Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1962)

Salinger agrees to talk on government news NAB FREEDOM UNIT'S PLEA ACCEPTED: ALL MEDIA INVITED A top-level government-news media conference on information policies of the Kennedy administration has been agreed to by Pierre Salinger, presidential news secretary, at the request of the NAB Freedom of Information Committee. Frank Fogarty, vice president of Meredith Broadcasting Co., is committee chairman. The White House agreed with NAB that all news media should be eligible to participate if they desire. No date for the meeting has been set. Mr. Salinger suggested the session be held "somewhere away from Washington." Participating on the NAB committee are Radio-Television News Directors Assn. and Radio-Television Correspondents Assn. All agreed the conference should include specific complaints involving the management, manipulation and suppression of news. At its Dec. 13 meeting in Washington the NAB committee voiced concern over recent Washington developments restricting the free flow of information. It delivered the following statement to Mr. Salinger: "All Americans have an inherent right to know everything about the operation of their government short of matters truly affecting national security. National security is a joint responsibility of government and the governed. We, as dedicated broadcasters, continually demonstrate our recognition of the great responsibilities of government, especially under current world conditions. But any attempted manipulation, management or control of information is abhorrent in a free society. The Cuban crisis has demonstrated the obvious need for a full discussion of government information policies with the nation's news media. Therefore, the committee invites top government officials to a conference on these problems. The NAB will ask non-broadcast news media to co-sponsor such a conference." The NAB committee lauded NAB President LeRoy Collins for his speeches on freedom of information and commended Howard H. Bell, NAB vice president, for his activities as staff executive assigned to the committee. Attending the Dec. 13 meeting, besides Mr. Fogarty, were Grover C. Cobb, KVGB Great Bend, Kan.; Ann M. Corrick, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co. (Radio-Television Correspondents Assn.); Robert H. Fleming, ABC (for ABC and RTNDA); John W. Guider, WMTW-TV Poland Spring, Me.; Jack Harris, KPRC-AM-TV Houston; William B. Monroe Jr., NBC; Stephen J. McCormick, MBS; Weston C. Pullen Jr., Time Inc., and Bill Small, CBS. San Diego court halts prisoner interviews A blackout on interviews with prisoners under the jurisdiction of the court has been imposed at the San Diego county jail after a judge's condemnation of such an interview by a news man for KFMB-TV San Diego. Prisoners whose trials have ended in convictions are under the court's jurisdiction until they have been sentenced. After the 10-week trial of Adolphus Hohensee, health lecturer, and the jury's decision that he was guilty of defrauding the public through false curative claims for his 'Ambrosia of Gods," Harold Keen, commentator at KFMBTV, interviewed Mr. Hohensee in the jail. The interview did not discuss the trial and whether the prisoner felt he had received fair treatment, Mr. Keen said. "I asked him only about happenings at the jail, such as his reportedly 'passing out' when he was sprayed with disinfectant, standard treatment for all new prisoners, despite his protestations that he was allergic to the disinfectant and that it was against his religious beliefs. "Without having seen the sound film interview, Judge Hewicker [John Hewicker of the San Diego Superior Court] blasted me and said I should be indicted by the grand jury for obstructing justice. We rushed a transcript to him and after he read it he said that this particular interview was all right but that he is opposed to all such interviews because of what might be said. This seems to me to be prior censorship for fear of what might happen that threatens the freedom of the press and is in violation of the law." An attempt to interview another convicted prisoner after the Hohensee case was prevented by jail attendants, Mr. Keen said. VA's Bedside Network opens funds campaign The Bedside Network of the Veterans Hospital Radio & Television Guild, has opened its annual fund-raising campaign. The non-profit organization is supported by public and industry contributions. It makes radio-tv technical and professional assistance available to Veterans Administration hospital patients who wish to participate in productions for the radio and tv closed circuit entertainment network. The Bedside Network, begun 15 years ago in a VA hospital, now serves 115 VA hospitals around the country. Some broadcasting figures active in the Bedside Network include Arthur Hull Hayes, president of CBS Radio; Stanley Adams, president, American Society of Composers, Authors & Publishers; Donald F. Conaway, national executive secretary of American Federation of Television & Radio Artists; Claude Barrere, executive director, International Radio & Television Society; Howard Bell, vice president for industry affairs, National Assn. of Broadcasters; and Stephen C. Riddleberger, president, Messrs. Salinger (I) and Fogarty 50 (GOVERNMENT) BROADCASTING, December 17, 1962