| Show loc F karts washington digest 1 AT I 1 U S alone of all world Is doil there real freedom of speech ve fat all or stubbing bing 0 sims signs n recently indicate all Is not well admin adain 1 I tirades A against t ainest press become frequent di ina nt concerted effort to get rid of critics 1 r and 53 by WILLIAM BRUCKART 3 9 zia service national press washington D C E washington one of ameris amens arba greatest and most glorious tra ons is the jealousy with which its elf ettal I 1 1 zens guard the right of free 0 t tech and a free press there is nation in the world now and ira ta te ae a e never has been one where eassa 1 h freedom for expression of i is accorded as we have in the 1 l cited states for proof if proof 1 needed simply take the old atlas of 0 TO d examine the countries one by s la e and abundant evidence will be ind here alone in all of the rid can an individual or a group ve its untrammeled say there have been some signs late however that are disturbing I 1 i not mean to overemphasize over emphasize wf mn era em by a discussion of them but e greatest lesson that I 1 have arned is that the american people III correct conditions or prevent leir development if they know hat the facts are and find them jb 14 iverse QI aila during the last several months ere have been frequent tirades M the press of the nation fame of the denunciations have ame from president roosevelt in aply to press criticism of some of lis ais policies other administration r spokesmen pok esmen have followed the lents lead notably among them and certainly the most vicious is the she secretary of the interior harold L ickes who seems in this in stance to be the lord high chief verbal executioner of opposition J friters and newspapers mr Roosevel ts recent assertion that some newspaper owners are deliberately libera Ubera tely misrepresenting the facts ind mr ickes assertion that our newspapers are not as free as they ought to be in a democracy constitute serious accusations even after one forgets how constantly mr ickes gets out on a limb it seems to me therefore that there ought to be some clarification of the situation it might be asked a and nd properly I 1 believe why mr roosevelt and mr ickes do not point out those newspapers that are charged in effect as plain liars I 1 lAd administration ministration seeks to get rid of the critics now to turn abruptly from one phase of the situation to another attention should be directed to the recent bill introduced in the senate by senator wheeler the montana democrat the bill proposes reorganization of the federal communications commission the agency that controls radio radio of course is the free speech just as the newspapers are the free press that is one of the guarantees of the mat national ional constitution there can be no doubt that the federal communications commission is shot through with dissension there is no doubt that it has developed one of the worst messes in government supervision of any industry it is a shameful situation and there appears to be no solution except to get rid of the bulk of the personnel from the commissioners on down the line until all trouble lin akers have been eliminated I 1 have written frequently in these col aunins that the best law can be destroyed is by selection of bums to administer it and the general appraisal here is that the members of the federal communications com are a pretty sickly lot of government officials the appointments the commission has made also do not 6 constitute a list of mental giants well you ask how does this have anything to do with president roose belts denunciation of the newspapers where does it touch free speech that may be adverse to the new deal administration the answer lies in a belief now iteld by a great many observers in washington that somewhere in the administration is a concerted effort to get rid of the critics there is little political pressure that can be exerted upon the newspapers because they will speak their views through their columns but with the radio government supervised li 11 censed ceased a weighty club over its head at au all times the situation is different radio news neut commentators Elina eliminated ted from air waves some things have happened lately that bear recounting just as an example and to cite only one case boake carter is oft off of the air as a news newa commentator he w was as a severe and at times a vindictive critic of the new deal A former friend of the new deal dr stanley high recently wrote in the saturday evening post that carter was kept out of new contracts by the administration there have been frequent recurrences of the rumor too that W J cameron Cam cron who speaks for the ford motor company was marked by administration trouble shooters as a speaker who ought to be eliminate ed from the air waves mr cam cron continues on the air gen hugh S johnson former boss is a pain in the neck for the new deal as well but nothing has happened to him yet other rumors of the type could be mentioned but I 1 was asked how any body in the government would dare to interfere the same letter asked how such ends could be achieved A few paragraphs earlier I 1 referred to governmental supervision licensing etc that is the answer to the question any radio station gets a license for only a short period renewal of that license depends according to law upon compliance with federal communications commission regulations and the laws provisions this would seem to leave only a limited discretionary power it is a case however like the army officer making an inspection of a buck privates barracks ithe it if he wants to find dirt he will find it in the case of the radio station its owners live in dread of censure and I 1 suspect they are generally amenable to suggestions from headquarters in washington presidents trusted adviser drafts reorganization bill so to link the roosevelt denunciation of newspapers and the wheeler radio bill one has only to know that ch chairman al aman frank the presidents most trusted radio adviser largely drafted the wheeler reorganization bill that measure it should be added reduces the communications commission to a membership of three there would be administrative assistants appointed for each of the major types of communication and thus one individual becomes czar of radio another of wire communication and so on and while the members of the commission must be named by and with the advice and consent of the senate the administrative assistant may be anyone who has the necessary political pull I 1 repeat that the statements related above represent the belief of a good many persons one of the swift changes that has taken place in this country is the switch in the attitude of the bulk of the newspapers it will be recalled that when mr roosevelt and the new deal took over the government there were so few editorial criticisms of the presidents program that any outcry was negligible in eff effect act the ne corps of news writers who attended the presidents twice a week press conferences accepted c his statements without equivocation oca tion or without question it was a press relationship more friendly than any other president ever had then some of the new deal ideas proved flops and editors started asking questions their washington correspondents searched deeper than just official handouts it was about this time that the personnel of various agencies for press relations began to undergo expansion time after time well known correspondents were hired and they could not be blamed because the jobs were lucrative I 1 was offered one by coincidence of course the quantity of statements for the press increased accordingly once he laughed at them but things have changed A few years ago mr roosevelt dealt with the few editorial cr criticisms iti in masterful fashion by laughing about them that was the attitude of most department and agency heads but things have changed now to the extent that editorial criticisms and unfriendly stories or stories that include information beyond the handouts released from government sources become the subject tor for vitriolic attack from government quarters I 1 have no idea how long the campaign against the press may run it surely has plenty of momentum now and there is plenty of money mone available for press relations work mr ickes said that the mod ern newspapers can dish it out but bul cannot take it I 1 wonder if mr ickes can take it after dishing it i out it has been my conviction always that the best censorship that america ac a can have is the censorship of the newspaper reader and more recently the censorship of the radio listener no newspaper can go on and on when its columns carry untruthful or unsound material the radio can not go on unless its programs are arc proper and popular because it continues to be easy to turn off the switch and silence the speaker nor are we in this country compelled to listen to some demagogue in washington or in a state capital and all of this leads up to the question is there an attempt being made at censorship if there is it is time tor for us all to know about it 0 newspaper union |
