Headline of the Week

In the Washington Daily News:

SIR WINSTON JOINS NOBELITY

Censorship by Contract

Several months before his latest book was published. Sexologist Alfred C. Kinsey gave newsmen a "conditional" peek at it. One of Dr. Kinsey's conditions: all newsmen had to sign a contract binding them to submit their stories in advance to Kinsey for "factual correction." Since only those who signed could see the book, most newsmen went along with the contract. But last week Kinsey tried to convert his "condition" into a principle.

In Indianapolis, where he was to lecture before the Central Neuropsychiatric Association, Kinsey announced that no reporter would get in unless he signed another contract agreeing to submit his story to Kinsey to "correct factual errors." The press promptly objected. "Perhaps." said Washington Post Managing Editor J. Russell Wiggins, who is also chairman of the Freedom of Information Committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, "the newspapers should agree not to go into biological research if Kinsey will agree not to go into newspaper editing." Added the National Association of Science Writers in a wire to Kinsey: "Your current demand raises an issue of [censorship]. No self-respecting newsman can cover your address under the terms you lay down." No newsman did until Kinsey, facing a unanimous press boycott, changed his mind and let reporters cover his lecture as they do any other meeting, without any censorship.

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