Who's Blacklisted?

In June, Radio Veteran William Sweets, 53, for the past six years director of Gangbusters and Counter-Spy, resigned from both shows. Last week, in his first public statement, he gave his reasons: "I was told that pressure--a campaign of letter-writing complaining of my political views --had led the advertising agencies and sponsors [Pepsi-Cola and General Foods] to decide to renew their contracts only if someone else directed the shows."

Sweets declared that he was the victim of a radio blacklist initiated by Counterattack, a weekly newsletter offering "facts to combat Communism." Counterattack's managing editor, ex-FBIman Theodore Kirkpatrick, answered Sweets by charging that the blacklist shoe was on the other foot, that he knew of "a number of instances" in which anti-Communist actors could not get radio jobs because the directors and producers were Communists or fellow travelers.

Said Kirkpatrick: "We take the stand that no one should be fired for political beliefs--but membership in the Communist Party or in a number of Communist fronts is entirely different. The Communist Party is not a political party in the strict sense of the word -- it's simply a fifth column for the Soviet Union." Earlier this year, Sweets resigned as president of the Radio & Television Directors' Guild rather than sign an anti-Communist affidavit. And Counterattack reeled off a list of Communist-front organizations which he had supported. Said Sweets, in a typical party-liner's defense: "It is not loyalty to the U.S. that is really in question. It is, rather, loyalty to reaction--loyalty, I am convinced in my case, to the ideas of the National Association of Manufacturers. For the record -- I am not loyal to many of their ideas. And I never will be." The council of Sweets's union, the Radio & Television Directors' Guild, unanimously passed a resolution condemning his "forced" resignation, because "a man's talent and ability should be the sole cri teria by which he is judged for employment." At the same time two other Guild members, Marx Loeb and George Zachary, were named as the new directors of Gangbusters and Counter-Spy.

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