FLY GETS TOUGH WITH NETWORKS
McMillin, Miles
The Cooperative Movement Fly Gets Touah With Networks By MILES McMILLIN THE CO-OPS' battle for freedom of the air waves has a sturdy champion in James Lawrence Fly, chairman of the Federal...
...Time can be bought for the sale of shoes, soaps, and sealing wax, beer, cigarettes, institutional good will, and cathartics...
...Fly's forthright address apparently softened the hard shells of some of the radio moguls...
...At that hearing the radio official made it clear that he believed that only those companies having specific products or good will to sell should be allowed broadcasting time...
...Edward R. Murrow, head of the CBS London office, interviewed A. V. Alexander, First Lord of the Admiralty and outstanding British cooperator, on the progress of the British co-ops in wartime...
...Significant Event "I propose to meet each request for time with an open mind and to consider such requests strictly on their individual merits and without arbitrary discriminations...
...Invading the citadel of the big network officials, the outspoken FCC chairman went to New York not long ago to address the Radio Executive Club...
...But time can't be bought or received gratis for the solicitation of memberships—except, of course, by the mutual insurance companies...
...The Columbia Broadcasting System participated in the centennial celebration also...
...There is a sheer arbitrary nature about the ban against the soliciting of membership over the air...
...But it was significant that not long after, the Co-op League was granted time over the Blue Network for a 15-minute broadcast as part of the ceremonies marking the observance of the centennial of Rochdale cooperation...
...A ban against any group, he declared, was an abridgement of "freedom to listen...
...The Cooperative Movement Fly Gets Touah With Networks By MILES McMILLIN THE CO-OPS' battle for freedom of the air waves has a sturdy champion in James Lawrence Fly, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission...
...h Some weeks ago the FCC called §j the president of the Blue Network on the carpet and gave him an uncomfortable grilling on the reasons for refusing the network's facilities to the co-ops...
...Radio," he said, "is the greatest medium thus far created for the dissemination of information...
...Fly is pulling no punches in his campaign to force the big radio networks to stop discriminating against cooperatives who seek to buy time on the air...
...Listeners can be urged by radio to enjoy romance through sparkling teeth or to correct faulty elimination, but they cannot be urged to join a cooperative, a labor union, businessmen's association, Kiwanis, Knights of Columbus, and -even the Society of Conservative Philosophers...
...It wasn't long after that the new purchaser of the Blue Network, Edward J. Noble, responded to Fly's demand for a statement of policy in writing by sending the following letter: "I am prepared to say that my policy, stated in general terms, will be to refrain from adapting any restrictions which will automatically rule out certain types of programs on the basis of identity of personality of the individual, corporation, or organization sponsoring or offering them...
...He was forced during the cross examination directed at him by Fly and Commissioner C. C. Durr to qualify further his position by stating that time should not be granted to any organization soliciting memberships...
...The statement, as can be readily seen, is quite vague...
...More particularly, I think that the operation of a national network should follow a policy whereby all classes and groups shall have their requests, either for sponsored or sustaining time, seriously considered and network time determined in accordance with true democratic principles and with the aim of presenting a well-rounded and balanced broadcast service in the best interests of the public and of the network...
...Treedom To Listen' Fly took up the cudgels for the rights of all groups, irrespective of their economic views, to buy time on the air...
...Rapping the recent decision of the Blue Network and the Mutual Network to restrict time bought by eo-ops, labor unions, or small businesses, Fly let fly...
...When he was reminded that that was what the mutual insurance companies did in their broadcasts, he stumbled around and virtually admitted that it was nothing more than rank discrimination that kept the co-ops out...
...The very nature of the exception emphasizes the rule's censorious quality...
Vol. 8 • January 1944 • No. 2
