The Washington times., 1938-11-14

had gotten worried the use of ICY9 49,
the words FLASH" and "buletn' by - ~ 0<
radio performers, and that Presi- F. ~
dents Lenox R. Lohr of N.B.C. and Am@@m@ -
William S. Palcy of Columbia had -
"agreed' with the commission to re- wW.esMM1 I
strict radio of those words. ~~@@~ @@"@@@
1t looks to us like slap at Mr.. I"asm1" r"' f. M
Walter Winche, famous coIumnst
and broadcaster whose III be back in flash with
flash" is his ether trademark-and whose radio stuff,
incidentally we admire and enjoy.
What prompted this FEC crack at Winchel don't
know Maybe his of flash" doesn't jbe with news
paper peoples conception of the words meanng but that
is his business, not the Governments.
There is proper field for Government radio super
vision The FCC's regulation limiting to forty the
ber of clear channels to general broadcasng sta
tions is proper Though advised
POLLCng that it has managed to gum up fifteen
MI, z.1 of these by injudicious granting of
A"e Ht"e' licenses). Proper, too is its practice
Of deciding how many stations may 500 kiowatts
maximum power, like WLW of Cincinnati instead of the
customary fifty kilowatts.
We need this Government policing of the ether-a
better brand of it than we have now.
But the FEC for the last 10 months has been NOV
ing toward censorship of radio stations programs.
There the hullabaloo it
FCC ITLeS 10 raised last January, over the Mae
r ?, Wes-Charlie Mccarthy adam
""o ~ <1'0"S and Eve" program of the pre-
ceding December 12. Various church people, angry
the alleged vugarity of this program-and on
Sunday evening, too-started crusade. This was en-
tirely egitimate this represented consumer censor
ship, at the most powerful and the only rightfu
kind of censorship in free country But the FEC
had to butt in and try to make it official.
Then, last month, the FEC got all hot and bothered
n broo Tu1,, of
play, Beyond the Horizon" 1t called obscene the
use of damn" "hel" and "for Gods sake" in this
play and threatened to jerk lot of stations licenses
Public indignation forced the FEC to back water
that
1t came right back, though, with loud quacks Of
alarm when Orson Weles Sunday evening, October
80, broadcast his "War of the Worlds fantasy which
scared many people.
Now the FEC is squawking because radio
broadcasters such as Orson Welles and presumably
Winchel, "flash' to mean something different
from what newspapers mean when they use flash."
We don't see many of fellow newspapers pro-
testing these sly toward FEC radio censorship
That is probably because most newspapers wish the
radio ill., the radio being competitor of theirs for
advertising and more effective than
lnDeSUgdte print for such news" political
Tb;o Monrco oratory.
Two " Well, we intend to protest as
long as we're allowed to. If the Government gets con-
troll of radio programs the totaitaran dictatorship
much dreaded by the newspapers will be appreciably
nearer Then press and radio alike will be servants of
the Government. And press and radio alike, feeding
prescribed soothing syrup to their customers
will be twin terrific bores.
The President seems either not to know not to
care about what the FEC is doing to bring the radio
under Government control. He has not declared him
self flatfootedly for freedom of speech the air.
Therefore, here is for congressional investga-
tion posteection, on-the-level nvesgaon-to be fol-
lowed we hope, by strict congressional limitation of
the FCCs powers. trrom the New York Daily NewD