Broadcasting Telecasting (Oct-Dec 1963)

CONTROLLED NEWS BATTLE It's waged on several fronts as hearing convenes; Goldwater attacks, military retreats slightly Broadcasters have been fighting Kennedy administration regulation of radio and television programing since the days of Newton Minow. Last week they joined other journalists and congressmen in extending the plaint. Charges that the administration is seeking control over all government information were made by witnesses at a Senate hearing, in floor speeches in Congress and in an address by the "hottest" unannounced GOP presidential candidate. A veteran Republican office holder said privately that the administration's entire handling of information was certain to be a campaign issue next year. Here are some of last week's developments: ■ Journalists told a Senate subcommittee that withholding of information by federal agencies is at its all-time worst and urged adoption of a freedom of information bill intended to reduce bureaucratic reliance on legal defenses for withholding. ■ Continuing to cite the Department of Agriculture's controversial offer of a market news wire service, Republican congressmen charged the administration with "managing the news" and competing with free enterprise. ■ The Republican Congressional Campaign Committee has been providing a suggested script to GOP congressmen that attacks the FCC's commercial standards as a step toward "the federal control of all the means of communication" (see page 50). ■ Senator Barry Goldwater (R-Ariz.) scored the administration in broader terms and said that today "all government action is weighed in terms of propaganda value." ■ The Department of State, whose "background briefings" have been criticized as forums for courting newsmen and making the administration look good, circulated questionnaires to former participants seeking an evaluation of the briefings and asking whether they should be continued. ■ The Department of Defense issued a new directive prohibiting military personnel from using force to restrict activities of newsmen at scenes of military accidents. ■ A House information subcommittee, which had pressed the Defense Department for that policy change, also began to evaluate detailed questionnaires of its own designed to catalog the entire federal government's information resources in funds, manpower and policies. Freedom Of Information ■ Broad62 (PROGRAMING) casters and their print media colleagues told the Senate Administrative Practices and Procedures Subcommittee that its freedom of information bill wasn't as strong as they would like, but enactment would be an improvement in helping them overcome capricious withholding of information by government agencies. Failing new legislation, however, repeal of the present law would be preferred, they said. "Bureaucratic interpretations of the law" have "too often" thwarted reporters' efforts in obtaining facts needed for public understanding of government, said Howard H. Bell, National Association of Broadcasters vice president for planning and development. The bill before the subcommittee contains some exceptions that would authorize withholding for specific statuatory or security reasons. Mr. Bell NAB's Howard Bell proposed another that would protect financial information broadcasters are required to give the FCC. He suggested the bill include a provision, already FCC policy, that would label information "of a confidential business nature" as "not open to public examination and inspection." The FCC concurred in a written statement. It appeared last week that the subcommittee would go along with the NAB recommendation although the Justice and Treasury departments testi fied against the bill, objecting that it would invade citizen privacy rights and encumber government investigative work. Agriculture's News Wire ■ Senator J. Glenn Beall (R-Md.) said in a floor speech Monday (Oct. 28) that "the appropriate congressional committee" should investigate the Department of Agriculture's market news wire. Congressmen have been sniping at the department's news service since it was inaugurated Aug. 1. But by last week Secretary Orville Freeman had let it be known that policies governing the service had been modified. Secretary Freeman announced that neither general news nor policy statements would be carried on the wire. He explained that the department had no intention of competing with existing news services. Secretary Freeman said the department was making it possible for anyone, such as broadcasters or newspapers, to tap the department's nationwide wire which regularly carries price and market information for department use. On Aug. 1, he said, the department announced that if someone wanted to pay the AT&T wire charge, they could use the service. Nothing more was intended, Secretary Freeman said. Goldwater On The Administration ■ Senator Goldwater told a luncheon of the Women's National Press Club in Washington Thursday (Oct. 31) that public relations has become the administration's "primary consideration." "Manipulation of the news by this administration has become a pretty big project," Senator Goldwater said. He cited use of U. S. Information Agency opinion polls, "abuse of truth and ethics involved in the propagandizing for compulsory medical care for the aged" in a televised election campaign spot, "censorship" during the Cuban Bay of Pigs invasion and "countless other cases of blackouts, distortions, fabrications and falsifications of news." News Directive ■ A seven-month battle by the House Foreign Operations and Government Information Subcommittee to prevent military personnel from using or threatening force against newsmen in civilian areas apparently ended Tuesday (Oct. 29) when the Defense Department announced the issuance of a new all-service information directive. Representative John E. Moss (D-Calif.), chairman of the subcommittee, hailed the announcement and said the directive achieves the objective of protecting legitimate defense secrets "by requiring them [military personnel] to get assistance from civilian law enforcement officials, and by requesting the cooperation of news media." Tabs On Federal Information ■ A spokesman for the information subcommittee reported last week that about BROADCASTING, November 4, 1963