Government Control of News

iUniverse, Inc.

Contents

Introduction......................................................................................1Chapter 1 Television Journalism Begins............................................................5Chapter 2 Regulation of Television News Content Upheld by the Supreme Court.......................10Chapter 3 How FCC Regulations Suppressed News and Speech..........................................26Chapter 4 Congressional Investigations and Censorship.............................................64Chapter 5 Executive Branch Censorship.............................................................98Chapter 6 The FCC Revokes the Fairness Doctrine...................................................120Chapter 7 New Government Threats..................................................................133Conclusion........................................................................................176Notes.............................................................................................179Appendix 1 Excerpts from the Red Lion Decision....................................................225Appendix 2 Excerpts from the Failed Pension Plans Case............................................239Appendix 3 Excerpts from FCC Decision Revoking the Fairness Doctrine..............................261Appendix 4 FCC Report on Broadcast Localism and Notice of Proposed Rulemaking.....................269Index.............................................................................................275

Chapter One

Television news came into its own in 1948, after World War II, when the FCC resumed licensing of broadcast television stations. Although the number of electronic signals and stations was still limited, television network and station programming soon became a major source of entertainment and information for the American public. When political coverage on television news programs was created by American broadcasters, it was free of government oversight and interference.

The first broadcasts showed the nominations of the candidates for president of the United States at the political conventions in Philadelphia. AT&T had inaugurated regular, commercial intercity transmission of television pictures by coaxial cable. At first, this linked nine cities on the East coast from Boston in the north to Richmond, Virginia in the south, and reached seventeen television stations. Four television networks were launched—NBC, CBS, ABC, and Dumont.

Television News – An American Innovation

What turned out to be the beginning of a new nationwide, pervasive, and vital communications service with live, electronic images edited and delivered simultaneously to a mass audience was developed almost on the spot. The political conventions of 1948 were the first big political event for television news. The networks planned live television coverage of all the proceedings, both scripted and unscripted.

Engineers had to learn how to manage the new, large, and cumbersome television cameras to broadcast the news. The cameras of the time required intensely hot, bright lights and were installed in rooms and halls without air conditioning, in what was an especially hot summer in Philadelphia. Corporate network executives were uncertain whether the coverage would be successful or if the revenues from advertisers new to television would even begin to cover the costs.

Manufacturers of television sets were for it—television coverage of the conventions would sell TV sets. The political parties were all for it. They had selected Philadelphia because it was connected to the coaxial cable and it reach an audience served by television in nine cities. Advertisers had to decide whether to buy advertising time.

Some television stations would broadcast live. Those that could not would receive a kinescope, a film of a television picture, through the mail for broadcast the next day. There was a potential viewing public in the reception area with about three hundred and fifty thousand television sets in homes and public places. A third of America, 168 electoral votes' worth, would be "within reach" of a television set.

Leaders of Congress and other political figures could see the advantages of attending the convention and being available to the cameras. Reuven Frank, who was there in charge of production for NBC News, recounts the events in his book, Out of Thin Air: The Brief Wonderful Life of Network News. He concluded that the two conventions included every official, every legislator, every regulator "who could shape a radio or television company's right to exist. In network contacts with politicians in Philadelphia's restaurants and hotels, no one said a word about licensing—but no one forgot about it either."

Radio stars who had been sought as anchors for the convention coverage had declined. They did not know how to conduct television broadcasts in which their every gesture would be transmitted live to the viewing public. They had little interest in this new, upstart operation. Television's future was dubious at best. No one knew if it would be successful.

Those prevailed upon to try it unexpectedly became public figures of note. The face of the network anchor at a political convention would become the network news's "standard bearer," and this sometimes lasted for decades. Those adventurous anchors included Douglas Edwards, John Cameron Swayze, Walter Cronkite, Chet Huntley, and David Brinkley.

On Monday, June 21, 1948, the Republican convention was gaveled to order. Reuven Frank writes that for reporters, chasing down a story at the convention with a television camera was just not feasible given the camera's size and the need for big, hot lights. So cameras were positioned where the news director expected a significant event would take place. The first press conference carried on live television showed Governor Thomas E. Dewey, candidate for the Republican nomination for president, claiming the lead in promised delegates over Robert Taft of Ohio and Harold Stassen of Minnesota. There were many such firsts. Reporters learned the news by following the story themselves and then hurrying to a stationary camera to report it live, standing in the lights in front of the camera. Frank reports that Life made a substantial editorial contribution to NBC with help from their executives familiar with photo coverage and received some media promotion from that, but he could not find out why the "oldest, richest network agreed to share its moment with Life's 'promotion scheme.'" He asks, "Above all, where were NBC's lawyers? Nothing happens in broadcasting without lawyers."

"The intent was to cover news; whatever news there was ... What politicians considered interruptions was journalism to the news people from NBC and the magazines. They filled otherwise dull or empty time with remote broadcasts of panels and discussions, man-in-the-street interviews, and a dizzying array of special features." Among these was a "four-foot lady elephant, hired to promote the Taft candidacy ... [the elephant] made frequent appearances on all the networks when the Taft candidacy was being discussed. There were also serious, sometimes news making, sometimes substantive interviews, and there were times when no one could think of anything better to fill the...