Exaggerated Report

In Pittsburgh last week, Newscaster Paul Long, speaking casually on NBC's network show News of the World, announced: "John L. Lewis just shot Santa Claus. That's what one miner told me today in commenting on the coming coal strike . . ."

Within the hour, NBC switchboards throughout the country were jammed with frantic phone calls from children wanting verification of the news. Next day, the Chicago Sun-Times, which had had its share of calls, headlined: "Children: Santa Has NOT Been Shot." Penitent NBC prefaced its next day's News of the World with an interview, over a "special super-radio circuit," between Commentator Morgan Beatty in Houston and Santa Claus at the North Pole. Said Santa, reassuringly: "John L. Lewis just missed me."

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