1eman• orts July., 1961 The Press Lives by Disclosures Joseph Pulitz·er, Jr. The Press in the Cuban Fiasco Dom Bonafede What About Weeklies? John C. Obert Collingwood Views the Press Louis M. Lyons N·ewspapers Should 1Be for Highbrows Roland E. W olseley No News Is Bad News (China Again) Robert Karr McCabe Are We the Best Informed Nation? James W. Markham The Press and Its Critics Nathan B. Blumberg Trial By Newspap·er- The Supreme Court Rebukes The Press A Nieman Fellow at Harvard by Chanchal Sarkar-Nieman Fellows 1961-62; Nieman Notes; What's in a Name? Dorian J. Lester; Disinterested Students vs. Interested Newspapers, Patrick Huber; William M. Tugman, Newspaperman, Charles T. Duncan 2 NIEMAN REPORTS (Miss.) Enterprise-Journal; to study American history, government and economics. He is 31, a native of McComb, a graduate of the Uni­ NiemanReports versity of Mississippi. After serving in the Korean War he began work on his father's paper in McComb in 1954, then VOL. XV., NO. 3 JULY1961 worked two years on the Minneapolis Tribune, and re­ Published quarterly from 44 Holyoke House, Cambridge 38, turned to McComb as managing editor in 1957. In 1959 his Mass. Subscription $3 a year. Second-class postage paid at Boston, paper received the State Press Association award as the Massachusetts. most improved paper, and the next year won first award Nieman Reports is published by the Nieman Alumni Council: for general excellence. Piers Anderton, New York City; Barry Brown, Providence, R. 1.; JoHN A. HAMILTON, associate editor, Lynchburg (Va.) Norman A. Cherniss, Riverside, Calif.; John L. Dougherty, Roch­ ester; Thomas H. Griffith, New York City; A. B. Guthrie, Jr., News; to study U. S. history, government and literature. Great Falls, Mont.; John M. Harrison, Iowa City; Weldon James, He is 31, was born in Richmond, graduated at the Uni­ Louisville, Ky.; William G. Lambert, Portland, Ore.; Francis P. versity of Richmond, and Columbia School of Journalism. Locke, Dayton, 0.; Joseph Loftus, Washington, D. C., Fred­ erick W. Maguire, Columbus, 0.; W. F. Mcllwain, Garden He served in the U.S. Army, began news work in Lynch­ City, N. Y.; Harry T. Montgomery, New York City; Fred­ burg in 1955 as reporter, and after three years on other erick W. Pillsbury, Philadelphia; Charlotte F. Robling, New Virginia papers, returned in 1958 as associate editor. His Canaan, Conn.; Dwight E. Sargent, New York City; Kenneth Stewart, Ann Arbor, Mich.; John Strohmeyer, Bethlehem, Pa.; Walter H. editorials have won him Virginia Press Association awards. Waggoner, London; Melvin S. Wax, San Francisco; Lawrence G. JoHN HuGHEs, Christian Science Monitor correspondent Weiss, Denver, Colo.; Louis M. Lyons, Cambridge, Chairman. in South Africa; to study world communism and other international problems. Nieman Fellows for 1961-62 He is 31, was born in England. He began newspaper Harvard University's 24th annual award of Nieman Fel­ work in Durban, South Africa, in 1946 and worked on lowships will bring 11 American and five foreign news­ London newspapers and agencies until he joined the men to the University in September for the academic year Christian Science Monitor in 1954. He has been their 1961-62. South African correspondent the past five and a half years. The 11 American fellows include the first appointment His book The New Face of Africa will be published in to the Arthur D. Little Fellowship for a science writer, September by Longmans Green & Co. contributed by the ADL Foundation. DAVID J. KRAsLOw, Washington correspondent for the The five Associate Fellows from abroad are the first Knight Newspapers; to study Latin America and U. S. Canadian Fellow sponsored by the Reader's Digest As­ history and government. sociation of Canada, a South African sponsored by the He is 35, a native of New York City. He served in the African-American Institute, and three Asians, from India, Air Force two years in World War II, then graduated from Japan and Formosa, sponsored by the Asia Foundation. the University of Miami in Florida in 1948. After varied The Nieman Fellowships provide a college year of study reporting for the Miami Herald and winning news awards, of the Fellows' own choice for their background for journal­ he was assigned to the Washington bureau of the Knight ism. The Fellowships were established in 1938 by a gift to papers in 1956. Besides national news, he has covered Latin Harvard from Agnes Wahl Nieman, in honor of her hus­ American affairs and recently the Cuba story. band, Lucius W. Nieman, founder of the Milwaukee JAMES V. MATHIS, Washington bureau chief for the Journal. Her will described the gift "to elevate standards of Houston Post; to study government and international re­ journalism in the United States and educate persons deemed lations. especially qualified for journalism." He is 37, was born in Louisiana, studied two years at The Nieman Fellows for 1961-62 are: Louisiana Polytechnic Institute and went to work on his PETER H. BINZEN, education reporter, Philadelphia Bul­ home town paper, in Monroe, La. He joined the Houston letin; to study educational problems of metropolitan cities. Post in 1950. After local and investigative reporting, he He is 38, was born in Glen Ridge, N. J., graduated at was assigned to the city hall and state capital, and in 1957 Yale and began newspaper work in 1947 with the United was named chief of the Post's Washington bureau. Press in New York. He joined the Bulletin in 1951. After JoHN H. NELSON, Atlanta Constitution reporter; to study seven years of general reporting he began in 1958 to special­ public administration, state and local politics. ize on education, first with the city schools, then on edu­ He is 31, a native of Alabama, has had 14 years of news­ cation in the state, as well as the city. paper experience, the last nine on the Constitution, where JoHN 0. EMMERICH, JR., managing editor of the McComb (Continued on page 11) NIEMAN REPORTS 3 Trial hy Newspaper The Supreme ~ court Rebukes the Press The United States Supreme Court on June 5 unanimous­ matory pre-trial newspaper publicity of the case that had ly voided a murder conviction in Gibson County, Indiana, drenched the community. Concurring, /ustice Frankfurter (IRVIN vs DOWD, No. 41) on the ground that a major­ discussed the dangers to justice of "trial by newspaper." ity of the jurors had admitted prejudice before the trial. The Frankfurter statement is in full below, and follow­ /ustice Clark for the Court discussed in detail the inflam- ing that the relevant part of the Clark decision. "Inflammatory Newspaper lntrusion"-Justice Frankfurter Of course I agree with the Court's opinion. But this is, son or another this Court does not undertake to review unfortunately, not an isolated case that happened in Evans­ all such envenomed state prosecutions. But, again and ville, Indiana, nor an atypical miscarriage of justice due to again, such disregard of fundamental fairness is so flagrant anticipatory trial by newspapers instead of trial in court that the Court is compelled, as it was only a week ago, to before a jury. reverse a conviction in which prejudicial newspaper intru­ More than one student of society has expressed the view sion has poisoned the outcome. Janko v. United States, that not the least significant test of the quality of a civiliza­ ante, p.--; see, e.g., Marshall v. United States, 360 U.S. tion is its treatment of those charged with crime, particu­ 310. See also Stroble v. California, 343 U. S. 181, 198 (dis­ larly with offenses which arouse the passions of a commun­ senting opinion); Shepherd v. Florida, 341 U.S. 50 (concur­ ity. One of the rightful boasts of Western civilization is ring opinion) . This Court has not yet decided that the fair that the State has the burden of establishing guilt solely administration of criminal justice must be subordinated to on t:he basis of evidence produced in court and under cir­ another safeguard of our constitutional system-freedom of cumstances assuring an accused all the safeguards of a the press, properly conceived. The Court has not yet decid­ fair procedure. These rudimentary conditions for determin­ ed that, while convictions must be reversed and miscar­ ing guilt are inevitably wanting if the jury which is to riages of justice result because the minds of jurors or poten­ sit in judgment of a fellow human being comes to its tial jurors were poisoned, the poisoner is constitutionally task with its mind ineradicably poisoned against him. How protected in plying his trade. can fallible men and women reach a disinterested verdict based exclusively on what they heard in court when, before they entered the jury box, their minds were saturated by "The Force of Adverse Publicity" press and radio for months preceding by matter designed - Justice Clark to establish the guilt of the accused. A conviction so secur­ ed obviously constitutes a denial of due process of law in .. Here the buildup of prejudice is clear and convinc­ its most rudimentary conception. ing. An examination of the then current community pat­ Not a Term passes without this Court being importuned tern of thought as indicated by the popular news media is to review convictions, had in States throughout the coun­ singularly revealing. For example, petitioner's first motion try, in which substantial claims are made that a jury trial for a change of venue from Gibson County alleged that has been distorted because of inflammatory newspaper the awaited trial of petitioner had become the cause celebre accounts-too often, as in this case, with the prosecutor's of this small community-so much so that curbstone opin­ collaboration--exerting pressures upon potential jurors be­ ions, not only as to petitioner's guilt but even as to what fore trial and even during the course of trial, thereby mak­ punishment he should receive, were solicited and recorded ing it extremely difficult, if not impossible, to secure a jury on the public streets by a roving reporter, and later were capable of taking in, free of prepossessions, evidence sub­ broadcast over the local stations.