The Omaha guide., 1946-07-27

Inc news nelpS to promote racial
antagonisms was placed On the of-
tlcial record of a government bodv
It was also the first time that
hlgn officials in the Patterson
Mccormack newspaper empira
were forced to take the stand and
attempt to explain the twentv-
eight false and vicious articles
which the AJC introduced IL avi-
dence. Francis F Flynn, the News
business manager. was forced w
admit that The News has pubIi-
shed articles which might be cor
strued as anti-Semitic. but said
that THE News regretted it then
and regrets it today.
His regrets. however. were mill
flied by the implied threat i'll tha
following sentence which he ad-
dressed directly to VIII MasIow.
director of the commission Oh Law
and Social Action (CLSA) of the
American Jewish Congress.
And the situation is not being
helped by the fight your organi-
zation is making. You NAV obtain
your temporary objective, namely
to knock us out Of radio station
but cannot see how it is going
to help you from a long range
point Of view
Among the exhibits on which
Mr. Maslow cross-examined Mr.
Flynn were ten News editorials
containing anti-Semitic statements
ana eight columns by John O'
Donnell, the ews' Washington
columnist. The O'DonnelI pieces
ranged from reprint in 1888 W
an anti-Semitic pamphlet bv Sill
yer Shirt leader William PeIlev
to his two false and viciously mis-
leading stories which he was fore
ed to retract after the damage
was done: one on General Patton
and the Jews. and the most recent
one on the designations Of four
Supreme Court judges which Pre-
sident Truman branded as fantag-
tically untrue.
Mr.. Flynn admitted on cross
examination that Mr. O'DonneI
was still an employee of The News
and then stated, unabashedly and
with straight face. that The
News expects, in its proposed ra-
dio station, to retain the same
high standards of accuracy az fin
itT newspaper.
Startling and highly scientific
statistics comparing the treatment
of Jews and Negroes in the news
columns of the Daily News to that
in all New York City morning
newspapers during two three
month periods, in 1945 and 1916.
were submitted BY DR.. Alexander
Il. Pekelis, Chief Consultant to
the AJC, and Leila Sussman. New
York sociologist. The survey re-
vealed that more than half of the
space devoted by the Daily News
to Jews and Negroes during this
period was definitely unfavorable.
while 93 percent Of the space de-
voted to news about Jews and Ne
groes by the New York Times ana
Herald Tribune was favorable in
character
Taking the stories Of Negroes
alone the statistics are even more
revealing of anti-minority bias on
the part of The News. The survey
revealed that more than three
Of the space devoted bv
the Daily News to Negroes dur
ing this period was unfavora BE
while SO percent of the space de-
voted to Negroes by the Herald
Tribune in the same period was
favorable in character. The gen
eral average of New York morn
ing papers, apart from the Daily
News but including Hearst's Daily
Mirror, was SO percent favorable.
Similar analyses in the 80 charts
in the survey and based
on such factors as space, number
and prominence of stories, pictur-
IS, etc, revealed, according to DR..
a consistently greater un-
favorable emphasis in the treat
ment Of stories about Jews and
Negroes in the Daily News than
N all other morning papers.
y oAAON LII LAAC 4NCWo DAd1
against Negroes, the AJC intro
duced column by Jimmy Pow
ers, sports writer, defending the
color line in baseball. Dan d. Dod-
son, executive director of the Ma
yor's Committee on Unity, testi-
fled that the Mayors Committee
on Baseball had Issued g release
1enouncing Powers column as stir
ring up racial strife and hindering
relations l
Several hundred witnesses ap-
oeared at the hearing to testify
Is to the validity of a petition
signed by 100000 New Workers
the grant Of an f M III
cense to the Daily News. The hear
ng Officer declined to hear these
witnesses on the grounds that the
articles in The News, on which
heir views were based, were al
-eady submitted in evidence.
II