Word: whitehead
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...NIXON ADMINISTRATION is notorious for abusing the 100 press, its stabs ranging from acerbic critiques by the Vice president to a Supreme Court decision which forces newsmen to disclose their sources. Last month, Clay T. Whitehead, director of the President's office of Telecommunications Policy, announced that the Administration hopes to introduce a new weapon to its arsenal the regulation of network programming through affiliate stations. In the proposed legislation, local stations will be held responsible at license renewal time for the "taste and balance" of network news and entertainment programming. The passage of this legislation would give Nixon...
Although the proposed requirement of "balance" may at first glance seem to be a commendable stimulant to open discussion. Whitehead emphasized that this new regulation is aimed at the too liberal and too-hostile national media. The "ideological plugola" that Nixon hopes to stem can be understood to include documentaries on hunger in America and on the Pentagon, as well as the announcement of casualties for the day and year in Vietnam. In fact, "taste" and "balance" are so vague that they could apply to any commentary and to any amount of reporting of a subject which Nixon objects...
...selection from the viewers, the Nixon plan places it squarely in the lap of an unspecified Federal official who will use ambiguous criteria to extort platitudes and placebos from the national media. Local stations would have to pass muster or fold; even the station managers who agree with Whitehead's philosophy would pressure the networks to share the responsibility for modifying programming in 'line with the President's standards. Through this indirect, but potent mechanism, the press freedom of natural networks would be hedged in by Federal intimidation and fenced in by Federal penalty...
...bite to these Agnew-like barks, Whitehead revealed that the Administration will submit a bill to Congress that would dump responsibility for alleged network transgressions directly on the nation's nearly 600 network-affiliated local stations. "Station managers and network officials who fail to act to correct imbalance or consistent bias from the networks-or who acquiesce by silence-can only be considered willing participants," said Whitehead, "to be held fully accountable by the broadcaster's community at license-renewal time...
...other words, the Whitehead bill seemed designed to bring local stations more and safer profits in return for allowing themselves to be used as instruments of restraint against the networks, in accordance with some vague principle of balance, presumably to be defined by the Administration. In theory, no one could be against "fairness" or "responsibility." In fact, it looked like a blatant attempt to use the Government's licensing power to enforce certain political views or standards...