The Waterbury Democrat., 1943-09-21
Walter WinclleIl kw In Neze, YOrk
RANNFE1R

|, HAMMER
 o1op ne # you've heard this, but wnsnt there once Q sinlile about ''aD free as the air you breathe"2 Well, judging from the latest ruling of the Columbia Broadcast ang System, the air aint as free as it used to be. It's subject to the whims of CBS and its highest nucigy- y-mucks Paul White of that network has decided that here- after the outfits commentators can't express personal opinions Skip. ping for the minute the possible muHzling of free speech, and free press, the point comes up - who owns the air? The idea seems to prevail that certain wave lengths are assigned to certain franchise holders, and can be taken away from them if they operate contrary to the public welfare Since free dom of expression is guaranteed in the Bill of Rights, 1t doesn't strike this wonderer that CBS Is making the best use of its franchise when 1t orders Q ban like that. It becomes all the more dangerous in time of war when = as any amount Of evidence has shown - the propa- ganda agents of the enemy are busy in our midst An enterprising re- porter for CBS can thus be stopped from attacking the poison of the paid agents of Japan and Germany and Italy, who are still being trailed 1..e HNNVs that rule had been operating earlier, no CBS commentator could have chal' lenged the mouthings of Peney, or Viereck or Goebbels himself. That would be personal opinion. .. Mustn't, mustn't.
 Aside from being @ dangerous rule, it's silly one Any reporter worth damn can outwit such Q nonsensical rule in an hour. But that way lies vicious and irrespon- sihle reporting .. Columbia should know, better than anybody. how to Side-step the muzzle. Bill Shirer did 1t in Berlin with infections. Elmer Davis could make monkey of the German High Commands lies just by the way he read them But another method that isn't so pretty Is known as angling the news" slanting 1t so that 1t only becomes controversial when somebody de- mands the right to retort .. Erik ample: On @ recent broadcast Full ton Lewis, Jr., read letter Lou Maxon wrote when he quit the OPA "a long, violent attack on Admin istration methods which-in MaXon's opinion were wrong, Lewis did not state the Administrations case. He offered no opinion on MaXon'S blast. He just read 1t But - II @ Swing, or Q Brown, or a Trout had facts that contradicted MaXon's charges they could not, under the new CBS rule, offer them Yol see, by angling his items reporter can do as good job of wrecking as Goebbels' controlled Nazi press. Any retort becomes editorial .. How do you Nike that, AmericanSP
 It's probably a coincidence-sure that the rule comes up at a time when @ mob of influential office holders are at odds with the Ad- immigration e. In way you can't blame the Columbia Broadcasting System, for wanting to keep its neck pulled in. Just the same, you'd like 1t better if 1t didn't Scoot from dan- ger .. A whole lot of men are dy- ing in the cause of freedom. They wefe told - over the Columbia net- work among other places-that free- dom was worth dying for, Pre- sulmably that included freedom of speech and freedom of press Since the soldiers spent their lives in those causes, they might reason- its franchise in the same causes Radio has committed many stnS {. It has fostered adenoidal tenors and popularized trashy songs, and 1t has out-awfuled even the movies in drama but Its record on news has been swell Now If 1t re- duces news reporting to the level of some eXecutives-then it'll be time for the air to be purified.
 Lots of mOanerS, including men- bers of Parliament, are burning plenty over the krauts' snatch of MusSo. Wed like 1t better, sure, il he'd been put on ice in North Af- rica, but his delivery isn't enough to cry about After all, what have the squareheads got? They can put MusSo on the radio and kid the home folks that he's lining up the Fascists again. But that's only an- other fib they'll have to square later When the NaZis are shagged out of Italy for good, they've got joblesS dictator to bore themselves with He'll just be the man who came to dinner at Berchtesgaden. wearying everybody with tales of how he once went ten rounds with Ethiouia Besides, when settling up time comes, Benito will be the Nazis' responsibility. They'll have to guarantee his appearance in court ... They're going to find out that they've swiped themselves a nice case of smallpox.
 Some of the Senators got into a father over President Roosevelt'S message to Congress. They gave out with the customary cliche, cam paign material. You can't keep a thing from some of our Senators. Now that MT. Roosevelt has been elected President of the United States three times it's beginning to dawn on the Senators that he has White House ambitions Taking ff4e haafino SanatorS at their word