Keeping It Cool

A delicate negotiation has been going on between representatives of the Justice Department's Community Relations Service and newspaper, radio, TV and police officials in twelve U.S. cities. The goal: to temper the tone of riot coverage, should the summer of 1967 prove long and explosively hot. In the past, radio and TV riot bulletins have attracted swarms of spectators to embroiled districts, complicating the job of the police. Newspaper headlines have often fanned flames of discontent.

The Justice Department has proposed voluntary guidelines modeled on a system used in Omaha. At the outbreak of a riot, police relay a "Code 30" to newsmen; they, in turn, hold up riot bulletins for 30 minutes--usually enough time for lawmen to establish control. During the news gap, police provide at least as much information on the riot as newsmen could gather in so short a time. The Justice Department has also asked for less inflammatory language in riot coverage and greater care in substantiating the facts.

Introduced in Buffalo three weeks be fore riots broke out there on June 27, the new rules worked. "The press up there did a very objective job," said William Selden, a Community Relations Service aide. "Headlines in the newspapers were hopeful rather than negative. And the 11 p.m. news broadcasts were quite restrained."

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