Ieman• orts June.,l964

The Press and Foreign Policy Robert J. Manning

W·e Need :!\'lore Sharply-Pointed Newspapers Dwight E. Sargent

Interpreting the Soviets Henry Shapiro

Reporting Asia Chanchal Sarkar

I Local TV Tries More News Murray Seeger

Code on Pre-Trial Publicity-Dwight Sargent Nieman Curator­ Nieman Notes-Canada-U.S. Relationships 2 NIEMAN REPORTS toward Canada. We affirm this to be the bedrock premise on which the relationship stands. Our ability to be hopeful about the problems we face rests on our confidence that this NiemanReports "fact of life" is today a premise of American life itself, not merely a policy of United States diplomacy. VOL. XVIII., NO 3 JUNE 1964 We believe that the most pressing current problems in the relationship are in specific areas of commerce, finance Published quarterly from 77 Dunster St., Cambridge 38, and labor affairs, and more generally in our cultural re­ Mass. Subscription $3 a year. Second-class postage paid at Boston, lations. Massachusetts. Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni Council. Since the basic concern of each country after its national Piers Anderton, New York City; Barry Brown, Washington, D.C.; survival is the economic well-being of its people, trade is a Norman A. Cherniss, Riverside, Calif.; John L. Dougherty, Rochester; matter of central, continuing consequence to both. To­ John 0. Emmerich, Jr., Baltimore; Saul Friedman, Houston; Thomas H. Griffith, New York City; A. B. Guthrie, Jr., Great Falls, gether the two countries enjoy the largest bilateral trade Mont.; John M. Harrison, University Park, Pa.; Weldon James, Louis­ in the world. But as in so many other aspects of the relation­ ville, Ky.; William G. Lambert, Los Angeles; Francis P. Locke, ship, the American market is more important to Canada than Riverside, Calif.; Joseph Loftus, Washington D. C.; Frederick W. vice versa. Over 60 per cent of Canada's exports are to Maguire, Columbus, 0.; James H. McCartney, Washington; W. F. Mcllwain, Garden City, N. Y.; Harry T. Montgomery, New York the United States, while about 20 per cent of United States City; Frederick W. Pillsbury, Boston; Charlotte F. Robling, Evan­ fXports _are sold to Canada. However large this disparity, ston, Ill.; Dwight E. Sargent, New York City; Kenneth Stewart, Canada is still the United States' most important single Berkeley, Calif.; John Strohmeyer, Bethlehem, Pa.; Walter H. Wag­ goner, New York City; Melvin S. Wax, San Francisco; Lawrence G. market and the decisive consideration is that this two-way Weiss, Denver, Colo.; Louis M. Lyons, Cambridge, Chairman. trade is critical to employmnet and living standards in both countries. The well-being of both countries requires that they ex­ A !Case of Imbalance tend their existing policy commitments to freer trade. For the United States we believe it is clear that this can best be Canada and the United States done by energetically pursuing its present effort to achieve the multilateral reduction of trade barriers on a non-dis­ The 25th American Assembly at Arden House, Harri­ criminatory basis through the so-called "Kennedy round" man, New York, dealt with Canadian-American relations of negotiations under GATT. for four days in April. At its conclusion the group issued We do not see an opportunity now for an American the following statement as their consensus: initiative to establish a genuine free trade relationship be­ The Canadian-American relationship is conspicuous for tween Canada and the United States. We believe that such both its stability and its vitality. It is also characterized by a step would require, in addition to deeper American intimacy, basically complementary economies and the understanding, a further clarification of fundamental candor of its dialogue. Geography and history, and other national purposes on the part of Canada. We urge that the component elements of the relationship, have created out United States be prepared to respond to any possible of two sovereign states a unique international system with future interest and initiative of Canada in a bilateral free­ an individuality and an existence of its own. There are trade arrangement as an extension of our world-wide many international relations but no other such relation­ free-trade efforts. ship. The scale and intimacy of American industrial and The vitality of this relationship is attested by both the financial involvement in Canada are unique features of character of its problems and the transcending commit­ the relationship which are at once good, troublesome and ment of both countries to deal with these problems through perplexing. This involvement has come about through ' ' the daily processes of civilized agreement, and disagree­ the efforts of private citizens on both sides of the border. ment-processes which are increasingly more private than Its very extent is itself strong witness of a real need. The official. evidence at hand is abundantly clear as to the great It is profoundly important to every aspect and problem in benefit these American contributions have brought to the relationship of the United States and Canada that the Canadian economic development. The record to date two countries deliberately accept the independent exis­ does not demonstrate disadvantages to Canadian self-in­ tence of each other and their equal sovereignty. The dis­ terest from the presence of these American resources and parities of power between the two nations are such that activities. There can be no doubt however that there 1s awareness of these principles must pervade every American a continuing Canadian concern about the question. policy, every American act and every American attitude (Continued on page 18) NIEMAN REPORTS 3

Crossed ;Swords and ~Spilled lnl{ The Press and Foreign Policy By Robert J. Manning

Information gaps are probably inevitable in the best­ of 121 other sets of national goals or national appetites. informed societies and ours is no exception, however Keeping track of what is going on and translating it into clearly defined the issues of foreign policy may be. What terms understandable by large numbers of citizens is a task I have been struck by in the past few years are the special that challenges both the press and the government depart­ reasons for such a gap today-and the special peril it ments concerned with foreign policy, primarily, of course, holds. the Department of State and White House. The reasons lie, of course, in the nature of our world. The relationship of the press and the government in We live at the flood tide of change in all the continents. our open society is not a simple thing. It is at least as varie­ We are confronted with a totalitarian ideology that seeks gated as human nature, and vulnerable to human frailty. our destruction. And we are riding the crest of a revolu­ The traditional stance of the press confronting govern­ tion in science and technology. ment is the adversary relationship; its heraldic sign is Each of the challenges we face would tax the wisdom, crossed swords with bar sinister on a field of spilled ink. the ingenuity, and the patience of any generation of Ameri­ In domestic political matters excessive coziness between cans. Together they pose a test greater than any our na­ any element of the press and a reigning political group tion has confronted. Most acutely, they pose a test of quickly and properly draws criticism. public understanding. In the sense of foreign affairs, however, I question Since World War II we have catapulated to a position of whether the old-fashioned adversary relationship is suf­ world leadership and full world responsibility. Yet our ficient to the delicate task our nation faces these days on the training as a nation for such leadership and responsibility world scene. When the press prints the news, to an im­ has been minimal. The great and complex problems portant extent it makes the larger facts. What the press of this age are difficult enough for our policy-makers chooses to emphasize frequently becomes the postulates of to comprehend. How then are they to be ade­ public opinion (though I have some reservations on this quately explained to-and contributed to-the general point) and as such can become an important ingredient public? of policy. In such a situation is the public interest best This republic is in great peril when the public is in­ served when the press and government stand on separate adequately informed. We see in many parts of our country pedestals and snipe at each other across a mythical abyss? today the results of public confusion on questions of foreign I think that the answer is, "No"-and that journalism policy-a growing sense of frustration, among some groups, as well as government is aware of the need for something that has given rise to extremism; a quest for easy, quick "an­ more. I suggest that accurate reporting perhaps requires swers"; a search for scapegoats; a demand for such contra­ a closer relationship than may have been traditional, per­ dictory "solutions" as smaller budgets and "total victory," haps a closer one than some would consider Wise or higher tariffs and freer trade, cheap security and reckless possible. venture-someness. On the basis of long experience in journalism and two Without question, the subject matter of foreign policy is years' experience in government, I suggest a direct cross­ growing more complex. A great deal is happening all the fertilization between American journalism and American time in foreign affairs all around our planet and, with the government. Let me be as precise as possible, so as to advent of rockets, in outer space as well. avoid misunderstanding: the separation of journalism and We have our own national interests, our own set of government is as basic and as advisable as separation of foreign policies and foreign crises. These are diverse church and state. Government intrusion into the function­ and complicated to a degree that frequently agon­ ing of journalism-whether by censorship, by regulatory izes the most knowledgeable experts. But ours is a controls, by economic penetration or political manipula­ world of 121 other countries, of 121 other foreign policies, tion-would represent serious jeopardy to our political system. Robert J. Manning, Assistant Secretary of State for That accepted, there is more to be said about the subject. Public Affairs, used to cover the State Department for the Countless times in these last two years I have wished that United Press, later headed the Time-Life London bureau. officials in government knew more about journalism, its 4 NIEMAN REPORTS needs, its practices, its uses and its shortcomings. Even check conclusions. Apparently they feel their concoctions more convinced am I that journalists-most of them-need will clang more loudly if not muted by the facts. to know more, much more, about government, how it Leaving aside this category-in which, by the way, I works, why it works and, sometimes, does not work; how place none of the regular State Department correspondents decisions are made and how they are not made; what -it does seem to me that on the whole the job of communi­ are the facts as against the myths and misconceptions. cating information about foreign policy is one that the There is one direct way to accomplish this. Journalism press and the government have in common, not one in should encourage some of its top established hands, and which our interests are opposed. The basic elements of my some of its more promising new hands, to take leave for present job are remarkably similar to that of a reporter: to intervals of a year or two in government service. The gov­ get out the news-fast, accurate, and as complete as possible. ernment would profit from the infusion of versatility, Nearly always my associates-several of whom are also energy and enterprise that makes a good newspaperman. former newsmen-and I are in the position of working The newspaperman would become a wiser and more with, not against, the reporters who cover foreign news and valuable craftsman. On his return, the newspaper reader call us daily, if not hourly. would be better served and better informed. The opportunities for newspapermen in government Information flows from the State Department in many are not by an means confined to information work, (which ways. In testimony last year before Congressman Moss's in many ways is the least demanding and least rewarding subcommittee on Government Information James Reston of the many activities for which a competent newsman of the New York Times described the Department as a is fitted). The government careers of men like Carl Rowan, "gabby outfit." Ours is a house with many windows, and William Attwood and John Bartlow Martin, to name a its daily information output is enormous. Anyone who, as I few, suggest the high quality of service and imagination have, has served as a correspondent in a foreign capital that a journalistic background can produce. will vouch for the truth of the statement that nowhere in I suppose there are still some editors and publishers who the world are reporters given such complete and unfettered will shake their heads and maintain that a newspaperman access to the makers and shapers of foreign policy. As a who enters into public service somehow taints himself for practical matter, every State Department reporter has a further journalism. It seems unfortunate that such thinking government telephone directory which tells him what should survive the kerosene lamp and the automobile crank. every officer in the Department does, and who's in charge I can think literally of no activity that has been more edu­ of what desk, area, or section. A reporter is not confined cational to me as a journalist than these past two years in to a few known sources. Whatever the subject that arises, government. In a time when, as H. G. Wells says, "hu­ he can quickly pinpoint the individuals with responsibility man history becomes more and more a race between edu­ and can call them directly, by direct dial, without having cation and catastrophe," I heartily recommend a few to filter through a central switchboard. Even home tele­ semesters in Washington or at an Embassy overseas. phone numbers are provided-and are regularly used by Whatever steps might be taken to alter or improve the reporters with late-breaking deadlines. The newsmen old "adversary relationship," one point must be emphasized assigned to the State Department make wide use of this from the outset: it should neither suggest nor require any access-by-telephone every day. It is a source of information abdication of the critical faculties of the reporter and editor. at least as important as the regular press briefings by the Quite the contrary, the more thorough knowledge which Department spokesman and the Secretary of State. Natu­ skilled reporters today accumulate about what is happen­ rally, as in any area, he has to build his own network of ing in foreign affairs serves to invigorate, not weaken, the sources who are able and willing to serve him. But the function of responsible criticism. sources are there to be cultivated. Irresponsible criticism is, of course, a different matter but In addition, considerable use is made of background there is a very high correlation between misinformation, briefings. This is the device, treasured by reporters every­ or lack of information, and the kind of wild criticism that where, whereby a high official will discuss subjects, but graces the hate-sheets of the right and reveals itself in the not for direct quotation and not for attribution. The latent paranoia of a few newspapers and correspondents stories that result are generally authoritative and accurate, around the country. The reckless charges that pass for and they contribute greatly to the supply of information comment in these forums cannot survive exposure to in­ publicly available about United States foreign relations. formation. It is no coincidence that with rare exceptions They provide important guidance on the government's the writers who regularly produce the most startling accusa­ thinking on a given topic. tions about the State Department do not call my office or I have listened to a lot of nonsense about the so-called any other section of the Department to ask questions or iniquity of the background briefing, but most of it comes NIEMAN REPORTS 5 from distant critics who make me agree with Josh Billings tion is subject to the same acid tests of accuracy and rel­ that "it is better to know nothing than to know what ain't evancy as any other government pronouncement, and so." Anybody with experience in reporting knows two rightly so. things. One is that a reporter is only as good as his ability to separate fact from fancy, bogus from real. Another is that Let me examine another aspect of the government-press there is no such thing as goldfish-bowl diplomacy. Show relationship. It is frequently argued that it is government's me a businessman who conducts his business in a high­ responsibility to keep secrets, the responsibility of the press pitched voice at noon on Main Street and I'll show you a to get and keep them. "The press lives by disclosure" diplomat who does his work by talking out loud on the opined The Times of London in 1851. If a foreign front page of the Washington Post. agent came into the State Departmet and managed to pro­ Heisenberg's principle of uncertainty in nuclear physics cure secret information, he would be liable to prosecution has a close analogy in foreign relations: it is usually not and a heavy sentence. When a reporter does the same possible to describe a diplomatic situation publicly, how­ thing he wins praise from his editor and gets nominated ever accurately, without changing it and making it dif­ for prizes. The story is printed, and either way our enemies ferent. The public comment itself becomes part of the can read it. situation. An on-the-record statement by the Secretary of In the year 1964 I think that this simplified traditional State, be it a prepared speech or a response to a question, is view of the role of the government and the role of the instantly filmed, recorded, printed and otherwise com­ press is out of date. I prefer to think that the responsibility municated, with all the speed of modern telecommunica­ both for informing the public and for maintaining tions, to a mixed audience of friends, partners, skeptics certain areas of nondisclosure is one which is shared by and enemies all around the globe. Many are ready to seize the press and the government. To be sure, the press's re­ on a single ill-considered word and blow it up for propa­ sponsibility is heavily weighted towards full disclosure: ganda purposes. As a consequence, important comments I would not wish it otherwise. But I believe, and I think issued formally on the record by high officials often must be I speak for the majority of reporters, that we would lose planned as carefully as a surgical operation, so that no an important ingredient of the relationship of trust that is listeners anywhere can have reason to misunderstand or basic to how the press gets along with government if the abuse what is said. press did not recognize its responsibility in circumstances That is why most newsmen highly value the background of great national importance to help us keep some secrets. device, which permits a policy officer to speak freely and I feel that I am on solid ground when I say this be­ informally to let reporters in on his thinking without giving cause I know from my experience in the past year that with our cold war adversaries the same access. At the briefing rare exceptions the reporters who regularly cover the De­ conferences conducted twice a year at the Department for partment of State do recognize this responsibility. I know the press and other media a mixture of on-record and one reporter, for example, who is still sitting on a dramatic background discussions have been used. After the most first-person story of his involvement in a recent great in­ recent conference we asked the participants to comment ternational crisis. Many others have happened upon on this point; the 800 replies we received favored back­ or otherwise uncovered information which if immediately ground briefings by four to one. divulged would have caused us serious difficulties. They In a sense the background rule makes it possible for did not immediately rush it into print, recognizing that to the government to take a reporter into its confidence. do so would not serve their own interests as responsible This calls for good faith on both sides, and it is nearly journalists seeking to report the news accurately and fully, always present. The exceptions are happily infrequent, and might seriously prejudice American foreign policy ob­ though no less irritating when they occur. It is a pro­ jectives or national security. cedure that can be abused. It is an abuse, for example, for The responsibility for getting the news out is also one the government to use this method to float trial balloons that we share. A great many things happen each day only as a way to sample public opinion without choosing sides' a few of which come to public attention-not because they in advance, or in any way to mislead or misinform. It are kept secret, but because they are not considered news. can be abused by reporters who fail to maintain the dis­ The press itself is highly selective. Only a fraction of the tinction between it and on the-record briefings. But information that pours into a typical city room survives the despite these pitfalls, its over-all utility is great. The fact cutting and paring process called editing and makes its way that a knife can be used to kill is no reason to eat with our into print. Douglass Cater has written that the power fingers. The best safeguard against misuse of back­ of the press: grounders lies in the skill and integrity of the reporters Stems from its ability to select-to define what is themselves. What is said on background or not for quota- news and what isn't. In Washington on an average 6 NIEMAN REPORTS day, a good many hundreds of thousands of words are foreign news. Volume of information is not the problem; spoken, tens of dozens of "events" occur. The press what is needed rather is a more reflective approach to decides which of those words and events shall receive foreign news which relates the snippets to one another, the prompt attention of millions and which, like timber which locates an event in history as well as geography, and falling in a deep and uninhabited forest, shall crash which takes more profound account of the fact that other silently to the ground. people's domestic policies often influence their foreign policies. Several independent studies show that an average of 3 to 8 percent of general news space in American news­ Another more general characteristic of journalism today papers is devoted to foreign affairs items. The average should cause more concern than it seems to be causing. daily newspaper content of foreign news is 4 to 8 columns. The press today suffers from a bad case of complacency Foreign news actually sent by the Associated Press on and self-righteousness, and is noteworthy among all fra­ its main ticker averages 22,000 words per day, or 27 columns. ternities that perform public services for its lack of self­ If non-duplicating items from other wire services plus criticism. special reports are included, it can be calculated that the Our press today is keenly, sometimes even stridently, as­ average American daily newspaper provides its readers with sertive of its rights and prerogatives, but it has a bad case well under 20 per cent of the foreign news actually reported of laryngitis when it is time to talk about its responsibilities. each day. I simply do not think that is enough. If Congressman Moss will excuse me, I would like to say The problem of making manageable the vast outpouring that the intellectual quality of a great deal of the testimony of news on foreign policy that becomes available each day delivered to his subcommittee after the Cuban crisis was so challenges journalism in many ways. The press often low as to remind some of us of the old description of the still practices methods of make-up, construction and play Platte River in midsummer-two inches deep and a mile that were in use half a century ago. As a result, editors wide at the mouth. often seem to be overwhelmed by the torrent of events and When it somes to actual performance, I think the press their readers have served up to them a daily collection in this country can be described as not only the freest and of fragments. That approach to foreign affairs may have most imaginative, but also the most responsible and best made sense when the United States was involved in only in the world. (One could make some reservations; for ex­ one crisis at a time. It no longer suffices today when we ample, I would say that the very best in British journalism are participants or ring-side spectators to 15 to 20 crises surpasses most of the best in ours,) But we cannot afford at a time. The frequent result is that each day's news on to stop where we are and be satisfied. There is still too each topic is apt to be so brief, so fragmentary as to be much tendency among editors to operate on the old­ more misleading than no news at all. Too often, each day's fashioned presumption that the reader has the I. Q. of a fragment remains a fragment. As a result, in the words of 12-year-old child. There is still that ancient reflex that is the late Joe Liebling: mindful of the old Chicago city editor who once in anger Our present news situation, in the United States, called his staff together and said, "What this newspaper is breaking down to something like the system of water needs is some new cliches." There is great truth in the distribution in the Casbah, where peddlers wander indictment that the press is generally too greatly preoc­ about with goatskins of water on small donkeys, and the cupied by entertainment, by what it takes to reach the inhabitants send down an oil tin and a couple of pen­ easier side of reader interest. nies when they feel thirst. I have the impression that journalism is not doing enough to recruit and properly train top-level people. I have been Ironically this comes at a time when the national thirst struck in years since the war to find that newspapers and for foreign policy information is rising. The American peo­ magazines, even some very good ones, have to go out and ' I ple want to know what is happening, how it affects them, cajole people into journalism. The tendency to call it a pro­ what we are doing about it. By any indication, including fession and pay as if it weren't is still strong once you get public opinion polls, more people are concerned about away from the metropolitan areas. foreign policy than at any time in our history. Still one As for the long vaunted "power of the press," where hears editors insisting that "the people" don't want to read does that stand today? I confess that I am in a somewhat a lot of foreign affairs guff. I do not believe it. ambiguous state of mind; there are moments when I The inability of the daily media to keep abreast of this believe too many in government attach too much power rising level of interest is reflected in the success of other or influence to the press, then there are mornings when I enterprises, particularly magazines, which give at least question that this is so. I think we have to concede that the impression of providing a fuller, connected account of the power is indeed very great, but that in general the NIEMAN REPORTS 7 press today is powerful more as an exciter than a provoker, most penetrating analysis usually avoid. They see all too :wd fo r the most part a channeler of other peoples' ideas clearly the folly of trying to pick out who's ahead from and arguments. There has been a vast increase in analyti­ day to day or week to week. cal and interpretive reporting since the war, but still not One of the occupational hazards of trying to keep score a great deal of political, intellectual, theological or philo­ in foreign affairs is that it sometimes makes the practition­ sophical inspiration comes with the average newspaper in er look silly. Not even on the AP's weekly top ten listings America. do teams plunge from victory to defeat and back again with the erratic swiftness ascribed to U.S. policy. A reporter must always guard against reporting the plaus­ Coming back to my homeground, the handling of for­ ible as the actual, and this is certainly true in foreign af­ eign policy news, I would like to comment if I may on fai rs. What is likely or logical does not always happen in two other tendecies that seem to me to create problems foreign policy; reporting likelihoods as facts before they for all three elements-the newspapers, the readers and come true is not far removed, it seems to me, from other the government. kinds of misreporting. One is the newspapers' feverish preoccupation not with There is an important difference, it seems to me, be­ what has happened, but what is going to happen tomor­ tween the right of a reporter to pursue information about row. I know State Department correspondents who spend foreign policy or any other subj ect, and the responsibility literally hours trying to learn the names of new ambassa­ of his newspaper to print all the data thus uncovered. The dorial or other appointees before candidates have even been right of the reporter to try to find out what is happening is selected. One prestigious newspaper over a period of several limited only by his enterprise. I do not think any check months had two separate "exclusive" stories reporting that beyond present security restrictions should be placed on a a certain official had been picked as Ambassador to two reporter's right to cover the news, which should be different capitals. The diplomat did not go to anyone limited solely by his enterprise. But the obligation to dis­ of those posts, and when he was actually appointed to his close by publication is not so absolute. present post the newspaper neglected to report it. This The press discloses in the name of the public's right to over-preoccupation with getting ahead of events, to be the know. But the public also has a right to have its interests first to report what is going to happen results in a lot of defended and advanced in the field of foreign policy and wasted motion, a lot of incorrect or highly premature national security. These two rights may come in conflict, stories and any number of woes for government officials. and when they do, the public may well prefer success to More than that, however, it takes journalism's eye off the disclosure. There have been many episodes in the past big part of the game-what has happened, what does it two years-of which the Cuban missile crisis was the most mean ?-to the detriment of us all. dramatic-where the success of American policy depended Even the best writers and reporters-and I believe that very directly on the preservation of a period of privacy dur­ the corps that covers the Department of State and foreign ing which the policy could be formulated and carried affairs in Washington is by and large the most diligent and out, where disclosure wouud have spelled defeat. most talented group in journalism- are not always able Where in these cases does the public interest lie? The to rise above the mixture of bugaboo and custom that di­ public, I submit, has a right not to know when knowledge tates the structure and the play of stories. They are seri­ can gravely compromise our security or damage our foreign ously handicapped by their editors' assumption that it is policy. Many reporters, among them the most able, still possible to report the world's major convolutions as respect both these rights. But their responsibility is less if they were innings in a ball game. great than that of their editors, who are the ones who Nothing is easier, and few things are more misleading, finally select what is printed-and is thus disseminated to than to chart the tides of foreign relations with a limited the world at large, as well as the American people. It is set of phrases taken from the vocabulary of the sports not an easy responsibility to live with; it raises questions to page. The relations of nations in the world arena are not which no single answer is right. like a ball game; victory and defeat are not determined It is not for a government official to presume the ri ght by the number of times a ball goes out of the park. Evalu­ or the wisdom to settle this problem; it is journalism's to ating progress in the Cold War-forwards, backwards, contemplate, and I am sure that many of yo u have sideways, up or down-is a subtle process, one which the pondered it. 8 NIEMAN REPORTS

We Need More ;Sharply-Pointed Newspapers ''The Danger Today Is Too Little'Involvement, Not Too· Much" By Dwight E. Sargent

The term "playing politics" has an unsavory connotation. had not given it such an obscure and formidable name more My colleague and old friend, Bob Bates of the Meadville newspaper men would read it.) Tribune, wrote to me recently about another matter but In the colonial days every editor worth his salt became felt compelled to start his letter by saying that he didn't involved in the battle to free the colonies from British rule. agree with me that editors should play politics. In the con­ One of these was John Peter Zenger, German printer who text in which his mind was moving I would have to agree came to New York to establish the New York Journal. To with him. But there are many ways for editors to play his newspaper and those who helped him in his fight against important roles on the political field. Gov. Cosby, we today are indebted for the greatest legal Editors can play politics the way 400 hitters play baseball: turning point in the history of journalism. As a result of effectively, consistently, productively and for the good of his trial in 1736 it was legally established that truth was a the entire team. Also, we all have known those of the sand defense against charges of libel. lot variety who play the game unproductively and unpro­ Henry W. Raymond, one of the founders of the New fessionally, and selfishly. York Times, served as Secretary of the Navy. Horace But at least in baseball you have rules to follow. In editing Greeley's lists of political involvements are long and legend­ a newspaper you don't. What one editor's conscience dic­ ary. They culminated in that sad conclusion to his brilliant tates, another's may deny, and each in the context of his career-his defeat for the Presidency in 1872. Far be it from own newspaper, his own community and his own mission, me to downgrade one of the truly historic and distinguished may be right. men of our profession, but there was many a day when All I am trying to say in arguing that editors should the New York Tribune would have been better off if play politics is that we have a traditional and clear-cut ob­ Uncle Horace had been sitting in his editor's chair rather ligation not only to be spectators in the arena where political than traveling the hustings playing politics. decisions are made, and reporters of those decisions, but Louisville's Henry Watterson was another great editor participants in arriving at those decisions. A troublesome who served as a politician as well. He was a member of the problem for every newspaper editor is, and always will be, 44th Congress and served as a delegate to Democratic to determine the extent of that participation and the nature national conventions. of it. Too much personal involvement can be destructive to More recently, Charles Sprague, the editor of the Oregon objectivity; too little involvement leads to the bland neutral­ Statesman, was for eight years Governor of the state of ity of "on the other hand" journalism. The danger today is Oregon. Mr. Thomas M. Storke, that doughty old fighter of too little involvement, not too much. the Santa Barbara News-Press, which he has just sold to History provides us of some excellent examples of what Mr. Robert McLean of Philadelphia, served as a United to do and not to do. It has chapters on every conceivable type States Senator from California in 1938 and 1939, and he is of political relationship between newspaper men and proud of it. political men. Some of them are glorious chapters, others These, of course, are but a few examples of newspaper are inglorious. They all hold clues to proper professional men who have served time as formal politicians. They conduct. have played politics in the literal sense of the term. Is this One of the brightest chapters was written by a fighting good ? I would say that it is not necessarily bad. It depends writer, John Milton, who wasn't afraid to dirty his hands in on the character of the man, the tenor of the times and the politics. To him we are indebted for history's great fight for ability of the editor-politician to conduct himself in a way freedom from government censorship. His protest against to ennoble the cause of politics without tarnishing the cause the Presbyterian Church's disapproval of his divorce (from of journalism. his 17-year-old wife) led eventually to his battle against Many of the men I have just mentioned got into politics parliamentary intrusion of the writer's rights. He fought simply because they were such conscientious and dedicated what he called "the illiterate and illiberal," who wanted to editors they couldn't stay out. They wouldn't know what license books. He wrote Areopagitica, which remains today you meant by an ivory tower. None of us would wish to the greatest sermon ever preached on literary liberty. (If he argue that John Milton should have stayed out of politics, NIEMAN REPORTS 9 or John Peter Zenger, or Elijah Parish Lovejoy. None of the American press as largely Republican it is really not us would argue that Henry Watterson in any way dragged strange at all. And it speaks well for the press. Kentucky's distinguished Courier-Journal down by his po­ Mr. Kennedy received wide publicity and honest re­ litical adventures. Or that Oregon's Charles Sprague should porting from the so-called Republican press. I think the not be listed among the great editors of this generation press also handled itself well in connection with the issue of because of his two terms as Governor. religion. There was a tendency, of course, in some quarters, All these were special men working in special situa­ to say that religion should not be an issue in that campaign. tions and achieving special results. Despite these great This was wrong. Responsible newspapers said it was wrong, achievements by these great men, however, I would argue and Mr. Kennedy himself, after a shaky start, admitted that that editors, except under special circumstances, should it was a legitimate issue, faced up to it intelligently and by not play politics in the formal sense but should play politics his conduct in the presidency eliminated it. in the broader sense and play it up to the hilt. Newspapers that played politics, if I may use that term We have heard enough about "conflict of interest" in again, by wrestling with the issue of religion openly and recent months, in connection with the ethics code in New frankly, performed an historic public service. Those who York, in connection with the President of the United States said "let's keep religion out of this," did not. and television stations, in connection with Bobby Baker. The assassination of President Kennedy presented the So we know how serious this problem can be. But while we American press with another test of its sense of responsi­ are fighting against "conflict of interest" let us recognize and bility in the world of politics. In my opinion, some news­ daily remember the "community of interest" which exists papers flunked the test. I am speaking of those that rushed between people of the press and people of politics. Let's hysterically into print with conclusions that this is a sick, remember that our concern with this "community of in­ neurotic and unnerved nation. terest" determines to a great extent the quality of political I think the general reaction to the Dallas tragedy proved candidates and the effectiveness of political machinery. quite the opposite, but there were those, happily a minority, who tried to tell 180 million Americans that somehow all The American newspaper will have much to say about of us must share in the guilt of Mr. Kennedy's death. who the Republican presidential candidate will be this year, It is silly to say when a president is killed that the nation and how the American public will judge the Democratic is ill ... or when a man is stabbed in Central Park that our ticket. I am not talking about endorsements here. Politicians cities are not safe ... or when juvenile delinquency is un­ love to point at years in which 70 or 80 per cent of the Amer­ covered that our teenagers lack the decency of their parents. ican press endorsed one candidate and the other candidate We should judge ourselves not by the number and depths of won. They say this suggests that the so-called one-party tragedy, but by how we react to them. Not by the number press has no influence. This is nonsense. It would be a sad of juvenile delinquents, but by our concern for their re­ day for America if the American press controlled elections habilitation. Not by the extent of bad news, but by our capa­ by endorsing candidates. city to create good news. Newspaper influence works in more subtle ways. Honest Every generation lives with trouble, but to suggest that reporting and vigorous expression of opinion are the basic we suffer from a national neurosis because one left wing ingredients of maintaining an enlightened electorate. Day neurotic commits an act of assassination is illogical. Happily, in and day out these are what prompt the voters to make up the nation did not seem to accept the sermons of those who their minds about the conduct of a President Johnson, or said that we are a people consumed by hate. On the contrary, the capacities of a Rockefeller, the ideology of a Goldwater, a great many of our leaders and the vast majority of our the stature of a Cabot Lodge, the potential of the impressive citizens responded to this emergency bravely, calmly, and and promising Governor Scranton. with a demonstration of maturity so necessary in time of I am not speaking here of one news story, or one editorial, CriSiS. or one newspaper, but of the entire pattern of journalistic Every editor who kept his perspective under that great expression throughout the nation over extended periods pressure contributed to the stability of our nation. While of time. It is this pattern that determines voter opinion far much praise is due a majority of our press in this respect, more than formal endorsements of candidates. The Amer­ I feel that those editors who shouted that just about every­ ican press was a factor in the nomination of Wen dell Will­ thing ought to be renamed in memory of Mr. Kennedy, kie in 1940. It was a factor in the nomination and election of were temporarily shorn of reaso n. This was childishness of Gen. Eisenhower in 1952, and in his re-election four years the first order. This is where our neurotic side was showing. later. It was also a factor in the nomination and election of The hasty homilies urging name changes reflected a naive John Fitzgerald Kennedy in 1960. Although this latter state­ lack of respect for institutions and traditions which can ment may seem strange to those who automatically think of never and should never be associated with the name of one ------~-~-----

10 NIEMAN REPORTS man. President Kennedy himself had a classic appreciation raised banners of public service to which editors who really for the dignity and destiny of the Office of President, and believe in duty may repair. would have rebelled at these instances of national instability, The story of J. D. Heiskell of the Arkansas Gazette in however flattering they might be to him as an individual. Little Rock needs no re-telling nor does the story of the StLouis Post-Dispatch and the Chicago Daily News, who If the foregoing thoughts and comments seem a trifle joined, around a decade and a half ago, in exposing 41 disjointed and unrelated, perhaps we have too narrow a editors in Illinois who apparently saw no harm in a little concept of the word politics. bit of moonlighting on Governor Dwight Green's payroll At first glance politics relates to somebody running for while supposedly working for their publishers at the same office or somebody holding a position in government. In time. Those Illinois editors were playing politics of the our business the word politics embraces just about every worst kind. Their shenanigans were exposed by two news­ kind of activity and event that an editor comments upon papers playing politics of the best kind. throughout the year: our colleges and universities, our theatres, our operas and our orchestras, professional foot­ All this may sound obvious, but as we know perhaps ball and ballet, medicine, transportation, and, as I have just better than our reading public, it is not easy. Playing pointed out, even religion. All of these things in one way politics the right way demands not only competent re­ or another are a part of or are influenced by the world of porters and conscientious editors, but aggressive publishers. politics. We can't escape it. The publisher is all too often the forgotten man when the The list of American newspapers which have molded the prizes are handed out but, as we all know, it is he who political destiny of our nation, directed its political course has made possible this endless list of journalistic achieve­ and influenced its political stature is long. It includes many ments. It is he who made possible a record more than 300 great newspapers of the past and many fighting newspapers years old of journalistic performance second to none in the of the present, newspapers with a keen sense of their po­ world today ... second to none in the history of civilization. litical opportunities. Frequently we hear talk about the well-rounded news­ The Pulitzer Prize awards this Spring say as clearly and paper man. To that I say that there may be a danger of as convincingly as anyone can that American newspapers some of us becoming so well rounded that we aren't are not without devotion to the great traditions of yester­ pointed in any direction. We need fewer well-rounded day and not without the resources to live up to them today, newspapers and more sharply-pointed newspapers if we are not without an understanding of their civic duties. to leave marks on our generation that the Miltons and the The evidence is nationwide-in Philadephia, where the Zengers, the Lovejoys and the Greeleys left on theirs. Bulletin won a Pulitzer Prize for exposing a number racket. When your readers write in and say that you are med­ In New York, where a 30-year-old reporter for the Wall dling in politics too much, that's when you are entitled to Street Journal did an amazingly thorough job of uncov­ an afternoon off. You are probably doing a sharp job of ing the multi-million dollar fraud in vegetable oils. In St. reporting, a pointed job of interpretation, and with the Petersburg, Florida, where Nelson Poynter's Times ripped help of the two, a courageous job of leadership. open a corrupt Florida Turnpike Authority. In Lexington, This is a good year for all of us to play more politics. Mississippi, a state whose leaders some of us find easy to Not by running for public office, but by putting the fear criticize from afar but where it takes genuine courage for of God into those who do. Hegel once said that "the an editor of conscience to stay with his typewriter on the history of the world is none other than the progress of • I firing line. In that state, Mrs. Hazel Brannon Smith the consciousness of freedom." We might say that the publishes four weeklies fighting the inertia and ignorance history of journalism is none other than the progress and around her in such a way as to make enemies and lose the stimulation of the consciousness of civic duty. friends for the time being, but in such a way that in the long run she will have made us all prouder to be members of this great profession. This is an address by Dwight E. Sargent, editorial page But to mention a few is to exclude the many. Some of editor of the New York Herald Tribune, to a joint meet­ the best journalism ever to come out of New England came ing of the Pennsylvania Newspaper Publishers Association, from the pen of John Strohmeyer editor of the Bethlehem the Pennsylvania Society of Newspaper Editors and the Globe-Times then of the Providence Journal. Investigative Pennsylvania Women's Press Association, May 16. That reporting as practised by him and the Journal may have was one week after his appointment as curator of the Nie­ given some of the rest of us inferiority complexes, but it man Fellowship program at Harvard. NIEMAN REPORTS 11

Interpreting the 'Soviets A Criticism of Reporting from, Moscow By Henry Shapiro

Since the fateful day of November 7, 1917, when Lenin's tion. The missile pullout from Cuba, it was argued, was Red guards stormed the Imperial Winter Palace in St. a humiliating defeat for Khrushchev. The October Carib­ Petersburg, the Soviet Union has dominated the headlines bean crisis, it was further said, followed a number of press­ of our press and still claims the lion's share of our news­ ing domestic crises which Khrushchev had failed to solve, paper space. in industry and agriculture, in the Sino-Soviet conflict, on With all allowance for the Chinese inroads on the once Berlin. Hence a crisis of leadership in the Kremlin, and monolithic Communist camp, Signor T ogliatti's plea for pressure from the armed forces and a mythical opposition polycentrism and Marshal Tito's so-called revisionism, Mos­ in the Party Presidium for Khrushchev's resignation. Did cow remains the epicenter of international communism and not Anthony Eden resign after the Suez fi asco, it was asked, we have had the opportunity of studying it for almost half and could any Western prime minister responsible for such a century. a catalogue of alleged failures remain in office? Yet 46 years later, today the Soviet Union to the average The argument ignored a number of peculiar facts of newspaper reader, despite the revolutionary advance in Soviet life, known to any serious foreign observer abroad or our communications facilities, largely remains a terra any cub reporter in Moscow. Although Khrushchev is the incognita, a veritable darkest Africa of the time of Dr. dominating figure in the Kremlin he is not the absolute Livingstone and Stanley. tyrant that Stalin was and does not run the country by ter­ In the past two or three decades the Western world has ror. There is an element of "advise and consent," to bor­ been astonished and jolted, unnecessarily I submit, by a suc­ row a phrase from the United States Constitution, and the cession of events which could and should have been an­ blame or credit for any single failure or success of Soviet ticipated by any serious student of Soviet affairs. policy cannot be pinpointed on Khrushchev alone. To name just a few: the Red Army's effective resistance Secondly, it was overlooked by the exponents of the to the German onslaught, Stalin's post-war political of­ Khrushchev resignation school, that since the ouster fensive and the economic recovery of the Soviet Union, the of the Molotov-Malenkov group and of Marshal Zhukov significant domestic reforms of the Khrushchev era, the in 1957, there has been no effective opposition to the first pioneering achievement in space, and the veritable ex­ Party Secretary. Moreover, he has concentrated all the plosion in Soviet education and science-not really an ex­ instruments of power, the party and state machines, the plosion but the end result of a cumulative process set in armed forces and the security organs in the hands of the motion in the early days after the Revolution. Central Committee and obviated any possibility of the de­ In our more recent experience let me cite a few ex­ velopment of autonomous organs of power. amples of what I consider the uncritical and unjustified Further, between the 20th Party Congress in 1955, when dissemination of journalistic speculation about Soviet Molotov still controlled the Presidium, and the 22nd Party realities: Congress in 1961, more than one-half of the party and 1. Premier Khrushchev's alleged intentions to resign or state apparatus had been changed and new men had been that he may be forced to abdicate his office. Where the appointed or elected to office under Khrushchev's per­ speculation was not based on mere irresponsible rumor, sonal supervision. Who was there to challenge his leader­ it presumably stemmed from the fallacious application of ship? Western political reasoning to an inapplicable Soviet situa- Some color was lent the notion of Khrushchev's resigna­ tion by an impromptu remark of Khrushchev's at a recent conference of industrial executives, to the effect that he was Henry Shapiro, UPI bureau chief in Moscow, has been 69 years old and could not be expected to remain party reporting from Russia for 25 years. This is based on a and government leader forever. It was forgotten that talk to the meeting of the International Press Institute at Khrushchev had made similar remarks in the past in en­ Stockholm. H e was a Nieman Fellow in 1948. tirely different contexts. On this particular occasion the 12 NIEMAN REPORTS Jl r ·mi ·r's obse rvation is best dismissed in the ironical head­ the Russians call "self-criticism." It seems to me that West­ lin t: of a British newspaper which said "Khrushchev is ern journalism has not taken full advantage of all the avail­ not immortal, it is now officially admitted." able opportunities to serve the reader a complete, balanced 2. Another recent example of fallacious interpretation of and accurate report of the Soviet Union, so essential to the ovi et events which flies in the face of elementary facts is moulding of public opinion in a democratic society. the speculation that the Wynne-Penkovsky espionage trial The great newspapers of Europe, Asia and America, with was merely a prelude to an extensive purge in the Kremlin, some notable exceptions, followed the policy of their gov­ which would involve the falling of many key military and ernments and for a long time refused to establish "diplo­ political heads. matic relations" with the Soviet Union. For many years the Such speculation disregarded the simple fact that public report on Moscow was based to some extent on rumor trials in the Soviet Union are not the beginning but the and gossip compounded with wishful thinking from some end of any given case, not the prelude but the epilogue of of the capitals on the Soviet periphery, Riga and Warsaw, a story. The trial, to the extent that it made certain public for example. Some of the reporters lacked the necessary disclosures, did not reveal anything to the Soviet authori­ background of Russian and revolutionary history and did ties that they did not know half a year earlier when Pen­ not always relate the day-by-day events to the social and kovsky was arrested. Chief Artillery Marshal Varentsov, a political significance of the transformation occurring in major-general and two colonels who were demoted for one-sixth of the world. associating with Penkovsky, were not degraded as a result There was an understandable reluctance to recognize of the trial but many weeks earlier. The public airing of one somber fact of life-the existence and viability of the facts and views in the Soviet Union takes place after de­ Soviet regime. There was the common temptation to cisions and policies have already been framed and ap­ simplify the convulsive conflict, for example, between proved by the top leadership. Trotsky and Lenin and later between Khrushchev and I have dwelt considerably on the foregoing two examples the Molotov group, as struggles for naked, personal power, because they illustrate a common temptation to rush into and not as functions of the fateful political issues which print with inadequate considered comment and specula­ shook the communist world. And the picture was com­ tion on Communist events-a disservice, I submit, to pounded by the uncritical and adulatory reports of fellow­ the citizen of a free and democratic society. traveling and pro-communist writers who survived to write Let me state it dogmatically, if not provocatively. The the story of "the gods that failed." Western image of the Soviet Union is, in some respects, no It was an attitude of neglect and of what a distinguished less false, than the Soviet image of the West. And with leader of the International Press Institute has described to much less justification or no justification at all. Closed, as me as defeatism. It was illustrated by the fact that on Soviet society may be, it is not hermetically sealed. The the day Hitler marched across the Soviet frontier on June Western journalist's critical faculty has not been blunted. 22, 1941, an event which the entire world had predicted He has access to an endless variety of materials covering almost to the minute, only four Western news organiza­ the whole spectrum of political life from the extreme right tions, aside from the Germans, were represented in the to the extreme left. He rejects the Marxist concept that Soviet Union-Havas, the French agency, Reuters, the news is a weapon. And he can freely test his ideas and in­ United Press and the Associated Press. formation in the market place of fact and opinion. Similarly, when Stalin died in March 1953, making In attempting to interpret the communist world he may the advent of a new era in international communism, the well ask himself "what is the function of a reporter?" I only reporters present in Moscow were the representatives . ' mean a reporter or commentator, as distinguished from of the two American agencies, France-Presse, Reuters and an editor or a professional propagandist. the New York Times. The great newspapers of Scandi­ Is he to be a crusader for Western civilization, a cold­ navia, of Germany, of Italy, France, Great Britain and war warrior, a one-day historian and mere chronicler of Japan were conspicuously absent. No wonder that al­ events, or a political scientist, or a combination of one or though the pseudo-science of Kremlinology or demonology more of such functions? How can he function in a com­ was then at its apex, a not quite accurate journalistic quip munist capital? had it "there are no experts on the Soviet Union, only vary­ I need not restate the well-known obstacles to the free ing degrees of ignorance." and unfettered collection and transmission of news and I submit that there is no more dangerous concept comment from the communist area-the frustrations, the in our effort to interpret the communist world than deceptions and even the dangers to which foreign corre­ what might be called the fronzen concept of Soviet spondents are exposed. history. Soviet history does not begin when a par­ But I shall take the liberty of indulging in a bit of what ticular reporter arrives in Moscow and it does not end NIEMAN REPORTS 13 when he leaves, or in some cases when he is expelled from the Soviet Union. Khrushchev's Russia is as different from Local TV Tries More News Stalin's as Stalin's from Lenin's or as Lenin's from that of his imperial predecessors. By Murray Seeger Given certain almost immutable basic premises, Soviet society is in a state of flux and in similar flux is the at­ All across the country this season, viewers are seeing more titude of the Soviet authorities toward the foreign corres­ television news than ever before in the brief history of the pondent and the opportunities for adequate coverage and industry. The word has spread from station to station­ sound interpretation. the 30-minute format for local news is "in" and the old 10- The death of Stalin and the subsequent 20th and 22nd and-15-minute shows are "out." Party Congress have opened new vistas and new opportuni­ A few pioneering stations have been carrying 30-minute ties for the foreign observer in the Soviet capital. It will be a and even 45-minute local news shows for several years. They were the exceptions, however. Now, the stations which dina long time, or perhaps we shall never see the day, when b Moscow or Peking will be as open as any normal Western to the shorter formats will be the exceptions. capital, as Stockholm, Rome, Paris or Washington, for Hesitant stations have been encouraged to expand their example. The door which Peter the Great opened to the own news shows by the examples of the two dominant net­ West some 300 years ago was closed by Stalin. It was work news operations of NBC and CBS. By tieing their reopened, although not quite fully, by Khrushchev, who local shows to the new 30-minute program of Huntley­ is now waging an intensive campaign against ideological Brinkley and Walter Cronkite, network affiliates can present coexistence with the West. their viewers with a solid hour of television news in the There have been significant improvements in the more prime, early-evening viewing hours. than a quarter of a century since I began my career as a The decision to broadcast more local news has not been Moscow correspondent. There have been welcome changes easy for local stations, however. To gather and broadcast even in the last five years. The highlight of improvement more news depending on their own resources has presented has been the lifting of preliminary censorship of our local stations with problems they have never before faced. dispatches. New sources of information, still inadequate by In general, news for a local television station has the same our standards, have become accessible. status as any other part of the program manager's dom:1in. The academic world has been the first to take ad­ The question of adding more news time in the early evening vantage of the new opportunities and an impressive volume means cutting a late-afternoon movie or dropping a short, of scientific works have come out of the great universities pre-packaged program that involved little expense to put on and research centers, out of Oxford and Munich, Harvard the air and was a sure seller to advertisers. and California. The press has been rather slow in exploiting News ranks lower than other programming to many the new possibilities but the new era is reflected in the executives because of the difficulties and expense involved . fact that instead of the four correspondents who were on To put together even a 15-minute package of weather, sports hand to cover Stalin's funeral, there are about 50 Western and news is expensive compared to a cartoon show for reporters in Moscow now. children. The profit potential from news programs is greatly The occult practice of Kremlinology is now becoming limited for that reason. a respectable political science to which Moscow corre­ The program manager tries to see news as he thinks spondents are now able to make increasingly worthwhile the "average viewer" does. In this theory, news has greater co_ntributions. In many respects we are still making bricks competition from other forms of programming in the same without straw, still waging an uphill fight for the free time slot than it does from news shows. Channel X may be flow of information and comment, but to paraphrase a showing news at the same time Channel Y is showing Stalin phrase, "there are no fortresses which journalists Huckleberry Hound. Father may want to watch the news cannot take." but the kids want to see Huckleberry and mother wants to The Churchillian phrase which defined Soviet foreign keep them quiet for 30 minutes. It is easy to see who wins policy as a riddle wrapped up inside an enigma has lost, that kind of argument. I believe, some of its validity. The situation was better ex­ Even after he is convinced that a longer news show should pressed a few years ago in the words of the distinguished go on the air, an executive faces the problem of the time American diplomat, Charles Bohlen, formerly Ambassador slot in relation to the network shows. Should local news run in Moscow and now in Paris: "Russia is a country of for 30 minutes ahead of Huntley-Brinkley or for the half many secrets but no mysteries." The challenge to the Western press is the extent to which it is possible to probe Murray Seeger is news director of KYW- TV, Cleveland and unravel the secrets of the Kremlin. He was a Nieman Fellow in 1962. NIEMAN REPORTS h ur after? In either case no one is sure if the viewer will managements and the union that represents the news staff it sti ll for 60 minutes of news. where they have been organized. This is AFTER, the After the deci sion is made to air more news, other compli­ American Federation of Television and Radio Artists. cated problems arise immediately. Since it is basically a union for performers, AFTRA has Televi sion news is a compromise between show business been most successful at representing the interests of the on­ and journalism. Since TV is basically an entertainment camera personalities and the off-camera announcers. The medium, most station executives are better versed in the man who reads the news on the air is paid a "talent" fee for essentials of show business than they are in the elements of each appearance. In major cities this is about $50 for every journalism. 30-minute show. A newscaster with only five 30-minute In the early days of the medium, little attention was paid shows a week will be guaranteed a minimum of $250 a week to the news at all. Radio announcers were put in front plus the AFTRA minimum salary for a newsman, roughly of cameras to read the news as they had been doing in their another $160 a week. own studios for years. In some cases, the announcers were In contrast, an editor or reporter will get the AFTRA not seen on homes screens at all-still pictures were dis­ salary scale and little else. Editors get a token talent fee played. additional and reporters will be paid for each "spot" they These announcers were pushed off the air in most areas do on the air or given a small guaranteed talent fee to cover by show business types who could read without seeming all appearances. The air personalities, therefore, can make to read and convince the audiences they were reporters $20,000 to $30,000 a year for reading on the air. Reporters without ever covering a story first-hand. and editors are lucky if they can make half what the It was enough to tear wire copy and read it with, or with­ personalities get. out, rewriting. News from the papers was used in the same As television moves to hire more real newsmen and way. "Eye-contact" with the viewer in his living room and diminish the importance of the personalities, this pay dis­ vocal delivery became the essential ingredients for a success­ parity will have to be removed. There are regular rumblings ful television newscaster. Content of the programs was of among TV reporters and deskmen that they should break secondary importance. The illusion of journalism was good away from AFTRA and seek affiliation with the American enough and there was no one in the station to challenge Newspaper Guild which has had greater experience rep­ the premise. An editor or two and a cameraman were all resenting newsmen. that were needed to supply the news "personality" with There is likely to be more movement of staff members material for his performance. between newspapers and television as the newer medium To fill 30 minutes of news time, however, more than a takes journalism more seriously. This would help elevate "personality" is required. Reporters are needed to gather TV reporting, since the papers still are the best training news and to interview sources for sound film or video tape. ground for beginners. It might also serve to force news­ More cameramen must be hired and editors have to in­ paper salaries higher. crease their skills to work out new ways to tell stories on If this exchange develops, television may be able to pro­ film. The staffs have to originate more stories and anticipate vide the competition needed in monopoly newspaper cities. events. They must have men on the scene of a news happen­ Real competition between reporters is the best way to im­ ing instead of waiting for the next edition of the papers or prove coverage by both media. If a television station does the local wire reports. a responsible job in a one-newspaper town, the paper will In this situation, the show business types are no help at be forced to improve its own work. There is no doubt that all. They find they must surrender part of their monopoly television has the audience big enough to exert moral pres­ on time before the camera and try to work with other sure on slipshod newspapers. The only question is whether people. It is not an easy adjustment for them, however. The television is prepared to make the effort and to keep it up. news show personalities know that television changes so Local TV stations will have to learn how to free them­ rapidly that their days are numbered under any circumstan­ selves from excessive advertiser pressure to become true ces. If they can meet the new criteria demanded by expand­ journalists for their communities. Many sponsors like to ded news coverage, the personality types can extend their buy entire news programs for the prestige value of being professional careers and help the new programs. Otherwise, identified with "public service." In return, they expect the they will find that "the parade has left them behind," as anouncers of news at least to mention the product when a a veteran program producer observed. commercial is announced. They are even happier if the The journalism side of the television news scale is gaining same man will do the news and the commercials. weight steadily. There is little doubt that more and more Until very recently in Cleveland one newscaster was ac­ real reporters will be going on camera to present their own tually an employe of the advertising agency representing the stories. As they do, another problem will confront the station program sponsor. Another newscaster, who still does com- NIEMAN REPORTS 15 mercials, was under contract to give speeches before private to exact answers to untoward inquiries," as Jack Gould of audiences for extra fees. the New York Times observed. So what happens when the sponsor is involved in a nega­ As television runs out of canned program material, a real tive type of news story? These channels have been known fear for TV executives, it will turn more and more to news to ignore the story-that's the safest thing to do. If the and public affairs. There are a great many clever people in sponsor happens to be a utility company deeply involved television and when they turn their talents on the events with government regulations, the conflict can be serious. around them in combination with trained journalists they There are other conflicts, however. In Cleveland, the may make great strides toward realizing the full potential Standard Oil Co. (Ohio), known as Sohio, has a laboratory of the medium. It may even be not too far in the future when where scientists can track satellite launchings. Another oil television commentators will be critizing the newspapers as company, Pure, is a news program sponsor. As a result, freely as the papers dissect the elecronic media. Sohio, engineers are not interviewed about satellite launch­ ings on the programs sponsored by Pure Oil. Some station managements have been adamant about re­ Rep,orting Asia buffing sponsor interference. Most have announced policies against any conflicts of interest. But the medium has yet to By Chanchal Sarkar mature to the point where such integrity is a rule that staff My own actual experience of reporting Asia is inade­ members can be sure will back them up. quate. The one country that I can claim to have reported When stations first shift to longer news programs, the as thoroughly as a cvrrespondent should is Ceylon. Other­ management is usually fearful that there is not enough wise, I can only say that I have visited and written, not material to fill the time. This is not a real problem. The reported, on Indonesia, Malaya, Pakistan, Singapore difficulty is that the stations have learned to cover only the and Australian New Guinea. major stories that cannot be ignored or the minor items But journalism is my consuming interest and that keeps which come in the mail. In between these levels are enough my instincts about it sharp. An Asian myself, I try to stories to keep the voracious tube filled every day. follow the coverage of the continent painstakingly-and I Every new reporter who starts work wonders if all the have many friends who are correspondents in the area. best stories have been written. Within a short time on the With the help of my interests, and with my friends as job, however, he discovers that the overwhelming variety crutches, I shall seek to cover up the gaps in first-hand of human experience provides all the material needed to fill expenence. the newspaper every day. The difficulty is for the reporters The first question to ask, I think, is whether reporting and editors to permeate their community to discover the Asia is any different from reporting well-covered continents less obvious stories. They must also understand their duties like Europe or North America. I suggest that there are so that the huge world-wide stories can be related to local significant differences. In some powerful countries of interests. Europe and North America there is a mainstream of Local TV news is at the stage of development of the news which the correspondent is always aware of. The newspaper cub reporter in his first six months. The stations sources are public, the news important and unflagging, are just beginning to learn their way around and discover and the correspondent can do very useful work by their abilities. The omnipresent public relations men have simply reporting and analysing this mainstream. In not really discovered TV news yet, but they will. hardly any Asian capital does this happen. There are only It is true, as A. J. Liebling pointed out during the New runnels which can suddenly swell to a torrent and it is York newspaper strike, that a great limitation of broad­ customary for the news to come in spasms and turbulences. cast news is the time schedule. You have to be in front The currents are often subterranean, the sources personal of your set at the right time to hear the news. But, the and contingent on the reporter's skill. audience is there. The strikes in New York and Cleveland Some societies are articulate and self-analytical, not just last winter whetted appetites for more broadcast news. In in the sense that people talk freely-Asians can be spon­ those cities, television will never go back to the old ways taneous, even compulsive, talkers. By articulate and self­ of covering news and every other city will be close behind analytical I mean rather that much of the energy of in the development of electronic journalism. universities and research organizations, for instance, is Television reporters will improve their abilities and tech­ engaged in the study and analysis of society. The material niques to remove the coarseness that makes them at times churned out is, naturally, of immense value to the reporter. seem like a "bunch of tiresome pests or frustrated cross­ In Asia there is very little of this and a good proportion examiners who think they have some heaven-sent authority of even that little is often done by foreign individuals or 16 NIEMAN REPORTS agencies, which only makes it that much less-"reliable" reporting the "way of life" of the country where he 1s was the word I thought of using, but that would be un­ posted-a vital and indispensable aspect of reporting. fair. Social investigation by outsiders can be remote and off­ beam. * * * Not only is there a lack of research studies of all kinds So much for broad, continental differences. Now for in most Asian countries, but also a great shortage of basic the special factors in Asian reporting. I know that you statistics and both these are, usually, part of the staple diet will raise eyebrows at this because reporting Pakistan is of correspondents. very different from reporting Burma, and reporting Japan Then there is a difference in news values. A British vastly different from reporting Cambodia. Nevertheless, correspondent posted in Italy spends comparatively little there are, I think, some characteristics which mark off time on politics. Sport of all kinds, the cavortings of film reporting in Asia as a whole. stars, the tides and currents in the world of fashion­ Almost everyone testifies to the easy accessibility of designing, these might well be his serious preoccupations. Ministers, politicians and civil servants in Asia. There are In Asia he would have, willy nilly, to be more engaged in exceptions-as in Burma for all journalists today and in politics though this, as I shall suggest later, can be over­ Indonesia for some. But, broadly speaking, the im­ done. portant people in Asia are accessible. This has disadvan­ tages. According to one distinguished correspondent, in Always in the background is the problem of language. Asia the correspondent is faced with a much greater There are, I know, several views on this and in a world volume of propaganda than he would be elsewhere. And so where correspondents are shifted from country to country his interviews and meetings have meaning only if he and have to cover several at the same time, it is too much were on top of his work and were able to cross-examine to expect them to learn new languages. A country like and probe, point out contradictions and ask many sup­ India has about 15 principle ones, which or how many plementaries. Otherwise, he might have to be content is the correspondent going to learn? English is very useful with a statement-sometimes quite detailed-that every­ in some Asian countries, but French in others. The draw­ thing is lovely in the garden. backs of not knowing the language can, I know from my Except in a few Asian countries, there are no well­ own experience, be offset. But one can put it no higher ordered government information agencies, equipped and than "offset." The correspondent who has the language ready to help correspondents. Sometime there is no of the country he covers is at an immeasurably great ad­ coordination between the information work of dif­ vantage over the one who hasn't. ferent ministries. Physical communications and tele-com­ In Asia the foreign correspondent is usually several munication can be so unsatisfactory as to be major hin­ eagues removed from the common man or woman. Cor­ drance. "Suppose I hear about something which has hap­ respondents generally live in a style considerably grander pened 200 miles out of Rangoon, for instance," said a than they would at home. More significantly, he shares the friend of mine, "how do I check up? I can't telephone, I way of living of a tiny fraction of the local population. can't easily travel up." While reporting Europe or America he would, by and But within these generic limitations Asian news is often, large, live among the same class as at home. Not so in in this century at least if not also in the coming one, Asia, where he is usually among the plutocrats. "More likely to be of deeper consequence because it affects the or less on the level of maharajahs," is a corrspondent lives, the minds and the aspirations of many more millions friend of mine said. than news out of Europe or America normally does. Since This cannot but have repercussions on reporting and the foreign correspondent has to be a window on an en­ approach. The extent can and does very much depend on tire society his work is also much more difficult than if individuals. But again "offset" is the operative word. A he were reporting from his own milieu. correspondent I respect said, "The first six months are the most important. If you don't do something within * * * that time you are likely not to do it at all." What he meant We are all professional journalists, who regularly scan was that the first six months settled the social pattern and many newspapers and periodicals. Reading about Asia, the professional groove of the correspondent. what are our impressions, dissatisfactions and expectations? The foreign correspondent finds it hard to submerge him­ I shall speak in a little greater detail later about the coverage self unnoticed in the stream of Asian life. His own "way of Asia that one sees in India. But generally what I miss of life" is so isolated when compared to that of the mass most is the writing that deals with the social texture of of the people, that the correspondent is handicapped in the country, the lives of the people. NIEMAN REPORTS 17 At the risk of sounding a little pedantic I would say that some extent this applies to the local reporter, too. Either the richest quarry of Asian news will, in the future, be he is so much a part of the establishment in income and that which falls within the realm of social anthropology. way of life as to be quite out of touch with the masses or It is also my belief that an understanding of the politics he is in such a weak position economically that he has of a country is difficult, if not impossible, without an un­ to rely on government favors and patronage for efficient derstanding of its social anthropology. Rural development, functioning. This is particularly true of non-metropolitan religion, the inter-relation between town and country, correspondents and the only solution is for newspapers to amusements, caste, community development, vacation stiffen their backbones by making these correspondents habits, the pattern of leadership, spending patterns, fairs and financially independent. festivals-all these are grist to the correspondents mill if he is to report with insight. And these are aspects which are inadequately covered, or, I should say, are aspects Let me try to bring matters to a point by dealing a little of which I, at least, do not see nearly enough. I know that with the coverage of Asia by the Indian press. The major many correspondents and agencies would want to transfer Indian news agency, the Press Trust of India, has a num­ the blame to news editors and chief sub-editors who don't ber of correspondents in Asia, in capitals like Tokyo, Co­ use such pieces even when sent. lombo, Singapore and Rangoon. Several Indian news­ Wherever in Asia there is even a partially developed papers also maintain their own correspondents. Some of Press (and exclude Japan whose Press is as well developed the Indian papers, in Indian languages and in English, as anywhere in the world) there is the likelihood of Asian are among the best of their kind in the world. news coming to local Asian papers from non-Asian corre­ But one must acknowledge some melancholy conclusions spondents, through foreign news agencies. To put it an­ about the Indian coverage of Asia. other way, the news of countries where colonial memories (1) In quantity it is thin, much thinner than the coverage are still bitter and where anti-colonialism is still a strong of Europe, North America and the United Nations. motivating force is often presented as seen through the (2) Most of the coverage is about external relations, wars, eyes of correspondents from formerly colonial countries. hot or cold, and natural calamites. Politics dominates and Does this make a difference? There is no reason why a social reporting takes a back seat. non-Asian correspondent, even those from former colonial (3) India's neighbors, barring Nepal, have been par­ countries, should not be objective and much more knowl­ ticularl y neglected and the gap in sustained coverage of edgeable than an Asian. There are cases on record where Burma, Thailand, Indonesia and even Ceylon is lament­ this has been so. Nevertheless, I hold the, perhaps, pre­ able. judiced view that an Asian correspondent would more ( 4) Pakistan presents a special case. In terms of inches easily have the basic sympathy and compassion necessary to the coverage is considerable but when other criteri a are appreciate the social and human factors in Asia. This is by applied the coverage perhaps wouldn't turn out to be no means inevitable and there are Asians who know little very good. of their own continent. But normally a certain affinity (5) Much of the Asian news carried emanates from keeps breaking in. Geneva, New York, London or Washington rather than I have heard one or two correspondents say that, except from Asia. in countries formerly dominated by the British, like India, ( 6) The coverage of Asia by Indian language papers is Pakistan and Malayasia, the Asian correspondent, rare far thinner than that by English language papers. This though he may be, is at a definite advantage when com­ is sad because some of the language papers are the nearest pared to his European and American colleagues. I cannot we have to a popular press. All in all I would say that assert this as an axiom. India's intellectual understanding of her link with Asia and her stakes in the continent is not matched by the cover­ The reporter in Asia has many difficulties. There are age of Asia in her newspapers. several governments which make it difficult for him to function. Their concept of the press and its role is very restrictive. And it may well be a point for discussion There is little more to be said except to draw on my whether the press in newly-formed, underdeveloped own reporting experience in Asia and isolate some possible countries should have the same role as in a developed do's and don'ts. The correspondent must always give him­ social-democratic State. self time to submerge in the life of the country and know I have spoken of the circumstances which keep the for­ what are the things that really concern, not him, but the eign reporter isolated from the man in the street. To people of that country. These things might well be irrational NIEMAN REPORTS :tnd the general attitude of the people to them might be social fabric of the country, its snobberies, its contradic­ quite unlike the attitude of the correspondent's own tions, its frustrations. He must have some idea of its co untrymen at home. literature and the themes of modern writers, at least in In reporting a country over a considerable stretch of translation. He must have links with the people of no time I feel that the correspondent should approach it with particular consequence-the petty clerk, the small trades­ some basic sympathy and liking, or else voluntarily give man, the school teacher. And, of course, he has always up his assignment if he can. In the long run the draining reason to be grateful to his firmest allies-the local news­ away of sympathy is bound to warp one's reporting. papermen. In most Asian countries he must be prepared There is another aspect which some foreign correspond­ to know the essentials of rural problems first-hand and, ents have told me about. In several Asian countries as a friend of mine says, not judge Asian democracy or there can often be petty and unnecessary irritations over socialism through London School of Economics and minor but essential things-a telephone, a car permit, the British Labour Party spectacles. This was of course, meant fluctuation of electricity voltage, customs regulations, and for Indian correspondents. so on. These, too, can eat into one's soul and influence Two final reflections. A correspondent must be able one's attitude. It is important to remind oneself about this to appreciate points of view which run contrary to the in critical moments and be prepared to take a few days interests of his own country and, above all, he must always off to just get away from it all and retain one's perspective. be interested, deeply and enduringly interested, in the Sometimes foreign correspondents, like the foreign countries he reports. community, clan together and influence each other. This can be dangerous. Among the people of the country it is Chanchal Sarkar left the staff of The Statesman of essential to have friends, not just contacts, and friendship New Delhi in 1962, to become the first director of the is always a matter of give and take. Press Institute of India. He was an Associate Nieman The correspondent must make an effort to know the Fellow in 1960-61.

Canada and the U.S. (Continued from page 2) Basically, this Canadian concern is a domestic issue Each country must discipline itself to accept the dis­ to be settled by Canadian law and the considered judg­ parities in circumstance and contribution inherent in this ment of Canadians as to their own self interest. But in the joint effort. The discipline may be harder for Canadians light of the substantial American investment such decisions because it involves the acute nerve centers of national pride should be taken after consultation with the United States. and the need to participate actively in their own defense. We urge a heightened and sustained awareness on the part Canada could let itself be weakened as a nation and as a of all American business and labor organizations that partner in the common effort if it should yield to chronic Americans involved in Canada neither be nor seem ir­ peevishness with a more powerful, affluent partner who, in responsible or indifferent towards the Canadian national Canadian eyes, may sometimes seem to need Canada only interest. We believe it is inappropriate for American-owned for bases, U.N. votes and errands. corporations in Canada to be used as instruments of On the other hand the United States must discipline American foreign policy. itself to bear the larger share of the common defense cost, These two great trading countries have a prime com­ and to understand its favored position. Above all, it must mon objective to promote rather than suppress the creation be responsive to Canada's need to count in its own de­ of wealth and useful service. We believe the current attitude fense, if there is to be a durable common defense. in both countries toward their economic relations is es­ We see no need for basic changes in existing policies sentially healthy. However recent happenings strongly and arrangements governing the control of security de­ caution against complacency. The Canadian Budget pro­ cisions and military commands in continental defense. posals of 1963, the suggested United States Interest Equali­ Manifestly such matters will be adjusted from time to zation Tax of 1963 and the Seamen's International Union time to meet changing circumstances. The present situa­ affair are proof that neither country nor any private in­ tion involves a sensitive point. The United States cannot terest is immune to ill-considered actions. commit itself to prior consultation with Canada in all cir­ In the vital area of national self-interest, namely, de­ cumstances involving use of U. S. power. fense of the homeland, Canada and the United States are We likewise see no immediate prospect for major firmly committed to the common defense. changes in the handling of defense contracts as between the NIEMAN REPORTS 19 two countries. This however is an area where persistent intercourse with the Castro regime in Cuba and the Red attention and resourcefulness can influence developments. Chinese, Canadian divergence from our position should It is in the interest of the common defense that Canada's not be treated as a form of disloyalty to our alliance and potential for an effective contribution to the common friendship. Honest divergences of policy are not mani­ cause be given sustained and sympathetic consideration. festations of anti-Americanism or perfidy when they arise There may, indeed, be opportunities for more boldness in in the Canadian-United States relations. such ventures as a joint NASA institutional research pro­ There is a significant similarity between the economic gram which might have a stimulating effect on Canadian relations of the two countries and their cultural relations. technological and industrial capabilities to our mutual Both relationships reflect the difficulty endemic in the advantage. imbalance "in favor" of the United States. In the cultural There is only limited opportunity for a larger measure of as in the economic area, the American involvement in significant consultation in respect to hard-core military Canadian life is so great as to cause concern in Canada. The defense. On the other hand we believe American diploma­ fear in Canada is that its culture and even the Canadian cy should be flexible in all matters which touch the world's sense of identity are in danger of being engulfed by Ameri­ peace and well-being. In such affairs, including especially can influences through magazines, television, radio, news­ the various international organizations in which both papers, books, motion pictures. Canada and the United States participate, we suggest that We see no ready American answer to this Canadian there need be only two limitations on the mutual interest of concern. American culture, like all other cultures, has its the two countries in developing deeper, more sustained and full share of both the worthy and the worthless. The better organized consultation with each other. values of the consumer, either in the United States or The first of these limitations is the hard fact that the Canada, largely determine his choice. Americans should United States both in its international negotiations and its encourage the export of the worthy and discourage the internal democratic processes is stretched on the rack of unworthy for either home or foreign consumption. But in global responsibilities as no nation has ever been before. this particular international relationship there is relatively In consequence those who are closest to us are apt to little that can be done through United States official policy get less consideration than they might receive under other and action. circumstances. Any less attention by the United States to the seemingly unlimited demands of the rest of the world Both countries can serve thei r best interests in healthy for attention and action could produce results which Canada cultural relations by the encouragement of the good rather would regret more than she now deplores lapses in Ameri­ than by repression of the shoddy. Specifically, we urge a can solicitude for her interests and sensibilities. more alert American approach to Canadian affairs and The second limitation is that the United States should culture by our educational institutions, communications not seek to bind Canadian foreign policies into a pattern media, news agencies and by the endless variety of private of conformity with United States policies. In the long associations that focus the attention of Americans in eve ry run any attempt by the United States to achieve a total con­ phase of our life and work. Few actions will go further cert of policy is bound to fail. Moreover there is a positive to meet the Canadian concern about the impact of Ameri­ reason for not doing so. Canada's status and effectiveness can culture than a sincere, sustained demonstration by as a leader among the so-called "middle powers" is a Americans of a greater interest in knowing more about growing asset. This may well be Canada's indispensable Canada and her significant achievements. contribution to the common cause. Some form of police Our focus has been on international aspects of the re­ force for peace-keeping is now essential and no nation can lationship, but the intimacy of Canadian-American inter­ lead this development better than Canada. Canada can course inevitably touches affairs that are primarily domestic. play this role with maximum effectiveness only in so far as Indeed, it is a mark of the maturity in this relationship her independence and national integrity are respected that we can be concerned, as well as informed, about each throughout the international community. other's essentially internal problems without offering gratui­ This does not mean any weakening of the Canadian­ tous solutions from the outside. American alliance nor does it limit the full and frank ex­ The civil rights crisis in America and the criti ca l chal­ change of views between the two nations. Neither should lenge Canadian nationhood faces are both internal affairs refrain from urging its point of view on the other. United which have deep implications for the general international States officialdom and the American public should be relations of the two nations. Neither nation can properly constantly on guard against seeming to want to make involve itself in any way with the solution of the other's Canada a satellite of United States policy. For example, domestic travail, but it would be a great disservice to the while there is a strong case for American policies of non- cause of better understanding in the relationship not to 20 NIEMAN REPORTS have people on both sides of the border fully and fairly only one of the countless instances of imbalance that informed about matters of such vast import to both so­ pervade the Canadian-American relationship. cieties. For our part, we commend the coverage which We conclude that nothing is more essential to the well­ American magazines, newspapers and news services have being of this relationship than that Americans should un­ given to racial affairs in the United States. We suggest the derstand the facts and implications of this pervasive im­ need for much more attention on their part to the crisis balance. At the same time Americans should not make the which has arisen in the relations of English and French unwarranted, and in Canadian eyes, the unforgivable, mis­ Canada. The fact that the vast majority of Americans are take of equating it with superior national worth. The bed­ still virtually unaware of this crisis contrasts sharply with rock premise of the Canadian-American relationship is the the information available to all Canadians on a daily, even independent existence and the equal sovereignty of both hourly, basis concerning the struggle in America to provide nations. Whatever their other disparities, it must also al­ equal opportunity for our Negro citizens. This contrast is ways embrace two nations of equal worth.

Reviews 1) All are out of the top drawer of good speech on that cold November night American journalism. in 1956; it is a devastating commentary on 2) Each is proud of his calling and con­ press foibles in the pages of this book. cerned about its failures. Choosing "bests" in such a collection is Newspaper Talk The roster includes, in addition to Dr. fruitless. Because it departs rather sharply By John M. Harrison Commager and Dr. Niebuhr: Joseph W. from most of its companions, and be­ Alsop, Jr., Alan Barth, Herbert M. Block, cause it is such sharply-honed prose, Gerald Johnson's relatively brief plea on THE PRESS IN PERSPECTIVE. Edit­ Marquis Childs, Elmer Davis, George V. behalf of "Personality in Journalism" ed by Ralph D. Casey. Louisiana Ferguson, Doris Fleeson, John Fischer, has its special attractions. Because of its State University Press. 217 pp. $6. James Hagerty, Gerald W. Johnson, Louis Lyons, James B. Reston, Pierre typical candor, Louis Lyons' "The Third What is most remarkable about this Salinger, Eric Sevareid and Thomas L. Reader," which puts squarely up to the compendium of speeches which Ralph Stokes, Jr. Guild and to schools of journalism their Casey has assembled is that it doesn't What aspects of press performance are shortcomings in helping elevate press per­ read like a compendium at all. It adds up of greatest concern to this group? Not formance, has particular impact. But, to a wide-ranging yet unified study of unexpectedly, its role in reporting world as one would expect, Sevareid, and Davis, the problems confronting the American affairs and its responsibility in relation to and nearly all the rest have their par­ press during the period 1947-62, and a a variety of kinds of threats to individual ticular rewards. perceptive assessment of its successes and freedoms occupy much of their attention. As editor, Ralph Casey has performed failures in dealing with them. Since these were of overriding import­ his duties well. If he has cut any of the One comes away with the impression ance in the 15-year period covered by speeches, he has done it expeditiously. He that the Twin Cities American News­ the lectures-and still are-their preva­ provides helpful footnotes where referen­ paper Guild and the University of Minne­ lence reflects a sound appraisal. Yet there ces may be obscure, and thumbnail biogra­ sota School of Journalism must have plan­ is no sense of repetition. It is rather a phies of all seventeen contributors. Final­ ned this series of annual lectures with just matter of one discussion's complementing ly, he has written a blessedly brief in­ such a unified analysis in mined. To the others. troduction which sets the stage for what's extent that they exercised such discriminat­ One of the special delights in reading to come. ing choice, the sponsoring groups may be this collection is the way the style and The Press in Perspective is much more said to have planned it that way. They personality of so many of the contributors than just another anthology of speeches. confined themselves to no one area of come through. These are word men, and It has much to say about the press and its interest, interpreting "press" in the broad­ one suspects that they emerge even more problems in fifteen eventful and trouble­ est possible sense. A historian (Henry convincingly on the printed page than some years. Steele Commager) and a theologian they did in speaking the words. The re­ (Reinhold Niebuhr) bring insights that viewer can say positively that this is true John M. Harrison, now professor of help illumine the subject in important of the one of these lectures he heard in the journalism at Penn. State, was long an edi­ ways. Others come from all the media, University of Minnesota's Northrup torial writer on the Toledo Blade. He was having two things in common: Auditorium-that by Herblock. It was a a Nieman Fellow in 1952. NIEMAN REPORTS 21 Nietnan Books ped the local presses for nearly four Book Titles months. ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT. By J. TAXPAYERS' HAYRIDE. By Julius An inquiry into the circumstances sur­ K. Galbraith. Harvard University Press. Duscha, Little, Brown Co. 309 pp. $6. rounding this lamentable lapse of the news­ 104 pp. $2.95. paper dignitaries who bestow journalism's How Billie Sol Estes could exploit the most celebrated accolades provides no satis­ Plain sensible talk about the hard busi­ farm program. Its other weaknesses and factory answer. It is, in a sense, a story in failures. A recipe for a more rational ness of making living standards toler­ itself, providing another melancholy foot­ able in lands where they are not. By farm policy. note to the muddled annals of the Pulitzer one who has worked at it. Prizes. BLACK MAN'S AMERICA. By Simeon • • • Booker. Prentice Hall. 230 pp. $4.95. Raskin's product was both an unpre­ FIRE BELL IN THE NIGHT. By Oscar A Negro reporter's graphic story of cedented and memorable episode in the Handlin. Little, Brown Co. 110 pp. some things he has seen happen to history of U. S. journalism. It was a can­ $3.50. Negroes in Alabama and Mississippi; an did, informed study of the forces and per­ inside commentary on the way the Eisen­ sonalities involved in the prolonged news­ The deepening danger to American hower and Kennedy administrations acted paper blackout; no sacred cows were democracy in the failure to end Negro on civil rights. A Who's Who of spared in his account of that disastrous discrimination. Negro leaders and their maneuvers to saga of mutual miscalculation, misunder­ keep the lead. standing and misfortune. Management and union negotiators were treated with THE BAY OF PIGS. By Haynes John­ fine-often devastating-objectivity in his son. Norton Co. 368 pp. $5 .95. Nieman Books in Process account, and even those who were scared Anthony Lewis on the Supreme Court, A vivid account of the aborted invasion recognized the extraordinary honesty and from his New Yorker series. and an exploration of the background of perceptiveness of the report. This was one of journalism's finest its traversty. A non-political record from Christopher Rand on the Cambridge hours-and one from which all newspap­ the participants. science-industry complex, from his New ers and newspapermen had reason to Yorker series. derive a certain pride. It seemed to estab­ lish, among other things, the proposition DULLES OVER SUEZ. Herbert Finer. JOURNEY AMONG BRAVE MEN. By Quadrangle Books, Chicago. 538 pp. that a newspaper could tell the rough truth Dana Adams Schmidt. Little Brown & about a conflict in which its own execu­ $7.50. Co. (June 16). tives had been deeply involved. Indeed, The crooked road to the Suez cns1s On the Kurds: "the fightingest people it would have seemed appropriate for the of 1956 and its dismal effects. It is not in the Middle East." Pulitzer jurors to honor both the man without malice. Mr. Dulles is Finer's vil­ who wrote the report and the publisher­ lain. But discounting for that, and some the late Orvil Dryfoos-who sanctioned its other biases, it is a very complete record. publication despite adverse passages on the conduct of the Publishers Ass n. in Scrapbook the conflict. REPORTING. By Lillian Ross. Simon Without harshly deprecating other win­ & Schuster. 44 2 pp. $6.50 ners, one is obliged to argue that the Ras­ A Lost Prize kin story surely warranted larger im­ Half a dozen examples of Lillian Ross ' Most commentary on this year's Pulitzer mortality than the diligent coverage of a vivid reporting in the New Yorker, in­ Prize awards has focused on the jury's "multi-million-dollar vegetable oi l swindle cluding her profile on Hemingway and failure to grant any honors in the fields of in New Jersey," one of this year's trium­ a long saga of a serious movie that be­ drama, fiction and music. The merits of phant entries. came a casualty of Hollywood inner these indecisions are arguable; but another politics. exercise in non-recognition is worthy of Non-recognition of the Rask in report sharply dissenting notice. cannot be ascribed to neglige nce or abse nt­ PEOPLE, SOCIETY AND MASS The truly conspicuous omission was the mindedness. It was a considered judg­ COMMUNICATIONS. By Lewis A. absence of any award or citation for the ment of the Advisory Board to whi ch the Dexter and David M. White. Free most unconventional and distinguished document was referred for final considera­ Press of Glencoe, N.Y. 593 pp. $7.95. journalistic endeavor of recent (or ancient) tion. years-A. H. Raskin's remarkable 15,000- For some inexpli cable reason, the The impact of the media on people and word behind-the-scenes Times report on Times itself did not include the Raskin vice versa. Comprehensive studies. the long, bitter newspaper strike that stop- story among its submissions; but this did 22 NIEMAN REPORTS not preclude a prize since other journalists TV station or to an individual or a group took pains to sponsor him. It was also true New Nieman Award of individuals. that his report did not neatly fit into any Cites Vietnam Correspondents Louis M. Lyons has been Curator of the category such as "spot news" coverage or Nieman Foundation since 1939. He was a "national reporting." But if there was The following is a slightly cut version member of the first Nieman class, of 1938- any authentic ambiguity on that point, of a Harvard University news release of -39, and became Curator after the first the Pulitzer board has resolved the prob­ May 4. Curator, Archibald McLeish, was appoint­ lem in the past-and did so again this ed Librarian of Congress by President year-by awarding special citations. This American correspondents in Vietnam Franklin D. Roosevelt. year's "special" was awarded to the Gan­ in 1963 received the first Louis M. Lyons He has been a leader in discussion of nett newspaper chain for something A ward for Conscience and Integrity in the role of the press in modern America described as "special coverage of success Journalism. and an editor and distinguished reporter stories on 'The Road to Integration.' " The announcement of the establishment in his own right. One member of the board said privately of the award as well as the initial recipients yesterday that a Raskin citation was re­ As a newscaster of radio and television came from the 1963-64 class of Nieman jected because "there was a feeling that too for the Boston educational station, WGBH, Fellows at Harvard University. many special citations were reducing the he has won wide recognition, including a value of the prizes." But the explanation The award, they said, is to be presented Peabody award for news reporting in is wholly unconvincing in view of the dis­ annually by Nieman classes at Harvard. 1958 and a duPont award this year. pensation for the Gannett exhibit. The It is named for the retiring Curator of He has been editor of the professional choice should hardly have been difficult, the Nieman Fellowships for Journalism at journal Nieman Reports since 1947, which if indeed there could be only one selection Harvard. has dealt with the difficult problems faced in the "special" category. The Vietnam correspondents were cit­ in the daily reporting of increasingly ed for reporting "the truth as they saw complex events of our time. * * * it. . . without yielding to unrelenting He was a reporter for the Boston Globe Conceivably the Times' initial failure pressures . . . from numerous sources in­ when he first became associated with the to advance Raskin's name contributed to cluding the United States government." program. After his retirement as Curator the drowsiness that overcame the jurors Singled out for specific mention were of the Nieman Foundation this year he when the subject came up. But that is poor Cornelius Sheehan, of United Press Inter­ plans to join the staff of WGBH as news justification for so large a goof. Every national; Malcolm Browne, of the As­ director. other committee that has presided over the sociated Press, David Halberstam, of the In making the first Louis M. Lyons distribution of newspaper awards this New York Times. Award the 1963-64 Nieman class prepared year. (Polk, Guild, etc.) has saluted the A special citation added, however: "We a special citation to the winners, the text Raskin story. It was the talk of newspaper­ also cited their dedicated colleagues whose of which follows: dam when it appeared. It will be remem­ courage, determination and skill helped bered whenever newspapers self-conscious­ to let the people know." A Citation ly hesitate to write freely about matters in The award will consist of a plaque to We name the American correspon­ which they have direct involvement. be hung in the Nieman Fellowships of­ dents in Vietnam, in 1963, recipients of Yet none of these considerations ap­ fice at Harvard recording each year's win­ the first Louis M. Lyons Award for Con­ parently swayed most of the pillars of ner or winners. In addition, any individu­ science and Integrity in Journalism. newspaper society who comprise the als cited specifically are to receive smaller Under trying conditions they reported Pulitzer board. Certainly some men cared; plaques of their own. the truth as they saw it from Vietnam otherwise the case would never have The first award was selected by the without yielding to unrelenting pressures, reached the board. But plainly they were 1963-64 Nieman class. direct and indirect, to distort the news. lost voices. These pressures were exerted by numer­ One can only conclude that "The Nieman alumni, now numbering in the vicinity of 300, are to be asked to make ous sources, including the United States Establishment" regarded the Raskin revo­ government. lution in labor reporting (about the af­ suggestions for award recipients in future Foremost among those we honor are fairs of newspapers) as precocious and pre­ years. The Nieman class in residence will Cornelius Sheehan, of United Press Inter­ sumptuous. It is a sad tale; it revives anew then make the choice. national; Malcolm Browne, of the Associ­ the question of whether the stuffed shirt A spokesman for the current Nieman ated Press, and David Halberstam, of the should be the arbiter of journalistic excel­ class said the intention of the group was New York Times. lence, and whether, with due reverence for to create an award to honor displays of Mr. Pulitzer, working newspapermen conscience and integrity by individuals, We also cite their dedicated colleagues should regard the board as a jury of their groups or institutions in communications. whose courage, determination and skill peers or a tribunal of their overseers. The award in the future presumably helped to let the people know. -New York Post, May 7. could be given to a newspaper or radio or THE 1963-64 NIEMAN FELLOWS Scrapbook NIEMAN REPORTS 23 A Code on Pre-Trial Publicity

After two and a half years of study and 6. The press and the bar recognize that ments or conclusions as to the inno­ conferences, a Committee of Massachu­ there may arise circumstances in cence or guilt, implied or expressed, by setts newspapermen and lawyers published which disclosures of names of indi­ the police or prosecuting authorities or a "Guide for the Bar and News Media"­ viduals involved in matters coming defense counsel. an effort to confine pre-trial publicity to to the attention of the general public limits that will not endanger the chance of would result in personal danger, harm FOR THE BAR a fair trial. to the reputation of a person or per­ To preserve the individual's rights to They announce its adoption by 26 sons or notoriety to an innocent third a fair trial in a court of law the follow­ daily and 31 weekly papers in the State party. ing guide lines are prescribed for the and by the Massachusetts Broadcasters As­ 7. Consistent with the principles of this Bar. sociation. preamble, it is the responsibility of the 1. A factual statement of the arrest and This is the "Guide." bar, no less than that of the press to circumstances and incidents thereof of support the free flow of information. PREAMBLE a person charged with a crime is per­ FOR THE PRESS missible, but the following should be 1. To promote closer understanding be­ avoided: tween the bar and the press, especial­ Newspapers in publishing accounts of (A) Statements or conclusions as ly in their efforts to reconcile the con­ crime should keep in mind that the ac­ to the innocence or guilt, im­ stitutional guarantee of freedom of the cused may be tried in a court of law. plied or expressed, by the press and the right to a fair, impartial To preserve the individual's rights to a prosecuting authorities or de­ trial, the following mutual and volun­ fair trial, news stories of crime should fense counsel. tary statement of principles is recom­ contain only a factual statement of the mended to all members of both pro­ arrest and attending circumstances. (B) Out-of-court statements by fessions. The following should be avoided: prosecutors or defense at­ torneys to news media in 2. Both professions, recognizing that 1. Publication of interviews with su­ advance of or during trial, freedom of the press is one of the funda­ poenaed witnesses after an indict­ stating what they expect to mental liberties guaranteed by the First ment is returned. prove, whom they propose to Amendment to the United States Con­ 2. Publication of the criminal record or call as witnesses or public stitution, agree that this fundamental discreditable acts of the accused after criticism of either judge or freedom must be zealously preserved an indictment is returned or during jury. and responsibly exercised subject only the trial unless made part of the evi­ (C) Issuance by the prosecuting to those restrictions designed to safe­ dence in the court record. The de­ authorities, counsel fo r the guard equally fundamental rights of the fendant is being tried on the charge defense or any person hav­ individual. for which he is accused and not on his ing official connection with 3. It is likewise agreed that both the press record. (Publication of a criminal the case of any statements and the bar are obliged to preserve the record could be grounds for a libel relative to the conduct of principle of the presumption of inno­ suit. the accused, statements, cence for those accused of wrongdoing 3. Publication of confessions after an "confessions" or admissions pending a finding of guilty. indictment is returned unless made a made by the acc used or 4. The press and the bar concur on the part of the evidence in the court rec­ other matters bea ring on importance of the natural right of the ord. the issue to be tried. members of an organized society to 4. Publication of testimony stricken by the (D Any other statement or press acquire and impart information about court unless reported as having been release to the news media their common interests. stricken. in which the sou rce of the 5. It is further agreed, however, that the statement remams undis­ 5. Editorial comment preceding or dur­ closed. inherent right of society's members ing trial, tending to influence judge or to impart and acquire information jury. 2. At the same time, in the interest of should be exercised with discretion at fair and accurate reporting, news media those times when public disclosures 6. Publication of names of juveniles in­ have a right to expect the co-operation would jeopardize the ends of justice, volved in juvenile proceedings unless of the authorities in fac ilitating ade­ public security and other rights of the names are released by the judge. quate coverage of the law enforcement individuals. 7. The publication of any "leaks," state- process. 24 NIEMAN REPORTS Scrapbook How Public Must The !Public Schools B·e?

Dr. S. P. Marland, superintendent of familiar to the Pittsburgh Schools. to a journalist. (3) The obligation on the part of the administration to provide op­ schools in Pittsburgh, put this head on his • That the Board of Education had ac­ portunities for faculty participation in the February Newsletter, over the following complished some kind of a triumph. letter to his staff: affairs of education, toward the ultimate • That the examinations were to be success of the policies enacted by the Board. Dear Colleagues: imposed without further participation and I hold this proposition as most important. One of the practices of school administra­ deliberation by the teachers as to their The inquiring conscientious spirit of tion in a big city that I am beginning to ap­ scope, purpose and content. our newspapers, combined with the big­ preciate might be called instant informa­ Without wanting to labor the illustra­ ness of our organization, sometimes places tion. By this I mean that a brief reply to a tions, the facts behind the instant informa­ these forces in chronological disarrange­ press inquiry at mid-morning in the ad­ tion, which press representatives could not ment. This is my problem. ministration building may be a headline have known, were as follows: It takes about twenty minutes to get in your lap as you take the streetcar home The Board of Education action was a a headline on the air; about two hours that afternoon. Or what might be seen as matter of adopting the 1964-65 calendar, to get it on the news stand, but it takes a routine Board of Education action, with days set aside to allow for examina­ about four days for the normal processes initiating faculty deliberation on a late tions, but more particularly to allow a of internal communication to get from me Tuesday evening, becomes a bold-faced slightly shortened school year and some to you. By the time the "normal ad­ declaration on your breakfast table time for teachers to correct and record the ministrative processes" work, the issue is Wednesday morning. results of the examinations. The action cold, and I find myself having to protect Let me add very quickly that the Pitts­ had to do with adopting a calendar, not or defend or patch together a position, burgh Schools are favored with honest, with making a revolutionary new policy rather than to present it administratively cooperative and accurate coverage by by fiat. for constructive faculty responses and the news media. My problem is that I The action was based on lengthy de­ counsel. would much prefer a more deliberate liberation among administrative and staff Education is the most public and visible means of communicating with the 4500 officers, with the benefit of informal coun­ of all the professions. In the formal affairs members of our organization than through sel from individual teachers. of the Board of Education this is right the journalistic interpretations of a third There being a year and a half before and good, as we carry on our work of party, no matter how accurate he may June, 1965, it is intended to make a care­ public enterprise brightly illuminated for be. ful study of the nature and worth of the public view. Shortly after World War II, I was examinations, with the active and neces­ But, separately, as a professional body, returned from overseas service to a brief sary participation of teachers in formu­ we have many responsibilities short of the stint in the Pentagon. I noted that nearly lating further policy. formal affairs of the Board of Education all middle- to top-level staff personnel read This illustration could be transposed which are privy to internal professional the New York Times diligently every into other examples of instant informa­ discussions only. morning. Their purpose was to find out tion-salary planning, vocational techni­ Ethics demand privacy in many teach­ what was being said by their department­ cal education, need for new and mod­ ing tasks. Good order in professional plan­ al chiefs in order to be current with the ernized school facilities, and others. ning calls for internal deliberation of a public. At first I was appalled by this phe­ Three basic principles converge to non-public action. It is the balancing and nomenon of "organizational bigness." create this problem: reconciling of the non-public and the pub­ Later, I came to accept it as necessary in ( 1) The alertness and skill of the press lic aspects of teaching that I must try to re­ the labyrinth of Washington. But I never in seeking out and reporting information sole. It is my hope that as we proceed thought that I would find myself wearing in a colorful and appetizing fashion. As with our plans for the Faculty Advisory the same ill-fitting cloak. teachers, we uphold this right and obli­ Committee we may be able to correct the A number of occurrences prompt this gation, and would deplore "managed" periodic surprises of instant information. concern, the most recent being the an­ news. (2) The fundamental legal obli­ In any case, please know that your nouncement of plans for end-of-year ex­ gation of the Board of Education to enact, Superintendent of Schools does not choose aminations in the secondary schools. The monthly or more often, local legislation of to inform you by means of headlines, and newspaper reports were honest accounts greater or lesser public interest. The ad­ that the headlines, though accurate, leave of what the reporters saw and heard. But ministration necessarily puts before the much more to be shared through the the casual reader could have concluded Board of Education items for study and slower but more conventional channels of the following, all of which would have action, sometimes bound by inescapable school organization. been erroneous: time table, and rarely knowing how the Sincerely, • That examinations in general are un- "color" of the Board meeting will appear s. P. MARLAND, JR. NIEMAN REPORTS 25 Reprinted from Dwight ~Sargent Heads Nieman Reports, Oct.1959 Nieman Program State of Maine l\fan ~Trih Editor Named as Lyons Retires This morning I had a good visit with the just appointed editorial chief of the N. Y. Herald Tribune, Dwight Sargent The following was the Harvard Uni­ before joining the U.S. Army in 1942. He of Portland, Maine. versity news release, May 11: served at the Army Information School in He dropped in. This was not unusual. Lexington, Va., and in the European Dwight has been dropping in every so Dwight E. Sargent, the editor of the Theatre of Operations, and was discharged often ever since he was a Nieman Fellow, editorial page of the New York Herald with the rank of captain. He then be­ eight years ago. He always has a few Tribune, will become Curator of the Nie­ came news director and news commen­ things on his mind to remind me to do, man Fellowships at Harvard University tator of radio station WGAN in Portland, to keep the world right side up. on July 1. Me. He was editor of the editorial page Dwight has been tending to the job of In directing the program of university of the Portland Press-Herald and Sunday keeping things right side up in Maine, study for experienced newsmen, he will Telegram when he held a Nieman Fellow­ directing the editorials of the three Port­ succeed Louis M. Lyons, who has been ship at Harvard in 1950-51. land newspapers. Curator since 1939. On the basis of his studies of state gov­ When he finished his Nieman year at Mr. Sargent, who studied at Harvard as ernment at Harvard and in Maine, he Harvard studying State government, a Nieman Fellow in 1950-51, was editor of editorially urged a series of reforms which Dwight told me he was going home with newspapers in Portland, Maine, before he were adopted by the Maine legislature. In a few quite definite ideas for the govern­ joined the New York Herald Tribune in 1955, he was made editorial page director ment of Maine. He soon published a 1959. He served on the Selecting Commit­ of the three Portland newspapers. He series of editorials entitled, "If I Were tee on Nieman Fellows in 1956. joined the New York Herald Tribune in Governor." He was one of the organizers of the 1959. But he didn't stop with one series. He National Conference of Editorial Writ­ He is a member of the American So­ kept at his points. One of them was to ers, and its Chairman in 1953. He also ciety of Newspaper Editors, Sigma Delta get rid of the outmoded September elec­ helped in organizing the New England Chi, the Overseas Press Club of America, tion. They have. Another was a four Society of Newspaper Editors, and was the National Press Club in Washington, year term for governor. That has been instrumental in establishing the Elijah and the International Press Institute. voted. Another was a shorter ballot, and Parish Lovejoy Fellowship at Colby Col­ He is married to the former Elaine that has been accepted. There were other lege, which brings a distinguished journal­ Marion Cass, and they have three children. things, too, that got done as Dwight Sar­ ist each year to lecture on the Maine col­ Mr. Lyons, who retires this summer, has gent kept sawing wood on his editorials. lege campus. been associated with the Nieman Fellow­ Under his direction, with the confidence The Nieman Fellowships give experi­ ships at Harvard since their establishment and support of a modern management, the enced newsmen a year of study within in 1938. As a reporter of the Boston paper moved from stand-pat Republican­ Harvard University, in any fields useful as Globe, he studied at Harvard in 1938-39 ism to independence. background to their journalistic work. The with the first group of Nieman Fellows. He Sargent is a country boy and some peo­ Fellowships were established in 1938 by a then became Curator of the Nieman Fel­ ple have smiled that that other country gift of the late Mrs. Lucius W. Nieman for lowships, continuing on the staff of the boy, Robert White, the Trib's new presi­ the promotion and elevation of the stand­ Boston Globe until 1946. dent, from Mexico, Mo., should have ards of journalism. The Fellowships honor He has edited the quarterly, Nieman reached into Maine for his editor. But the memory of her husband, the founder of Reports, a journal of press opinion, for the John Hay Whitney came back from the Milwaukee Journal. Some 300 news­ Nieman Alumni Council. England to have a hand in the choice too, men have studied at Harvard under the His nightly news and comments over and made the final decision after explor­ Fellowships since they were established in Boston's educational radio and television ing the mind of Dwight Sargent in a 1938. station, WGBH, are now heard through searching interview which came after Mr. Sargent, who is 47, was born in Pem­ most of New England and in New York. Whitney's agents had explored Sargent's broke, Mass., and received the A.B. degree For his news broadcasting, he has re­ background. from Colby College in 1939. Colby con­ ceived the Peabody Award and the duPont It is an interesting background. He is ferred on him its honorary M.A. degree in Award .. He also holds the honorary L.H.D. 42. He grew up in a small New Hamp­ 1956, and later elected him a trustee. degree from the University of Massachu­ shire town and went to Colby College. He was telegraph editor of the Bidde­ setts, the LL.D. from Colby College and Later he was one of the prime movers in ford, Me., Journal and make-up editor of Marlborough College, and the honorary establishing the Lovejoy Lectureship at the New Bedford, Mass., Standard-Times D.Ed. from Rhode Island College. Colby, and has helped select the dis- NIEMAN REPORTS tiugui sh J edi tors who have annually filled torial page editor of the paper Horace th ll I turcship. Greeley founded, I remember a sign on the ll was a prime mover in organizing road in the village of East Poultney, Ver­ th ational Conference of Editorial mont, that nearby that spot Horace Greeley Nieman Notes Writers and the New England Society of had his first newspaper job. Newspaper Editors. Down the road a short piece in 1943 A year ago he took a trip around the Poultney is the birthplace of George world because he thought a down-Maine Jones, who was the main strength of the John F. Day resigned from Time, Inc.'s editor ought to get out more and see for New York Times when it undertook the foreign news service in April to buy a himself. struggle that ended in freeing New York partnership in the Exmouth Jonrnal, a He's a tight-lipped Yankee, but be­ from the clutches of the Tweed Ring. large weekly on the Southwest coast of hind that poker face a keen mind is Those were country boys, who built England. "I am buying the interest of ticking. It ticks in laconic phrase, often the character of the greatest newspapers of the editor who at 77 agreed to sell only if in humorous expression, and with an their day. I would permit him to continue to work unendingly surprising stock of informa­ Louis M. Lyons-WGBH Newscast as a reporter. I consider that a good tion on everything. September 10, 1959 deal, because it will take an American, "Why do we say 'Down Maine' when even one who has been over here two and it's up North?" someone was asking one a half years, time to get adjusted to and day. be accepted by an English town. I have "Because it's down wind," said Sar­ married a wonderful English girl since gent, with a glance up from his newspaper. I have been over here. I like England so Dwight Sargent says there are three much I decided to settle down here. May­ things a great newspaper must have: be I am the first Nieman Fellow to try 1. A conscience. Stephen E. Fitzgerald his wares in such a manner in a foreign 2. Something to say. country." 3. Good writing. 1909-1964 John Day was a reporter on the Cleve­ land Press, later managing editor of the I am sure he had occasion to say it Stephen E. Fitgerald died March 23d Louisville Courier-Journal; then news recently to John Hay Whitney, new owner after a long illness, in Bronxville, New director for CBS, before going to London of the Herald Tribune, who himself was York, where he lived. for Time, Inc. born in Ellsworth, Maine. Native of Baltimore and educated at As to the good writing, Sargent has a Johns Hopkins University, he joined the little personal list of tired cliches that he Baltimore Evening Sun in 1929 and con­ 1944 will not tolerate in an editorial. tinued with it until 1942, when he joined Fred Maguire, professor of journalism I asked him to list them for me. the staff of the War Production Board, to at Ohio State University, was a guest "These" he says, "I consider some of become its deputy director. He was a speaker at the 19th Conference for Read­ the most horrifying: member of the second group of Nieman ers and Writers at the University of Pitts­ It remains to be seen. Fellows, 1939-40. burgh, March 13. It would appear that. He developed his own public relations This is as it should be. firm in New York after the war. He was A step in the right direction. former president of the New York Chap­ 1948 Trite but true. ter of the Public Relations Society of Started the ball rolling. America and editor of the society's Dr. Lester Grant is a member of the Got off to an auspicious start. journal. He was author of a book on teaching staff of the New York Univer­ Struck a blow for democracy. public relations: Communicating Ideas to sity School of Medicine; also directing one The political pot is boiling." the Public. of the research laboratories of the New And he added: "If another misguided A first class reporter in his newspaper York City Health Department. After soul tells me that New York's gain is days, he was equally successful in business. graduation at Harvard Medical School in Maine's loss, my list will be one cliche His clients included leading American 1955, he served as interne and resident in longer." corporations. He was a leader in de­ teaching hospitals in Boston and New So the Herald Tribune, setting out on veloping public relations as a profession. Haven_ He received a postdoctoral fel­ a new chapter under the ownership of lowship at Oxford and earned a Ph.D. in John Hay Whitney, has as editor and physiology and medicine. editorial chief two country editors, in their early forties, Robert White of Missouri and Dwight Sargent of Maine. 1949 As I read the announcement that the Alan Barth, editorial writer for the down-Maine man is going to be the edi- Washington Post, was the principal speak- NIEMAN REPORTS 27 er at the 18th annual convention of the under which he was indicted. This ended 1962 Maryland Scholastic Press Association. a prosecution that had lasted almost two More than 1,000 high school journalists years. People keep writing about the series of from Maryland, Northern Virginia and the beats Gene Roberts has had in the De­ District of Columbia attended the con­ troit Free Press in the short time since he vention. 1958 went North from the Raleigh News & Observer. The one that caused the most Newsday appointed William F. Mc­ excitement was from Dallas. Assigned 1951 Ilwain managing editor, the first of May. there to cover the Ruby murder trial, he He has been with Newsday since 1954, as got hold of all the Lee Oswald pictures that Dana Adams Schmidt, New York copy editor, columnist, city editor and as­ Life later published, and had them first in Times correspondent in the Middle East, sistant managing editor. the Free Press. received the George Polk award, for his articles on the Kurdish rebellion. "For the best reporting, reqmnng exceptional 1959 1963 courage and enterprise abroad." Schmidt Pat Owens left the Pine Bluff (Ark.) spent 46 days among the Kurds in their T. V. Parasuram, Washington corre­ Commercial, where he was editor, to join mountain hideouts and interviewed their spondent of the Indian Express newspap­ the Arkansas Gazette, this Spring, as edi­ leader. ers, reports a baby girl born April 12, torial writer. "the first girl in our family for two gen­ The Encyclopaedia Britannica's memori­ erations. We named her Anita after a 1954 al volume, "A Tribute to John F. Ken­ search for a name that was Indian as nedy," will include a column by Gene Douglas Leiterman produced and di­ well as American." Graham in the Nashville Tennessean, rected a one-hour television portrait of Nov. 24, on Kennedy's sense of humor. John Diefenbaker, Canadian Conservative The book is being published for the Party leader, for the Canadian Broadcast­ 1961 Kennedy Memorial Library. ing Corporation. It was the ninth special Robert Smith became editorial page edi­ Paul Kidd of the Hamilton Spectator re­ presentation of the CBC Document tor of the Charlotte News in February, ceived first prize for editorial writing in series. He received the Wilderness Award moving from the Norfolk Virginian-Pilot, the Western Ontario Newspaper Awards. of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation where he had been Sunday editor and The judges said of his prize editorial that for his documentary last year on race associate editor. "it made a good case for reform of the prejudice in the U. S. Chanchal Sarkar, as director of the new legal aid system in Ontario. He states his Press Institute of India, has brought con­ arguments clearly and forcefully." Kidd 1955 sultants from the International Press also won honorable mention in report­ Institute to help small Indian papers with ing for his report of the funeral of Henry Shapiro was in Cambridge for their problems of accounting and equip­ President Kennedy. an April visit after a flying trip from Mos­ ment. He found that business and techni­ The South African government refused cow to California for the marriage of his cal problems had to come before editorial to admit Saul Friedman of the Houston daughter,lrena to Barry Alan Corten April needs. Chronicle, who was to have worked six II in Berkeley. The South Carolina Press Association months for the South African Associated awarded a silver loving cup to A. M. Newspapers, as part of an exchange. This 1957 Secrest this Spring for publishing the action was in March. Two months later, weekly newspaper (the Cheraw Chroni­ a government press commission in an of­ After four and a half years on the Phil­ cle) performing the most valuable com­ ficial report accused all foreign news adelphia Bulletin, Fred Pillsbury re­ munity service of any paper in the State. services of distorting or falsifying news turned to the Boston Herald as a feature The Columbia Journalism Review from South Africa and proposed a tight writer in the Sunday department, in cited the Cheraw Chronicle "which has system of control of foreign corre­ April. He had been doing weekly features shown continuing awareness of South spondents. for the Sunday magazine on the Bulletin. Carolina's racial problems and has taken Victor McElheney this Spring became On February 2d, the 5th U. S. Circuit editorial positions calculated to ease them European correspondent of Science, the Court of Appeals reversed the conviction peacefully and justly." magazine of the American Association for of William Worthy of Afro-American for Lewis Nkosi made an American tour the Advancement of Science. He was entering the U. S. from Cuba without a this Spring for the London Observer to science writer on the Charlotte Observer passport. The Court declared unconsti­ report on the developments on the Negro before he was awarded the Arthur D. tutional the section of the McCarran Act rights issue, particularly in the South. Little Fellowship for science writing.