Detroit evening times. (Detroit, Mich) 1921-1958, 1945-01-05
FAIR
ENOUGH
BY Westbrook.
pea!eS


terpreter employed by the Blue
Network, continues to command
my interest.
This man is an imposter and
a convicted thief, facts which
would not necessarily diSquallfy
him for his job, but he is also a
propaganda who damns fas-
cism but not communism and,
10 this extent, may be said TO
follow the line.
Then, too. his sponsor, Sam
uel j. Novick of the Electronic
Corp. of America, is found
among the directors of new
radio company called the -Peo--
plies Forum Foundation, who
include several known Commu-
nists.
When these facts were pre-
sented TO the Blue Network.
the executives of the company
decided that they were still in
sufficient TO bar Gailmor and
his propaganda from the air.
Such a verboten would have
raised an issue of freedom OF
expression and the Blue really
would have found itself in a
very unpleasant situation.
RUT then we, have to remem-
~ Der that a, recent predeces-
sor of Gaitfnor in the same To-
minute spot. from II :05 10 HIS
in the evening on the local sta
ton, WIZ, was a man whose
personal record was entirely
clean and whose editorial point
Of view could not be challenged
from either the right or left.
This man is George Reedy.
a Purple Heart veteran OF the
First Division in the First
World War, VINO left one of his<
legs in France and whose so
is captain of aviation in this~
war.
Reedy occupied this position
from Nov. 8, 1913, until March
81. 1914. He was then relieved
and the explanation now gwen
reluctantly by the Blue Net
work is that his work did not
attract paying sponsor for
the time.
The Blue is not an institution
endowed for public service and
therefore must consider the in
tereSts of the box office.
ffff1is client which now pre-
sentS Gailmor with his propa-
ganda Is spending about SJ0. 900
a year on the program, a for
midable figure. incidentally, by
comparison with the company's
worth as reported by a credit
agency in 1913.
Il never heard Mr.. Reedy'S
news analyses, but from long
acquaintance with him, I as
sumo that they closely follow
the news and merely attempted
20 explain the bulletins.
lie certainly is not a Com
munist or pro-CommuniSt and
II needn't be said that man
who suffered as he did for his
country in one war against Ger
many would never say anything
that could possibly be twisted
into approval Of HitleriSm now.
DOSSIBLY he was just dull
Il and therefore unattraCtive
20 commercial sponsor.
! think Gailmor is dull and
in the broadcastS which I
have heard ne has wandered
far from the news and lectured
his subjects in a rather patron
lzIng way on their duty 10
crush fasciSm, but not commu-
niSm.
But what IS the proposition
here?
Radio companies are license0
10 use the air with an UNDER
standing that they assume GER
tain obligations and 50 We find
an otherwise unofTendlng news
interpreter Let out merely be-
cause he doesn't Jazz up the
news in an exciting or contro-
verSial way and replaced by a
man who Is. 10 say The best
that can be said for him, ques-
tionable
Must the Interpretation Of the
news therefore be hysterical or
biased out OF respect for the
comparv's financial needs?
Would il be correct TO re-
lieve an impartial and honest
interpreter because he couldn't
get a sponsor at $4,000 a year
and substitute a declared Com
muni5t or a declared Fascist.
for that matter, who would
preach dictatorship and poison
the mind of his audience?
i think II must be conceded
that the audience can be i'm
posed on and misled by a clever
liar because in the beginning IL
is conceded that such commen-
tators are presumed 10 know
more than the listening public.
OtneTWlSe, why commentators
at all?
TO RETURN TO Gailmor's
Il personal qualifications 10 in
Struct the public, we find that
he ESCAPED term in prison for
grand larceny. first degree, by
appealing TO psychiatry at the
last moment before he was to
60 TO trial before a jury.
Up TO that moment he was
just a plain thief with no ex-
Gus, of poverty or ignorance.
But then il was discovered
that he was not crook bu. a
mental invalid, suffering from a
"compulsion neuroris" whict u