Freedom at Stake
FELLMAN, DAVID
Freedom at Stake FREEDOM AND COMMUNICATIONS, by Dan Lacy. University of Illinois Press. 93 pp. $3. CONGRESS VERSUS THE SUPREME COURT, 1957-1960, by C. Herman Pritchett. University of...
...Congress, Versus the Supreme Court, 1957-60 describes the various attacks upon the Court, both in and out of Congress...
...A LIVING BILL OF RIGHTS, by William O. Douglas...
...72 pp...
...Pritchett ascribes this fact partly to the wide public respect which the Court enjoys, partly to the character and motives of some of the attackers, who were mainly trying to retaliate for the Court's segregation ruling, partly to the exaggerations inherent in the charges made against the Court, and partly to the Court's own moderation in some of its decisions, particularly after the attacks began...
...In addition, "he must fight with equal vigor the explosion of bigotry, the pressures for conformity, or disrespect for constitutional rights which are also a part of the American tradition...
...MELVIN J. FRIEDMAN teaehes modern literature at the University of Wisconsin...
...The improvement of public libraries is...
...JULIA WHEDON is a free lance writer...
...These issues relate to legislative investigations, the Smith Act preemption, passports, loyalty-security problems, and state limitations on employment...
...One could wish that this were so, but unhappily it isn't...
...It is tempting to quote from Lacy's book...
...He thinks it would help if we increased the number of independent local television stations...
...An equally timely book is C. Herman Pritchett's survey of the efforts made in Congress between 1957 and 1960 to curb the Supreme Court, a campaign which was triggered mainly by decisions in the area of constitutional rights...
...Doubleday...
...Cornell University Press...
...THE REVIEWERS JACK BARBASH is professor of labor education at the University of Wisconsin...
...In fact, there is much that no one else can do...
...Justice Douglas's little book, A Living Bill of Rights, was written to inform the high school student about his civil rights...
...The great issues which were at stake in the disputed decisions are analyzed in successive chapters...
...He thinks pay television would open up a whole new range of broadcasting opportunities...
...Thus the search for the lowest common denominator is inherent in television's appeal to the largest possible number of viewers...
...168 pp...
...He favors more adequate support of educational radio and television stations...
...3.75...
...high on his list...
...University of Minnesota Press...
...For example, he states flatly that investigations "to punish by adverse publicity, those who held opinions with which the investigators did not agree," are "not permissible...
...It is rather that sex and violence are dissociated from the human realities that give them meaning and made gimmicks to spice up an advertisement or catch attention at a newsstand...
...Finally, Lacy makes a number of positive proposals...
...Furthermore, Justice Douglas does not always distinguish between what the law is today, and what he thinks it ought to be...
...THE PRESIDENCY AND INDIVIDUAL LIBERTIES, by Richard P. Longaker...
...Many of the greatest masterpieces of literature and drama confront the sexual passions and tragedies of man more nakedly than any film or tawdry publication today...
...His new book, "Labor's Grass Roots," will be published this fall...
...DAVID FELLMAN, a professor of political science at the University of Wisconsin, wrote "The Defendant's Rights...
...While one finds in this book a characteristically felicitous statement of faith in American freedom, unfortunately the discussion is much too sketchy, even for high school students...
...He discusses in simple terms the importance of freedom in America, the meaning of the Bill of Rights, the content of our basic freedoms, and some current civil rights problems...
...For, he writes, "The Gunfight at the O.K...
...Lacy spells out many of the ingredients of the current dissatisfaction with the state of the American communications system—"the banality and emptiness of most broadcasts and films," the failure to distribute adequately our rapidly growing stock of knowledge among the people, the "slickness" of magazines, the preoccupation of television with entertainment, the absence of significant social criticism in broadcast drama, the political bias of magazines and newspapers, "the cultural and political bias of magazines and newspapers, "the cultural and political conformity of the mass media," the emphasis upon violence and sex, and the tendency of the mass media to oversimplify ideas and problems...
...His inactivity, as well as positive action, has consequences, and one of the principal examples of executive inactivity is reflected in the eight years of the Eisenhower stewardship, which, are analyzed in considerable detail...
...I doubt whether they have to be talked down to at all, and certainly not in this measure...
...239 pp...
...Much of the book is devoted to a sophisticated exploration of the powers and instruments of persuasion, education, and moral leadership which are available to any President who chooses to make use of them...
...And the author makes it clear that it is not enough for the President to reaffirm the general principles of American liberty...
...The President is many things: our chief legislator, our chief administrator, our chief executive, leader of his party, the nation's chief morale officer, the manager of its foreign relations, and the supervisor of its economy...
...Perhaps one quotation will suffice to illustrate his style...
...WILLIAM L. NEUMANN teaches American history at Goucher College...
...1.50...
...Most illuminating is Lacy's explanation of how these qualities relate to the economy of the mass media...
...He combines great technical knowledge with a direct and vigorous manner of expression and a profound understanding of the fundamental principles of the American political and cultural creed...
...4.50...
...Corral has nothing on the final scene of Hamlet for violence, and Hamlet has incest, insanity, poisoning, and treason thrown in for good measure...
...The country needs his leadership in the field of constitutional rights, and if he is willing to assume the responsibilities of this leadership, there is much he can do...
...Referring to the widely discussed fact that the Twentieth Century resources— films, radio, and television—are so preoccupied with sex and violence, Lacy suggests that he does not think the issue is really over sex and violence in themselves...
...Reviewed by David Fellman AMONG RECENT books dealing with civil liberties, Dan Lacy's essays, Freedom and Communications, delivered at the University of Illinois as the 1959 Windsor Lectures in Librarianship, stand out as an important analysis of current American mass media...
...Longaker points out that both security and individual liberty are on the conscience of the nation, and the President is confronted with the great dilemma that he is obliged to protect both...
...Managing director of the American Book Publishers Council since 1953, Lacy is one of the nation's most astute students of the freedom to communicate...
...Longaker's scholarly book, The Presidency and Individual Liberties, is a most timely subject, since the American President is bound to have an important role in defining the meaning and status of our liberties...
...He also makes a number of sensible though modest suggestions regarding the printed media, books, magazines, and newspapers...
...Though a great many powerful attacks upon the Court were launched in the 85th and 86th Congresses, and the vote on some proposals to reduce the Court's powers was close, no antiCourt legislation was actually adopted...
Vol. 25 • September 1961 • No. 9
