Word: ervin
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Senator Sam Ervin, the subcommittee chairman, agreed that press freedom could be curtailed "by exorbitant charges on distribution of materials," and suggested the Postal Service should be considered an essential distribution vehicle "just like the air waves for broadcast media." Democratic Congressman Charles Wilson, a member of the House Post Office Committee, believes a public service like the mails should not be allowed to set rates so high as to limit its use. Said Wilson of the Postal Service: "They've gone hog wild." How many other members of Congress agree remains to be seen...
...charged that because it is beholden to the Government for its right to exist, "it is at the mercy of politicians and bureaucrats. Its freedom has been curtailed by fiat, by assumption and by intimidation and harassment." But perhaps the most eloquent plea for First Amendment freedoms came from Ervin himself...
...They appear to have lost sight of the central purpose of a free press in a free society." Noting that "there are some Americans who apparently think they know what is good and what is bad for other Americans to hear on the radio and to see on television," Ervin charged that the "sweeping Government regulation of broadcasting implicit in this view foreshadows the end of a free broadcast media and with it a mortal blow to the First Amendment...
...Ervin is also concerned about the increasing use of false press credentials by Government investigators and about the number of subpoenas on journalists by grand juries and congressional committees. He will watch closely how the Supreme Court rules on three pending subpoena cases in which the Justice Department is seeking to force reporters to reveal confidential sources for stories. Times Reporter Earl Caldwell and Newsman Paul Pappas of WTEV in New Bedford, Mass., refused to discuss Black Panther activities for grand juries, and Reporter Paul Branzburg of the Louisville Courier-Journal balked at identifying, for yet another grand jury, marijuana...
...Ervin's hearings are ostensibly to determine whether a Newsmen's Privilege Bill should be submitted to Congress. Its purpose would be to protect the reporter-informant confidential relationship. Ervin hopes its enactment will not be necessary and that the Supreme Court will provide a "ringing" reaffirmation of First Amendment protection that will serve the same purpose...