‘The Strange Birth of CBS Reports’ Revisited

NOTES

• May 1959 . Cleveland Press May , 9 Broadcasting, 11 May 1959, p.50; ‘The Reminiscences of Frank Stanton’ (1968), Oral History Collection of Columbia University (hereafter COHC), pp. 186–188. Copies of each CBS Reports segment listed are available through the Bureau of Audiovisual Instruction, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis.. For a less cheery view of CBS Reports in the 1960s, see New York Times, 19 June 1966.
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• Friendly , Fred W. 1967 . Due to Circumstances Beyond Our Control 101 – 101 . New York Less helpful are Gary Paul Gates, Air Time: the Inside Story of CBS News (New York, 1978); Sig Mickelson, The Electric Mirror: Politics in the Age of Television (New York, 1972); William S. Paley, As It Happened: a Memoir (Garden City, 1979); Robert Metz, CBS: Reflections in a Bloodshot Eye (Chicago, 1975).
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• Robert Lee Bailey, Examination of prime time network television special programs PhD dissertation University of Wisconsin 1967 42 42 75
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• Morgan , Thomas B. 1961 . Crisis, conflict and change in TV news . Look , November : 51 – 51 . 7 See also William Small, To Kill a Messenger: Television News and the Real World, p. 19 (New York, 1979); Harold Mehling, The Great Time Killer, p. 37 (Cleveland, 1962); Marie Torre, Don't Quote Me, pp. 180, 182, 217–218 (Garden City, 1965).
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• Dominick , Joseph R. and Pearce , Millard C. 1976 . Trends in network prime time programming . Journal of Communication , 26 : 79 – 80 .
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• Carroll , Raymond L. 1979 . Economic influences in commercial network scheduling . Journal of Broadcasting , 23 : 423 – 423 . and passim.
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• Epstein , Edward Jay . 1973 . News from Nowhere: Television and the News New York
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• Baughman , James L. 1980 . The dream of an ‘all-American elite’: network television in the golden age, 1948–1958, paper, annual meeting, Organization of American Historians, 3 April 1981. Cf. David Paul Nord, An economic perspective on formula in popular culture . Journal of American Culture , 3 : 17 – 28 .
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• On this point, see Pole J.R. The American past: is it still usable? Journal of American Studies 1967 1 67 78
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• Culbert , David Holbrook . 1976 . News for Everyman; Radio and Foreign Affairs 215 – 216 . Westport, Conn.
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• Carey , James W. 1974 . The problem of journalism history . Journalism History , 1 : 3 – 5 . Spring 27. Carey admits to borrowing the expression ‘Whig’ history from Butterfield; his alternative view is also from Butterfield, which he does not acknowledge. See Herbert Butterfield, The Whig Interpretation of History (1931, New York, 1965), especially chapter 5.
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• May , Ernest R. 1975 . The Making of the Monroe Doctrine 259 – 260 . Cambridge, Mass.
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• Stanton . 1968 . COHC 186 – 187 . Stanton similarly credits himself with the airing of Playhouse 90, one of Columbia's most honoured programmes of the late 1950s.
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• September 1965 . Sponsor September , 28 – 28 . 13 Cf. Stanton, COHC (1968), pp. 185, 200; unabridged notes of interview with officers of CBS, 6–9 October 1958, 30; Office of Network Study (hereafter, ONS), FCC MSS., GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 16; interview with Paley, The Today Show, NBC, 2 May 1979; Peter W. Bernstein, CBS fights to regain the title, Fortune, 99 (29 January 1979), 60; notes of interview with Michael Dann, n.d., Mayer MSS., Columbia University, Box 68. Notes of interview with Richard Jencks, n.d., ibid., provide one of the few indications that Stanton played a role in programming.
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• March 1950 . Printer's Ink March , 70 – 70 . 24 (30 May 1955), p. 36.
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• CBS memorandum, George Bristol to all TV network salesmen State Historical Society of Wisconsin 1957 February 14 copy in in NBC MSS. (hereafter, SHSW), Box 140; Forbes (1 October 1956), p. 16; Sponsor (11 April 1959), p. 45.
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• Ungurait , Donald Fred . 1968 . “ An historical analysis of regularly scheduled, prime time, network television programming costs ” . In PhD dissertation , 320 – 320 . University of Wisconsin . 327, 334, 337–338, 363, 365–366, 404–405.
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• October 1958 . Unabridged notes of interview with CBS officers October , 52 – 53 . 6–9 handwritten notes of interview with CBS officers, 6–9 October 1958, p. 20, ONS, FCC, MSS., GSA Invoice No, 72-A-1986, Box 15; Television Age (26 January 1959), p. 23. Cf. Harold G. Vatter, The U.S. Economy in the 1950's (New York, 1963), pp. 115–120.
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• Figures are for all four networks. Broadcasting Yearbook 1964 Washington 1964 25 25 See also Business Week (29 June 1957), p. 108 (31 January 1959), pp. 42–43; Editor and Publisher (7 March 1959), p. 26; Richard Austin Smith, TV: the light that failed, Fortune, 58 (December, 1958), pp. 79–80.
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• Frank , Stanley . December 1957 . “ Television's desperate numbers game ” . In Saturday Evening Post December , 149 – 149 . 9
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• Sevareid to Niven, Sevareid to Collingwood Sevareid MSS., Library of Congress, Box C-2 1958 February 24 Alexander Kendrick, Prime Time: The Life of Edward R. Murrow (Boston, 1969), p. 381; Friendly, pp. 75–76; David Halberstam, CBS: the power and the profits, Atlantic, p. 237 (January, 1976), p. 79; Variety, 9 July 1958, p. 23; Broadcasting (3 February 1958), p. 54.
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• Testimony of two advertising executives in Docket 12782, vol. 2 Proceedings 5 620 620 vol. 6, pp. 767, 768, Commission Dockets Room.
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• On Kintner, see Stahl Bob Five who are taking a giant step TV Guide October 1959 10 10 10 David Levy, The Chameleons (New York, 1964), especially pp. 11, 40–41, 48; unabridged notes of interview with NBC officers, 27–28 October 1958, p. 51, ONS, FCC MSS., GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 12; William L. Shirer to Morris L. Ernst, 9 April 1959, Ernst MSS., Western Humanities Library, University of Texas, Box 542.
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• July 1953 . Fortune Vol. 48 , July , 80 – 80 . 164; 77 (May, 1968), p. 175. The CBS and RCA annual reports for the 1950s were also consulted.
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• Baughman , James L. 1981 . “ Warriors in the wasteland; the Federal Communications Commission and American television, 1958–1967 ” . In PhD dissertation , Columbia University . chapter 1; TRB, The weakest sister, New Republic, 141 (19 October 1959), p. 2; David Frier, Conflict-of-Interest in the Eisenhower Administration (Ames, 1969), chapters 11–13; Clifford J. Durr, The forgotten client of the agencies, New Republic, 138 (30 June 1958), pp. 8–9.
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• Docket 12285, Proceedings 21–23 3486 3945 FCC MSS., GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 8; US House, Committee on Interstate and Foreign Commerce, Network Broadcasting, Report No. 1297, 85th Congress, 2d. sess., 1958; Roscoe L. Barrow, Anti-trust and the regulated industry; promoting competition in broadcasting, Duke Law Journal (1964), pp. 282–306; Lucille Sheppard Keyes, The recommendations of the network study staff, George Washington Law Review, 27 (1959), pp. 303–326; CBS Annual Report 1957, 11; Broadcasting (7 October 1957), pp. 31–36, 39, 92, 94–106.
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• Transcript of interview with Schwartz Bernard WMCA 1960 February 8 copy in Oren Harris MSS., University of Arkansas, Group 3, Box 10-4-29.
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• John Daley to Robert Kintner Daly MSS., SHSW, Box 11 1956 June 27
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• Victor Hansen, address Library of Congress, Box 240 1957 April 18 copy in Emanuel Celler MSS.
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• Hansen to Doerfer, 11 March 1958, 31 March 1958; Doerfer to Hansen, 7 May 1958; Hansen to Doerfer, 2 October 1958, 31 October 1958; Harold G. Cogwill to Commission, 6 February 1959, copies in Newton N. Minow MSS., SHSW, Box 26; Broadcasting 1958 June 31 31 9 FCC order, 27 February 1959, announced 10 April 1959; Broadcasting (27 April 1959), pp. 65–66; Advertising Age (2 March 1959), pp. 1, 97.
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• In data released just prior to Stanton's speech, Columbia's February, 1959 billings showed a 7.2% increase over February, 1958; NBC enjoyed a 7.5% rise over the February, 1958 billings: Sponsor 1959 April 17 17 (25 In contrast, the December 1957 and 1958 comparisons, typical for the 1958 year, had been the least encouraging to Columbia: ABC,+24.0%, NBC,+11.3%, CBS,+3.6%; average,+9.7%. Advertising Age (23 February 1959), p. 186. Cf. Ungurait, p. 220.
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• See Peterson's testimony in Docket 12782, vol. 16, Proc. 45 6803 6804 and Robert Lewis Shayon, Mr. Percy's touch for television, Saturday Review, 43 (8 October 1960), p. 61; The Face of Red China (CBS) 1958, Audio Visual Services, Kent State University, Kent, Ohio.
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• Baughman , James L. 1981 . See It Now and Television's Golden Age, 1951–58 . Journal of Popular Culture , 15 : 106 – 115 . John Crosby, It was new and we were very innocent, TV Guide (22 September 1973), p. 8; William L. Rivers, The correspondents after 25 years, Columbia Journalism Review, 1 (Spring, 1962), p. 9.
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• July 1958 . New York Herald Tribune July , 11 On Crosby's influence, see unpublished analysis of television critics by Patrick McGrady, October 1958, Fund for the Republic MSS., Princeton University, Box 63.
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• Kennedy to Cowan, Theodore C. Sorensen MSS., John F. Kennedy Library, Box 3 1958 July 16
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• Frank Stanton to Magnuson, GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 13 1958 December 3 copy in FCC MSS.
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• October 1958 . Handwritten notes of meeting with CBS officers, ONS October , 42 – 42 . 7 43
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• The original text of address is in Murrow MSS., Tufts University, Box 7-B-25
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• Tufts University, Box 7-B-25 See also Murrow to Leon Linn, 16 January 1959, ibid., Box 2-B-8; interview in London Daily Mail, c. November 1958, clipping in ibid., Box 2-B-4; Pete Martin, I call on Edward R. Murrow, Saturday Evening Post (18 January 1959), p. 78.
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• Stanton to Magnuson, Reporter 1958 December 19 32 36 3 (13 November 1958) TV Guide (13 December 1958), pp. 22–27; Time (27 October 1958), p.60.
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• April 1959 . Sponsor April , 46 – 47 . (11 lists the weekly schedule for April and early May.
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• Fund for the Republic interview, 29 January 1959, over WGBH, Boston, reprinted in Problems and Controversies in Television and Radio Skornia Harry J. Kitson Jack William Palo Alto 1968 364 374 Editor and Publisher (7 February 1959), p. 56.
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• 1959 . CBS News, Is American journalism meeting its responsibilities? . Great Challenges , March 28 transcript, 2, copy in FCC MSS., GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 15.
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• Cousins . 1959 . The people still own the air . Saturday Review , 42 May : 20 – 20 . 9
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• Notes of interview with NBC officers, 28–29 6, ONS, FCC MSS., GSA Invoice No. 72-A-1986, Box 11 1958 October Stanley Frank, 149; Docket 12782, vol. 2, Proc., vol. 5, 693–694.
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• 1954 . New York Times , April 7 5 February 1955, Chicago Tribune, 30 April 1955; Donald R. Matthews, U.S. Senators and Their World, p. 212 (Chapel Hill, 1960, paperback edition). Cf Daniel Frederick Hahn, The far right opposition to the mass media, PhD dissertation, University of Arizona, 1968.
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• Williams to Murrow, Murrow MSS., Box 2-C-47 1959 February 4
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• One exception was Murrow's interview programme, Person-to-Person, which received some biting criticisms. Lardner John The perils of frivolity New Yorker January 1958 33 104 106 (11 Gilbert Seldes, Mr. Ernst objects, Saturday Review, 42 (8 March 1958), pp. 44–45.
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• Friendly, p. 101. Halberstam David The Powers That Be New York 1979 155 155 rather haphazardly borrows from Friendly's analysis but refers to the ‘1956’ quiz show scandals.
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• 1957 . Time , April : 78 – 78 . (22 80, 82; Look (20 August 1957), pp. 45–47. Advertising executive Robert Foreman's novel, The Hot Half Hour (New York, 1958), also suggested a rigged affair while David Levy's roman a clef about NBC suggests Kintner and others knew, The Chameleons, p. 90.
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• The reminiscences of Stanton Frank COHC 1978 25 26 Broadcasting (29 September 1958), 48; Television Digest (special supplement) (21 June 1958); The reminiscences of Louis Cowan (1967), COHC, p. 194; James Kent Anderson, Fraudulence in television: the history and implications of the quiz show scandals, 1955–1960, PhD dissertation, University of Washington, 1975, pp. 127, 176–177.
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• 1958 . Broadcasting , September : 48 – 48 . (29 Anderson, pp. 162, 167, 175.
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• Cowan . COHC 189 – 189 . Anderson, pp. 25, 220.
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• Cowan . COHC 193 – 193 . House, Commerce Committee, Investigation of Television Quiz Shows, Hearings, 86th Congress, 1st. sess., 1959, pp. 624–630; Newsweek (9 November 1959), pp. 69–70; Columbus Dispatch, 8 November 1959; Hans J. Morgenthau, Reaction to the Van Doren reaction, New York Times Magazine (22 November 1959), p. 106; Eric F. Goldman, The Crucial Decade—and after: America, 1945–1960 (New York, 1960), pp. 316–324; Richard S. Tedlow, Intellect on television; the quiz show scandals of the 1950s, American Scholar, 28 (1976), pp. 483–495; Washington Star, 8 November 1959; Renata Adler, Reflections on political scandal, New York Review of Books, 24 (8 December 1977), p. 20.
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