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Show Bennett says MNS unworthy, unjustifiable Senator Wallace F. Bennett (R-Utah) will tell the Senate A g r icultural Approproations Subcommittee that a Department Depart-ment of Agriculture Market News Service "is unnecessary, unworthy, uneconomical and unjustafiable." The Utahn said "This Agriculture Agri-culture Department version of Russia's Tass News Agency is ill-advised and an insult to the nation's legitimate news gatherers." gath-erers." The Subcommittee is now considering appropriations for fiscal year 1965 for the Argi-culture Argi-culture Department. Included in the USDA budget is an item it-em calling for a $135,000 increase in-crease for the Market News Wire Service which began on August 1, 1963. "It is my feeling that the committee should not only eliminate the $135,000 item, but should file in its report a statement abolishing the Market Mar-ket News Wire Service," he said. "The entry of the U.S. Department of Agriculture into in-to the news service business is not only in direct competition with privately owned news services, but is in direct competition com-petition with the very Constitution Consti-tution of the United States." He said, "The dangers of this tempting tool for news management are very obvious. If the government is to establish estab-lish itself as a seller of market mar-ket news, it, of course, edges toward a position in which it could sell propaganda disguised disguis-ed as news." He asked, "What's next a State Department, Interior Department or Federal Power Commission News Service?" "This USDA Service strikes at the very heart of our constitutional con-stitutional system and if permitted per-mitted to grow, it very easily could weaken the press freedom free-dom guarantee under the first amendment of the Constitution," Constitu-tion," he said. The Utahn also said he would bring to the Committee's Commit-tee's attention a bill which he is sponsoring calling for elimination elimi-nation of government competition compe-tition with private enterprise. He listed a number of key senators sen-ators who were co-sponsors of the measure. "One of the reasons for this legislation is to prevent establishment estab-lishment of tax-payer subsidized subsi-dized agencies such as the Market News Service." he said. "It is alarming to see that these Government programs pro-grams rather than coming to an end, are being sharply increased." in-creased." He said, "It is obvious that a good deal of money can be saved by getting the government govern-ment out of competitive bus-iiness, bus-iiness, and the Market News Service is an excellent place to begin " The Utahn said that "I have considered America's press as a precious thing our number num-ber one protection against government big or little, bad or good. The smallest attempt at-tempt to move into this field at the expense of the taxpayer tax-payer yet must be vigorously vigorous-ly resisted. The Market News Service should be eliminated forthwith." |