Evening star., 1963-09-30

| An official protest was made
by the ANPA to the Federal
Communications Commission
on the Agriculture Depart
ment's action. The reason CIV
en- was that since another Fed
eral agency. was involved the
issue was mot cognizable by the
commission"
Representatives Findley of
Illinois and Hosmer of Califor-
MIA. both Republicans, have in
troduced bills in Congress to
block the Agriculture wire and
prohibit the creation Of any
national news agency. No ac-
ton is expected on them in this
session.
MY feeling" Mr.. Hosmer
said, "is that we are going to
have to generate a lot more
heat before we get any action
on these needed measures"
| Newspapers have aken up
the battle editorially and called
for congressional action to
close the door on any steps to-
ward a national news service.
The Los Angeles Times called
the Agriculture Departments
move an Invitation to rugged
news" and the Chicago Tri-
bune, in a September 5 editori-
al, called 1t IAN ominous intru-
sion" and asked: And If Agri-
culture can have its own news
service, why can't State, Com
merce and other departments
have theirS?"
The Detroit Free Press, In a
September 6 editorial, saw the
new marketin service as
opening a way toward Federal
control of news" and the Rich
mond CVa.) News Leader said
on August 80 that the Agricul-
ture Department ''has no busi-
ness in the news business"
The Journal of Commerce
also warned against the Gov
ernment's competition with a
private agency.
The Journal of Commerce
owns the PAM. News Corp, a
m arketing service which 1t
bought May /, 1868. PAM. has
300 customers and has b en-
supplying m arketing news
which subscribers may now OBJ
tain through a tie-in on the
Agriculture wires.
What's At Stake?
Thus, the Kennedy admin
istration for the second time
finds itself at odds with pub
fishers. What are the issues?
With regard to the Agricul-
ture Departments new service,
the A.N.P.A. has raised six
arguments and the Agriculture
Departments answers are as
follows:
Argument No. 1-"Under our
concept of freedom, 1t is i'm
proper for the Government to
engage in the business Of news
gathering and dissemination. 1t
can too easily become a propa-
ganda agency. :"
Agriculture's answer-"Fed-
eral, State and County. govern
ments have been engaged for
more than 100 years in gather
ing and disseminating special
lied reports, data and other
mples are
weather reports, census reports,
agricultural crop estimates and
agricultural market news. Fed
eral laws authorize these serv-
ices.
The bugaboo Of these serv-
ices becoming propaganda "a
agencies Is completely foreign
to American concepts. This
presupposes that the Executive
branch would have the de-
sire land ability to use for
propaganda purposes its staff
of meteorologists or statisti-
clans or agricultural marketing
specialists; that Congress
would abdicate its responsible
ties and fail to exercise its
powers Of direction; and that
the American people would tol-
crate such actions"
Argument No. 2-"Govern-
ment should not engage in any
enterprise in competition with
existing private ownership
which is able to provide salts
factory service, as the United
States Department Of Agricul-
ture will be doing in this case. u
Agriculture's answer-"There
is no such existing private
ownership . There are private
marketing analysts or commo-
dity specialists who provide
their services to their CUSTOM
Old Fashioned Southern Style
~~m~~