Battle Page

During election campaigns, U.S. newspapers often run a "battle page" on which they let both parties argue their respective cases. Last week the New York Herald Tribune found itself trapped into running a battle page that it had never planned. The Republican Trib announced that it would run a impart series on Page One as a "basic statement of the Administration's position at the start of the autumn campaign." Among the authors: Vice President Nixon, Attorney General Brownell, Treasury Secretary George Humphrey. More than 100 other papers thought the series such a good idea that they bought it. But the first article (by Nixon) had barely hit the streets last week when the Trib heard from the Democrats.

In Washington Democratic National Chairman Stephen A. Mitchell denounced the series as "one-sided journalism" and "outright propaganda" in the "one-party press."* He asked for equal space from Trib Editor Whitelaw Reid and told county chairmen all over the U.S. to make the same request of local papers running the series. Editor Reid announced that "we will be glad to make front-page space available to top Democratic spokesmen to present affirmative ideas of the Democratic Party." Other papers (e.g., the Kansas City Star, the Christian Science Monitor, the Washington Star) also agreed to give the Democrats space. Among the Democratic authors: Adlai Stevenson, Illinois' Senator Paul Douglas. Minnesota's Senator Hubert Humphrey.

* Nathan B. Blumberg, assistant professor of journalism at the University of Nebraska, last week published One-Party Press?, a study of the 1952 election coverage in 35 U.S. newspapers. His conclusion: "A majority of the newspapers in this study--18--met the highest standards of fair news presentation, and a large number of newspapers--11--showed no significant degrees of partiality that would warrant a charge of unfairness. The six newspapers found to have demonstrated partiality in their news columns constitute a minority."

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