The Wilmington morning star. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1909-1990, 1945-01-06
BY WESTBROOK PEGLER
Copyright, 1915, by King Features Syndicate

NEW YUM, Inc case VI WllI1dIl Sdl1.
nor. the New York radio news interpreter
employed by the Blue network, continues to
command my interest.
This man is an inposter and convicted
thief, facts which would not necessarily dis
qualify him for his job, but he is also
propa gandist who damns Fascism but not Com
munism and, to this extent may be said to
follow the line Then, too his sponsor, Samuel
J. Novick of the Electronic> Corporation of
America, is found among the directors OF
new radio company called the Peoples Forum
foundation, who include several known Com
munists.
When these facts were presented to the Blue
network, the executives of the company de-
cided that they were still insufficient to bar
Gailmor and his propaganda from the ali.
Such a verboten would have raised an issue
of freedom of expression and the Blue really
would have found itself in very unpleasant
situation.
But then we have to remember that re-
cent predecessor OF Galmore in the same
ten-minute spot, from 11:05 to 11:15 in the eve
ming on the local station, WIZ, was a man
whose personal record was entirely clean and
whose editorial point Of view could not be chal-
lenged from either the right or left. This man
is George Reedy, Purple Heart veteran of
L
left one of his legs in France and whose son
is captain of aviation in this war.
Reedy occupied this position from Nov.
1943 until March 81 1914 He was then reliev-
ed and the explanation now given reluctantly
by the Blue network is that his work did not
attract paying sponsor for the time. The
Blue is not institution endowed for public
service and therefore must consider the in
terests Of the box office. This client which
now presents Gailmor with his propaganda is
spending about 900 year on the program,
a formidable figure, incidentally, by compa~i-
son with the companys worth as reported by
Ia credit agency in 1943.
/ never heard Mr. Reedy's news analysis
but from long acquaintance with him, as
sumo that they closely followed the news and
merely attempted to explain the bulletins. He
certainly is not Communist or pro-Commu-
mist and it needn't be said that a who
suffered as he did for his country in one war
against Germany would never say anything
that could possibly be twisted into approval of
Hitlerism now.
Possibly he was just dull and therefore I'M
attractive to commercial sponsor
I think Gailmor is dull and in the boradcasts
which l have heard he has wandered far from
the news and lectured his subjects in rather
oatroniZing way their duty to crush Fas-
cism but not Communism.
But what is the proposition here?
Radio companies are licensed to use the air
with understanding that they assume GER
tain obligations and so we find an otherwise
unoffending news Interpreter let out merely
because he doesn't jazz up the news in an
exciting or controversial way and replaced by
a man who is, to say the best that can be
said for him, questionable.
Must the Interpretation of the news there
fore be hysterical or biased out of respect for
the company's financial needs? Would it be
correct to relieve impartial and honest in
terpreter because he couldn't get a sponsor
at $50, 900 year and substitute a declared
Communist or declared Fascist, for that mat
ter, who would preach dictatorship and poi
son the mind of his audience? l think it must
be conceded that such commentators pre-
sumed to know more than the listening public
Otherwise why commentators, at all?
| To return to Gailmor's personal qualifica-
tons to instruct the public, we find that he
escaped a term in prison for grand larceny
first degree, by appealing to psychiatry at the
last moment before he was to 60 to trial be-
fore jury. Up to that moment he was just a
plain thief with no excuse of poverty or ig-
norance. But then it was discovered that he
was not a crook but a mental invalid, SUI
fering from a 'compulsion neurosis" which,
on five occasions, had impelled him to steal
automobiles. So he put in year in a nom
penal institution and emerged claiming TO be
reborn and cured, changed his name and was
put on probation.
| But isn't that doubtful sort OF man for the
Blue network, considering its public response
bilty, to put on the air for ten minutes a
night, five times week under the auspices OF
a sponsor SO closely associated with Commu-
nists and their sympathizers, Does the Blue S
ooxoffice interest justify such a choice, es-
pecialy in contrast to man of Reedy's back
ground who never was accused of coloring or
angling the news or suspected of favoring any
alien and anti-American political system,
1t may be doubted that Galmor ever was
mentally ILL., Doctors do make mistakes ana
this fellow is such persuasive salesman that
those who certified his neurosis may have oeen
honestly deceived in their professional con
,luson that he became a thief because us
wife ran up large bills and thus MADE nun
nervous. On that basis, millions OF men are
invited to go in for crime and, when cauenl'
to go somewhere away from it all and take
years rest as their only punishment.
Dull or not, Reedy would seem the h'oie
reliable man.
-V
Many Germans have never seen Amer. 49,
soldiers before They asked us why we W. w.
fighting Germany and examined our clota sd
and weapons with great interest. lhey i Ct
been fighting on the Russian front. - tror,
Eruce Tate Of Columbus, S. c., rescued --0''
capture near Stavelot. Belgium