The Unblinking Eye of CBS

CONGRESS The Unblinking eye at CBS The House of Representatives last week stared into the cold electronic eye of CBS--and blinked. It refused to follow a committee recommendation that CBS and its president, Frank Stanton, be cited for contempt of Congress (TIME, July 5). While many hailed the action as a principled and ringing affirmation of freedom of the press, it was more a case of politicians looking after their own self-interests.

CBS had flatly declined to comply with a House Interstate and Foreign Commerce Committee subpoena ordering the network to present its complete film files, including material not broadcast, for its production of the controversial documentary The Selling of the Pentagon. The committee contended that television stations, unlike newspapers, are licensed and regulated by Government, and thus it had a right to examine CBS editorial practices to protect the public against deception. No House historian could recall that body ever before refusing to go along with a committee that recommended a contempt citation, although no news-gathering organization had previously been the object of such a citation attempt. The 226-to-181 House vote averted an eventual court test of whether Congress would have violated the First Amendment had it cited CBS.

Deceit and Fraud. The leadership of both parties as well as the chairmen of six committees broke congressional protocol by voting against the Commerce Committee's contempt proposal, thus humiliating the committee chairman, West Virginia Democrat Harley O. Staggers. Some of the leaders publicly claimed that they had acted to protect the press. "I don't condone the deceit and fraud of CBS in this documentary," said Republican Leader Gerald Ford, "but I had to weigh that on the scale of the overriding issue of freedom of the press." Actually, Republican leaders did not relish the thought of the Nixon Administration's Justice Department having to prosecute CBS in a sensational trial with elections approaching.

ut the dominant reason for the vote was that CBS had conducted an all-out lobbying campaign against the citation, skillfully using executives of its local affiliates to urge Congressmen from their areas to vote against it. That kind of pressure was effective. While few Congressmen have any great affection for the press, and especially television, they rely on local TV interviews and news clips --particularly the linking of their names with announcements of new federal projects in their districts--to impress their constituents.

The real sentiment of the House may have been expressed by one leader, who claimed that if the vote had been secret it would have gone about 5 to 1 against CBS. Asked if he thought CBS executives had "learned any lesson" in their clash with the House, Staggers replied bitterly: "Yes --that they have power."

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