Television digest with electronic reports (Jan-Dec 1954)

5 Personal Notes: Kenneth W. Bilby, ex-Carl Byoir & I Assoc., elected NBC v.p. in charge of public relations, coordinating all press, publicity, advertising, promotion & research activities; Davidson Taylor elected v.p. for public affairs, Richard A. R. Pinkham v.p. in charge of cooperative programs (Today, Home, Tonight) . . . Ellis Moore promoted to NBC press director under v.p. Sydney Eiges, replacing Richard Connelly, who returned to Young & Rubicam TV-radio dept. . . . E. P. H. (Jimmy) James, exKVOA-TV, Tucson, onetime MBS v.p. & NBC adv. & sales promotion director and founder of its research dept., named v.p. of A. C. Nielsen Co., with primary responsibility for developing new research techniques, will also serve as asst, to pres. A. C. Nielsen . . . Wm. R. Wyatt elected Nielsen v.p. in charge of eastern sales of station index . . . Willard E. Walbridge, ex-v.p. & gen. mgr. of WJIM-TV, Lansing, Mich, and WWJ-TV, Detroit, appointed gen. mgr. of new KTLJ, Houston, due by next Thanksgiving Day, reporting to pres. John T. Jones Jr., who also heads Houston Chronicle . . . Jay W. Wright leaves CBS radio engineering staff to return to native Utah as v.p. of KSL-TV & KSL, Salt Lake City; Orson Rogers, from ZCMI store, named treas. . . . Edwin Scott West promoted to finance mgr., GE broadcasting stations dept. . . . Robert K. Richards, NARTB administrative v.p. who . leaves Oct. 1, sets up public relations office at 1735 De t Sales St. NW, Washington . . . Rex G. Howell, KFXJ-TV, [ Grand Junction, Colo., appointed NARTB representative I on American Council on Education for Journalism; E. R. f Vadeboncoeur, WSYR-TV, Syracuse, named to accrediting : committee . . . John Fulton, mgr. of WQXI and upcoming I IP EBUTTAL to CBS editorial of last week by pres. L Frank Stanton, appealing for TV-radio’s right to t cover legislative hearings (Vol. 10:35), came Sept. 2 from Federal Judge Harold R. Medina of N. Y., who said presI ence of cameras and microphones makes it “well nigh imI possible” to ascertain the truth. Speaking over same TV-radio facilities, Judge Medina I said TV-radio brings out the “natural ham” of partici ' pants in any hearing, legislative or judicial. He said too that when a witness has such a vast audience as provided by TV-radio, “the temptation to say something sensational is hard to put down. At least, he may add a few minor conversations, which never took place.” He concluded; “In presenting the case in opposition, as it appeared to me, I have tried to get at fundamentals, what we lawyers and judges call the jugular vein of a case. Does the use of radio and TV in any substantial sense affect the process of ascertaining the truth when examining the witnesses or considering other proofs ? “I say it does, and that they constitute a psychological and very real barrier which, for all practical purposes, makes it impossible to get at the truth. And because of this I would exclude them, not only from courtrooms but from any other places where analogous efforts are being made to do justice on the basis of facts. That is where the legislative hearings come in.” Meanwhile, a lively debate ensued over a network’s right to editorialize. Speaking to NBC-TV affiliates this week in Chicago, chairman David Sarnoff defended right of a network to editorialize on matters of self-interest but said circumstances of each case should determine whether it ought to exercise that right. As to editorializing on partisan topics, he felt it would be unwise in view of necessity of according equal time to opponents, the unfairness of imposing an editorial policy which might be contrary to views of affiliates, plus possibility that such action might make networks subject to licensing. He said that if a network is to have same right as I newspaper to editorialize on “public or political questions,” WQXI-TV, Atlanta, named chairman of 10th annual Georgia Radio & TV Institute to be held Jan. 26-28 • . . Francis J. Haney, recently research engineer on classified projects at Langley Field, Va., returns to WCAU-TV, Philadelphia, as gen. engineer in charge of color . . . J. Birney Blair promoted to commercial mgr., Charles E. Lohnes to operations mgr., KHQ-TV & KHQ, Spokane . . . Clarence W. Jones and Franklin Mitchell, both from WJR, Detroit, named chief engineer and program director, respectively, of upcoming WJRT, Flint (Ch. 12) ... Lionel Wittenberg, ex-WCCO-TV, Minneapolis, named chief engineer of upcoming WTVW, Milwaukee . . . Bruce Joyner promoted to chief engineer, Dave Hume to program director of KTVU, Stockton, Cal. . . . Arthur S. Katz, west coast editor of Bulletin of the Copyright Society of the U.S.A., heads legal dept, of Paramount’s KTLA, Los Angeles, replacing Isadore Rosenblatt . . . James Burke promoted to assignment editor of unified CBS news setup, David Zellmer named exec, producer of TV news, Robert Skedgell for radio news . . . Bernard London rejoins Kudner in charge of Schick’s sponsorship of one quarter of 40 pro football games on DuMont . . . Leonard Elliott establishes TV-radio consultation service for ad agencies at 15 W. 44th St., N. Y. . . . Forrest Owen Jr., TV-radio director of Geoffrey Wade’s Hollywood office, named mgr. of N. Y. office . . . Ben K. West, ex-KEDD, Wichita, named promotion mgr. of upcoming WINT, Waterloo-Ft. Wayne . . . Everett Holies has resigned as MBS Washington news director, succeeded by Robert F. Hurleigh, who was producer for Fulton Lewis Jr. . . . Elenore Guinchi named Advertising Council’s TV-radio service mgr. it must have same political rights. “Thus,” he said, “a network could be a Republican network or a Democratic network, or the network of some other legally recognized political faith. It so happens that now there are only 4 TV networks, and it is conceivable that all 4 networks could become Republican, or all 4 might become Democratic networks. Surely this cannot be anyone’s intention, for such a condition would be highly undesirable.” He said Stanton “picked the right issue” in demanding equal access for TV-radio with newspapers in covering l)ublic hearings, but “I regret exceedingly that he has confused a specific case with a general pidnciple, by adding the word ‘editorial’ on the TV screen.” He said NBC had never engaged in editorializing “and we are not ready to abandon our policy.” Of course, he added, “we shall watch the new developments as they go along and study the reactions they produce.” CBS had no direct comment on Saimoff’s remarks, but a spokesman said, “We’re not posing as experts in every field — but we’ll speak up from time to time on issues on which we have some knowledge and something to say.” It was made clear that CBS has no intention of editorializing on a lot of partisan political issues, like a newspaper, but would speak up on matters of industry and selfinterest. Another who spoke up this week for TV-radio’s right to equal access with newspapers to public hearings was NARTB pres. Harold E. Fellows who told American Legion convention in Washington that ban on live coverage of hearings on censure of Sen. McCarthy by Senate committee headed by Sen. Watkins (R-Utah) is a threat to freedom of the press. He said “if Congressional committees think they look bad in the camera, the solution is not to break the camera.” Note: Sen. McCarthy himself, aroused by what he termed erroneous headline in Washington Star on censure heai’ings, said it was example of false reporting which wouldn’t have occurred if TV had been allowed to cover hearings.