The People v. WPIX

During the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968, Manhattan's WPIX-TV carried what seemed like an enterprising special report for a non-network local channel. WPIX News, as it proclaimed on the air at the time, presented its "Russian authority," Dr. Max J. Putzel, in "an eyewitness account from Moscow." Fact of the matter, according to a charge brought by the Federal Communications Commission last week, was that Max Putzel was a professor of German literature who happened to be a cousin of the then WPIX news producer and who, at the time of the broadcast, was not in Moscow but back home in Gary, Ind.

The incident is the basis for one of many allegations that will be brought against WPIX in the continuing hearing in Manhattan's Federal Building. Several days before the Putzel caper, the FCC says, WPIX ran a scene identified as Prague with the subtitle "Via Satellite" when in fact it was not a satellite transmission but a dusty old film. Another night, a voice report out of Vienna was labeled as Prague. Similarly, the channel stands accused of passing off canned footage of a disturbance in a Boston high school as a later, ghetto riot.

Before the hearing finally adjourns, the station will be under attack as well for the quantity of its news coverage --2% of its air time in 1968, less than any other channel in New York State. Besides the FCC, other complainants allege that 1) WPIX has discriminated against blacks and other New York minorities in hiring, 2) it has made no effort to program for such groups, and 3) from 1963 to 1967 it demanded kick backs or "payola" from some singers it put on the air.

See-No-Evil. Outsiders might assume that the very laying of such charges by the FCC could lead to the suspension of the broadcasting license of WPIX, a subsidiary of the New York Daily News. In fact, even if the charges are proved, the FCC may not take any action at all. The commission has the authority to revoke radio-TV licenses in such cases, and, every three years, it can choose not to renew the license of a station that has failed to "serve the public interest." But, as broadcast reformers have long pointed out disgustedly, the commission has not rejected a license for reasons of inadequate public service in its entire 36-year history. Over the years, stations broadcasting no news at all have won routine renewal.

Lately, paladins of the public interest, including Maverick FCC Commissioner Nicholas Johnson, have risen up against what Johnson calls the commission's "complacent and comfortable hear-no-evil, see-no-evil slouch in front of the radio and television sets of America." Critics of U.S. broadcasting point out that the insufficiency of that service is probably less attributable to the networks than to the local channels. Affiliated stations frequently undercut the networks' efforts to increase cultural and public-affairs programming by refusing to carry it. Similarly, in order to increase profits, the stations stint on such programming at home. A recent informal poll of local newspaper editors by the trade paper Variety found that in their opinion more than 100 U.S. channels did not properly serve the interests of the community.

Aprenda Ingles. Leading the fight against WPIX is Forum Communications Inc., a consortium of New Yorkers that includes Harry Belafonte and is headed by former NBC Vice President Lawrence K. Grossman. Defending themselves against Forum, WPIX executives have maintained that they were unaware of the news doctoring. As for the shortage of news coverage, they claim that "the public is surfeited with broadcast news." But since the Forum challenge, WPIX has doubled its news staff and air time and rushed to schedule community shows like Black Pride, Puerto Rican New Yorker, Jewish Dimension and Aprenda Ingles (Learn English). Many stations around the country, frightened by the WPIX and other challenges, have also upgraded their local service.

That represents progress for the national public interest even if Forum and Grossman should lose their case against WPIX. But, while they anticipate a long fight that may take them years and all the way to the Supreme Court, they are counting on victory for themselves and the public. "If the commission renders a decision on the merits and on the facts," says Grossman, "then for the first time in over 20 years, we have the promise of seeing important improvements in the quality of local television."

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.