Evening star., 1947-03-27
BY the As.eeiated Prsss

CHICAGO, Mar. N.-A special
commission Of educators and others
declares after a Nhree-year study
that Americas freedom of the press
is in danger.
The commission, headed by Rob-
ert M. Hutchins, chancellor of the
University of Chicago, gives three
reasons:
First, the development OF the
press as an instrument of mass
communication "has greatly de-
creased the proportion of the people
who can express their opinions and
ideas through the press; second,
"tte few" able to use the press have
not provided service adequate to
the needs of society" and third,
they have engaged from time to
time in practices which society
condemns"
The danger is not so great, the
commission says, however, that
freedom. will be swept away over
night" and "the present crisis is
simply stage in the long struggle
for free expression"
The report is in the form of a
139-page book, "A Free and Re-
sponsible Press" published today by
the University of Chicago Press.
Included in the study are news
papers, radio, motion pictures, mag
azines and books. All of these
media are referred to as "the press"
The report says the number Of
units" in the industry has declined
with the opportunities for new
corners strictly limited"
II the concentrations Of power"
in the press become so powerful
that they are threat to democ-
racy," the commission says, there
is risk Of government control and
of long step" toward totalitarian-
ism. But, it declares, "the American
press is less venal and less sub
servient to political and economic
pressure than that of many other
countries
In summarizing its criticisms of
the press, the commission says:
1.-THE news is twisted by the en-
phasis on firstneSs, on the novel and
sensational; by the personal in
terest of owners. and by pressure
groups. Too much of the regular
output Of the press consists of
miscellaneous succession of stories
and images which have no relation
to the typical lives of real people
anywhere. Too often the result is
meaningless, flatness, distortion and
the perpetuation of misunderstand-
ing among widely scattered groups
when we look at the press as
whole we must conclude that
it is not meeting the needs of our
society. The commission believes
that this failure of the press is the
greatest danger to its freedom"
The commission makes 13 recon-
mendations on improving the press.
It urges that the constitutional
guarantees of the freedom of the
press be recognized as including
radio and motion pictures" Il
The Government, it says, should
maintain competition among large
units through the antitrust laws"
but use those laws only "sparingly"
to break up such units. Where con-
centration is necessary" it says, the
Government should try to see that
"the public gets the benefit"
The commission suggests legisla-
ton by which a party injured by
libel might obtain a "retraction or
restatement of the facts by the Of
fender or an opportunity to reply
1t would change the law to allow
expressions in favor of revolution
ary changes" in the Government
where there is no clear and present
danger that violence will result"
It says the Government should have
the right "to inform the people in
regard to it's program or to supple
ment and correct the picture of
this country which - results from
misinformation or lack of informa-
ton"
The commission also recommends
that the press 'be hospitable to
ideas and attitudes" different from
it's own and present them to the
public as meriting attention: that
it finance new literary, artistic