Governor v. Commentator
Barking his opinionated views-on-the-news into a microphone, Philadelphia's Harold ("Boake") Carter functions simultaneously as an advertisement for Philco Radio and as a contentious, outspoken editorial voice. Last spring Commentator Carter joined the popular hue & cry against New Jersey's Governor Harold Giles Hoffman on the Hauptmann case, flayed that official in his broadcasts with a startling lack of restraint. Last week Commentator Carter had his first serious editorial kickback when Governor Hoffman filed in New Jersey Supreme Court a $100,000 libel suit against Carter, Philco Radio & Television Corp.; Philadelphia's Station WCAU, where the Carter broadcasts originate; Philadelphia Storage Battery Co. Inc., Atlantic Broadcasting Corp. and Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.
What particularly galled Governor Hoffman were the following broadcast statements in Carter's clipped, British accent: "And so crazier and crazier grows the Hauptmann affair--more and more desperate over the week end became New Jersey's Governor to justify his official blundering and save his tottering political reputation--more and more dizzy stunts are dragged across the old trails to befuddle the public and confuse the main issue. "And so round and round--just as the music goes round and round--so round and round goes the Hauptmann affair-one of the most shocking exhibitions of gubernatorial meddling with the orderly process of law and order that America has displayed to the world in many a decade." When the suit was filed, aggressive Commentator Carter hurried to his microphone, challenged Governor Hoffman to bring his action in ""a neutral State, the State of Pennsylvania -- the State in which I work and live and whence came those spoken editorials to which the Governor takes exception."
Governor Hoffman replied by having lawyers announce that litigation had also been started in New York State, head quarters of C. B. S.
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