NAB reports (Jan-Dec 1942)

courage the organization of neighbors to help themselves through cooperatives.” When the League approached us, the program for which they proposed to buy time was obviously designed not only to sell the cooperative movement generally, but to obtain additional members for its member cooperatives. In our opinion, the script for the first broadcast violated NBC program policies in many respects and would not have been acceptable to us for broadcasting in the form in which we received it. The particular NBC program policies which seemed to us to have been violated by the script are as follows: “Statements which tend to undermine an industry by attributing to its products generally faults and weaknesses true only of a few, and statements which are derogatory to an individual, an institution, a group or an industry must be avoided. “Commercial programs shall not refer to any com¬ petitor, or his products, directly or indirectly. “Statements of prices and values must be confined to specific facts. Misleading price claims or mislead¬ ing comparisons tend to challenge the integrity of all advertising and must not be used.” Assuming, however, that the script might have been rewritten to comply with the above policies, still the pri¬ mary purpose of the program, from the League’s advice to us, was to acquire additional members for the consumer cooperatives which are members of the League. NBC has had a very long established policy which prohibits the acceptance on a commercial broadcast basis of any planned campaign that solicits or promotes membership drives. Under that policy we would not sell time for membership drives on behalf of any organizations. The counterpart of this policy is another NBC policy under which we do not sell time to promote the purchase of specific stocks, bonds, properties, etc. Furthermore, so far as the proposed program purported to further the “cooperative movement,” as opposed to other methods of distribution followed in the United States today, it was controversial in nature. NBC has long had a policy of not selling time for the broadcasting of con¬ troversial issues, except in the case of political broadcasts during campaign periods. This policy is the rule of the broadcasting industry. In light of these obvious violations of NBC pi'ogram policies, we had no alternative but to refuse the business as applied to WTAM. Under instructions from the licensee of KDKA, which advised us that the program likewise violated similar policies of that station, we declined to sell time for the program over KDKA as well. At the time the program was turned down, we made clear to the League that we had no policy against selling time to them, or their members, subject to our policies, for the purpose of selling products or the services of particular cooperative stores. The fact of the matter is that we have often sold time to various cooperatives for the purpose of selling their various products. Furthermore, I believe it will interest you to know that in balancing our program content, we have from time to time made sustaining time available to the proponents of the various phases of the cooperative movement, during which they discussed the merits and methods of functioning of cooperatives. In fact, we have given sustaining network time to The Cooperative League of the U. S. A. itself. It is interesting to note that the NBC policies and those of the industry against selling time for membership cam¬ paigns and for the broadcasting of controversial subjects have stood the test of time. On the subject of controversial issues, I quote the follow¬ ing from the Code of the National Association of Broad¬ casters : “Time for the presentation of controversial issues shall not be sold, except for political broadcasts. There are three fundamental reasons for this refusal to sell time for public discussions and, in its stead, providing time for it without charge. First, it is a public duty of broadcasters to bring such discussion to the radio audience regardless of the willingness of others to pay for it. Second, should time be sold for the discussion of controversial issues, it would have to be sold, in fairness, to all with the ability and desire to buy at any given time. Consequently, all possibility of regu 628 — October 30, 1942 lating the amount of discusison on the air in propor¬ tion to other elements of properly balanced program¬ ming or of allotting the available periods with due regard to listener interest in the topics to be dis¬ cussed would be surx’endered. Third, and by far the most important, should time be sold for the discussion of controversial public issues and for the propagation of the views of individuals or groups, a powerful public forum would inevitably gravitate almost wholly into the hands of those with the greater means to buy it.” The second and third points made by the NAB Code apply equally to programs dealing with controversial issues and those designed to promote the sale of memberships. Cordially yours, (S) Niles Trammell. In this connection. Representative Gehrmann (Prog.Wis.) introduced the following resolution in the House (H. Res. 564) : Whereas the Cooperative League of the United States of America has reported in a resolution formally adopted at the Thirteenth Biennial Congress of the league that the National Broadcasting Company and the Columbia Broadcasting System had unfairly and unjustly dis¬ criminated against the league by denying the league the opportunity to purchase radio time; and Whereas this report of the Cooperative League of the United States of America raises a very vital question as to the necessity for amendments to the Communica¬ tions Act of 1934: Now, therefore, be it Resolved, That the Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, or any duly authorized subcommittee thereof, is authorized and directed to obtain such facts as the Cooperative League of the United States of America, the broadcasting companies, the Federal Communications Commission, the Department of Justice, and other Govern¬ ment agencies and other groups or persons may have bearing on the accuracy of the charges of discrimination against cooperatives and others by the major broadcasting companies in the sale of their radio time; and on the question whether the Federal Communications Act of 1934 should be further amended to authorize the Federal Communications Commission to prevent such discrimina¬ tion, or should be otherwise amended to deal with the problem of granting further authority to the said Commis¬ sion by restricting or affecting the power of said broad¬ casting companies. The said committee or duly author¬ ized subcommittee is authorized and directed to secure the assistance of other Government agencies in the investiga¬ tion hereby authorized and to report to the House the facts ascertained in the course of the investigation and the recommendations therein. For the purposes of this resolution, the committee or any duly authorized subcommittee thereof is authorized to hold such hearings, to sit and act at such times and places during the sessions, recesses, and adjourned periods of the House, to require by subpena or otherwise the attendance of such witnesses and the production and impounding of books, papers, and documents, to administer oaths, and to take such testimony as it deems advisable. BRIDGES COMPLAINS . Senator Bridges, of New Hampshire, has sent a tele¬ gram to members of the FCC complaining about broadcasts on Station WMUR at Manchester, New Hampshire. In his wire the Senator stated: The radio voice of New Hampshire Inc. with a principal place of business at Manchester, New Hampshire, operating Radio Station WMUR, whose principal stockholder and director at the time of incorporation and presumably still is Francis P. Murphy of Nashua, New Hampshire, a candidate for election to the United States Senate, broadcasts daily in supposedly news broadcasts political statements v/holly designed to promote the candidacy of Mr. Murphy and to discredit other candidates. These broadcasts are not confined to an impartial broadcast