Cronkite knocks gov't
Walter Cronkite, anchor man of the Columbia Broadcasting System evening news program, today defended broadcast journalism and decried federal regulation of news media.
Cronkite spoke from a prepared address, released prior to his giving the 20th William Allen White Memorial lecture this afternoon in Hoch Auditorium.
Citing the "odious nature of harassment from Washington," Cronkite asked for a unity of news journalists against "archaic" and "no longer valid" doctrines of restriction which he said are threatening network news.
"Our immediate crisis stems directly from the fact that we, in network news, are, indeed, politically independent, uncommitted and open-minded, responsible only to the principle of honest reporting."
worries" concerning broadcast journalism have resulted from its ability to reach the poor, uneducated and underprivileged.
Whereas the early press influence was limited to the educated, Cronkite explained that the "establishment's
The 52-year old CBS commentator warned against a feeling of false security of newsmen outside the broadcast media.
Speaking of the "enemies of free speech" Cronkite warned, "With a sense of the jugular, they know they are likely to be successful only if they can divide the press and TV. They'll nibble us in TV news until we're gone. Then they'll turn their attention again to the press."
Among his charges of federal harassment, Cronkite offered, "the Federal Communication Commission's assumed right to ask us to explain our news coverage, and giving us twenty days to document our case, and a Presidential commission demanding our testimony on how we have and will cover the nation's turmoil of violence."
Cronkite also attacked the rationale behind the idea of
licensing radio and television stations.
"I challenge that doctrine as outmoded and archaic, dictated by circumstances that no longer exist."
Cronkite defended his criticism by explaining that the law was established in the early days of television and radio when, because of a limited amount of stations, federal allocation of the channels was necessary.
However he explained that because of the development of ultra-high frequencies in television and FM in radio, the law has become invalid.
"It is clearly a restriction on free speech for the government to retain that control after the necessity for it has passed."
In defense against criticisms of the broadcast media, Cronkite explained his media's inherited legacy as a "commitment to truth, integrity and objectivity most of all."
Defending network management from such
criticisms, Cronkite said, "Our network and station owners are no more or less inspired by the profit motive than are the publishers of newspapers and magazines.
Cronkite commended broadcast media by comparing it to newspapers. Explaining the pressures of the broadcast media as opposed to newspapers he said, "multiply their problems, their decisions, a thousandfold and you scarcely have touched on the problems of the electronic journalist broadcasting live."
"I can testify that the executives of my network are far less meddlesome in the news process than the publishers for whom I've worked."
Turning to the problem of coverage of rioters and student demonstrators, the journalist asked whether or not the point of demonstrating was to bring attention to the cause.
"But the excesses of the militants, whether on the ghetto
streets or nation's campuses, as shown by television with almost boring repetition, tend to repel rather than enlist support, and this is a lesson I hope and believe that rational leaders are learning.
"America will not be divided by more exposure of the dissidents, but by less."
Finally, commenting on what he called his "radical" aspirations for the future of broadcast news, Cronkite offered freedom of competition as the best regulating device of media and preservative of freedom of information.
"It is important that the press join us in recognizing that a threat against the freedom of one newsman, whatever his medium, is a threat against all.
"And it is important that all journalists join in the most important phase of our battle—to convince the people that our fight for freedom of the press and speech is not a self-serving struggle but it is in defense of their right to know."
79th Year, No.101
The University of Kansas—Lawrence, Kansas
Monday, March 24, 1969
Inside...
Japanese folk dramas
See page 5
Alcindor—end of an era
See page 7
Sino-Soviet split
See page 8
International festival
See page 10
Nixon hails former enemy, finds scores of new critics
By SARAH DALE Kansan Staff Writer
A warm, sunny day and a large, milling, restless crowd greeted President Richard M. Nixon and his wife, Pat, Friday morning in Independence, Mo. The President and his wife cruised in a large black limousine to the front walk of the old house at 219 Delaware Street, home of former President Harry S. Truman.
Before their arrival, the home showed no visible signs of life,
except for the few secret service men restlessly milling around the spacious yard. The shades were drawn, and the only light was the sun's reflection on the stained glass windows in the front of the house.
A crowd waited across the street from the Truman home.
Children from various grade schools displayed signs welcoming Nixon to Independence. Many of the children said they were so excited about seeing Nixon they had been unable to sleep the night before.
About 200 yards from the children, representatives from the ad hoc Committee for Concerned Kansas Citians also displayed signs.
David Holmes, representing the ad hoc committee, said. "This is the first time President Nixon has been greeted with a picket line. We are here to protest the ABM, military retaliation following sit-down strikes and the Presidio 27 issue."
The ad hoc group was represented by 30 members. Other groups protested inadequate aid to Biafra and the draft.
(Continued to page 12)
Nixon faces foes, old . . . and new
Photos by Mike Frederick
Alliance's platform outlines four areas of student concern
The third force in campus politics, the Progressive Student Alliance (PSA), with presidential candidate, Mark Edwards, Emporia junior, and vice presidential candidate, Rick von Ende, Abilene, Tex., graduate student, released its platform yesterday.
The Alliance's platform is divided into four sections: academic affairs, student affairs, social responsibility, and miscellaneous or campus affairs.
In academic affairs, the platform says effective student participation in academic affairs must be implemented in all departmental, school and college committees and staff meetings.
Along with student participation, the academic affairs section emphasizes the creation of new curriculums through interdepartmental committees and the building of a creditable Black Studies and Urban Studies program through the hiring of more black professors by the University and through a faculty exchange program coordinated with black universities.
Academic affairs also stresses the revision of the Western Civilization program by abolishing the comprehensive examination as a graduation requirement; by making the discussion course a three-credit course that would meet two hours per week, and by requiring only the discussion course as a graduation requirement.
Finally, the academic affairs section says that the students earning the usual letter grades (A, B, C, D) should receive credit under the newly proposed credit/no credit system and that instructors should not be informed which students are enrolled on the option.
The student affairs section proposes the establishment of a position of campus grievance officer or "ombudsman" to serve as a liaison between students and administration by directing students to the best available channels for resolutions of their problems.
Student affairs also mentions: Increased efforts by the athletic department to help athletes complete degree programs at KU; conversion of bookstore profits into scholarship and tutorial assistance programs for underprivileged students; student determination of the use of the Student Activities Fund, and a pay raise for graduate assistant instructors and graduate teaching assistantships to either $3.000.
The social responsibility section is concerned first, with improvement of the social and cultural environment of the foreign students at the University. Specifically, the alliance wants to make KU guarantee (Continued on page 12)
(Continued to page 12)