Sinking of the Mayflower

Made unhappy by one FCC announcement (see below), radiomen were overjoyed by another. FCC had finally voted to modify the eight-year-old "Mayflower decision."

The ruling grew out of the Mayflower Broadcasting Corp.'s unsuccessful application in 1941 to take over the radio frequency used by the Yankee Network's Worcester station WAAB. FCC had been blasting WAAB for broadcasting "socalled editorials . . . urging the election of various candidates . . . or supporting one side or another of various questions in public controversy." WAAB's license was grudgingly renewed but only on the station's promise not "to color or editorialize" the news.

WAAB was not penalized, but the decision was a strong hint that the FCC could revoke licenses whenever it thought broadcasters were slanting the news.* Radio's biggest guns began hammering away at the decision as an unwarranted shackling of freedom of speech. To FCC's defense hurried the legions of the C.I.O. and A.F.L. and assorted left-wingers, who argued that broadcasting was a public trust and should, therefore, be impartial.

Last week, after studying all the arguments, the FCC made up its mind, issued a 13-page "clarification" and "reexamination" of its views. The gist of the tortured Government prose: news broadcasts may "include the identified expression of the licensee's personal viewpoint . . ."

Crowed jubilant Justin Miller, president of the National Association of Broadcasters: "This is the greatest single victory in behalf of freedom of expression . . . since . . . the editorial freedom of newspapers [was confirmed] . . ."

* Commentators of pronounced opinions, either to left or right (e.g., Johannes Steel, Fulton Lewis Jr., Henry J. Taylor) have not come under the Mayflower decision because they broadcast for advertisers and do not speak for station-owners.

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