GRADUAL & SILENT SPEECH - The Pocket Internet

"GRADUAL & SILENT"

(Page 3)

If you think that I am an alarmist, I would like to quote to you from a man respected throughout this country for his fair and sober judgement: Walter Cronkite. Eight weeks ago, Walter Cronkite talked to the Association of Industrial Advertisers. Walter said the following:

"Myths die hard, and one of the myths that persists about our business is that advertisers attempt to control or influence what we say and how we say it.

"...one of the myths that
persists about our business
is that advertisers attempt
to control or influence what we
say and how we say it."

Or that we are responsive to sponsor eyebrow-raising and censor ourselves in order to attract or keep advertisers."

"But the truly remarkable thing is not our own insistence on independence-- but that advertisers have come to accept this independence in broadcast journalism. Whatever difficulties we might have with others in maintaining our integrity and independence, it is an immense tribute to advertisers in general that they have come to accept, and even embrace this fundamental character of journalism."

"I cannot recall in recent years a single example of even the most subtle attempt by an advertiser, or a prospective advertiser, to breach the wall of our journalistic independence and integrity."

"And yet while so many people have been looking under the bed to find the non-existent advertising intruder, the room has very visibly been invaded by the Federal Government.

"The 'establishment' -- of whatever age, whatever year -- has been chary of its critics. In times of extreme stress it has sought to muzzle them.

"No one is going to try to take
our freedom in one big gulp.
The enemies of free speech
will try to nibble us to death."

"No one is going to try to take our freedom in one big gulp. The enemies of free speech will try to nibble us to death. And don't underestimate them. 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. Freedom of speech and press are indivisible and yet there are many in other aspects of communications who have not yet awakened to the immediate threat to broadcast news."

"...and so
they suggest
that we apply
not news
judgement, but
deistic decision
to conform to
the standards of
the status quo."

"The list of political transgression and coercion is long. If politicians do not like our convention coverage, or our treatment of poverty in Marks, Mississippi, or hunger in San Antonio, Texas, the FCC, responsive to congressional and editorial pressures, demands explanations... within twenty days. Congressmen and Senators propose to license networks so that they can get at the handling of news, or they propose to invade our reporters' notebooks by suggesting that we be required to hold for six months all our film and tape which we have not broadcast but have edited out... which must mean to say that they propose to have someone review our news judgements. Or they hold hearings to determine why there is violence and what causes riots. And they suggest riots might go away if only we did not report them... and so they suggest that we apply not news judgement, but deistic decision to conform to the standards of the status quo."

"Every dictatorship from Czar Nicholas to Castro has operated on that principle."

"...a threat
against the
freedom of
one newsman,
whatever
his medium,
is a threat
against all."

"It is important that the press and you of the powerful advertising fraternity join us in recognizing that a threat against the freedom of one newsman, whatever his medium, is a threat against all."

"It is an immense paradox... which a decade ago I never would have believed... that I come here before you today and say to the Government: For heaven's sake, why can't you wake up to the meaning and spirit of the First Amendment, the way that advertisers have?"

I am sorry that time does not permit quoting Walter's speech in its entirety. In fact the only thing that time permits is that I shut up. Just let me leave you with James Madison -- a man who did not think that in the long run we are all dead -- and whose name remains on an avenue outside my window.

"There are more instances of the abridgement of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpation."

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