Rhode Island Broadcasters Assn., and Ben Strouse, president, WWDC Washintgon and former president of Maryland-D.C. Broadcasters Assn. Wednesday — Gov. Frank G. Clement of Tennessee; country music personalities Roy Acuff, Eddie Arnold and Pee Wee King, all members of BMI; Grover Cobb, vice president, KVGB Great Bend, Kan., and presi Page 60 • April 14, 1958 Broadcasting