Arizona sun., 1948-07-16

# box with boards
atop it rough
.hewn rails to fence off the speakers
from the shouting delegates. Inc
name of Abraham Lincoln is being
put in nomination. This vision, let
me hasten to add, is purely vision
ary. 1 did NOT cover that conven-
ton. I saw a picture of it in book.
The scene I have been watching
is no more placid. That Demo- =
Gratis love a DOnnybrOOk is an old
saying. No smOke-filled rooms, no
private fights for them-rather
free-fOr-all in a wide field, even II
they know what the final outcome
is to be in advance.
But frankly have been thinking
about something else as sit here IN
this tropical heat-that is, in the
moments when have been able to
think between the flashing OF the
light which is the silent bell on the
telephone beside the mike l am
sharing with Earl Goodwin. The flash
of the light on the phoue means
someone in the ABC booth, fiSo
above us, wants one or the otner
of us to Jump in and give a brle1
word-picture Of what is transplrlng
in our immediate neighborhood, for
we are in the thick of things here
and, believe me, sometimes things
are pretty thick.
What I have been thinking about
is the lot of the neWSman and the
small thanks he gets for his pain
and suffering in a political year. Be-
sides being hauled and. mauled by
the public-his public, as the listen
ters of a commentator are referred
'to-besides that, he is under slant
wise attack by the candidates when
they forget themselves.
Nobody, either the partisan lis
teners or the pOliticOs, ever
thinks the cOlumnist, commentator
or reporter is being fair unless he
is boosting his side.
Candidates, when they are in pos
session of their full senses, don't
90 around arousing the wrath OF
the newsmen. Even Franklin RooSe-
welt, who was forever needing the
newspapers, always carefully ex-
planned that it was the publishers
and editors and headline writer's
who twisted the news, not the men
who wrote or broadcast it.
But sometimes candidates slip. And
as we sit, perSpiring under the
klieg lights and trying our best to
tell the truth without malice and
with as much charity as possible
about what is going on before us,
we recall without too much rancor,
the statement of the candidate who
is not being unanimously nominated.
On his recent trip he made one Off
the-cuff remark which prompted
him to send that offending piece OF
haberdashery to the laundry imme-
diately after he had thought it over.
President Truman Opined to one
rear-platfOrm audience that it was
almost impossible to get the facts
definitely before the public "be-
cause there are certain people in
the newspaper business and GER
tain people in the radio business
who have a distorted view of what
the people ought to know and
what the people ought to think"
It might have been better. if he
had worded his plant in the Ian
guage of an earlier candidate-much
earlier-John Quincy Adams, who
at least narrowed his charges against
the press to few papers, even
though he didn't name them Specif-
ically. This offered sop to the rest.
However, President Truman. in a
previous outburst on that same
western trip was specific too. He
attacked the Chicago Tribune and
the Spokane Spokesman-Review. In
lambasting the Tribune, he was fol-
lowing in Franklin Roosevelt's foot
steps. You may recall that on one
occasion when FDR was asked a
particularly sharp question by a
Tribune reporter, he replied: "Oh,
tell Bertie (Robert Mccormick, pub
lisher), he's seeing things under the
| bed"
MIR. Truman's attack on the Trib-
une came about this way: While
travelling through Washington state,
a reporter put to him question
which, although it seemed guileless,
might have concealed barb. Any
how the President interpreted 1t that