WETA AXES SHOW AS MISLEADING

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP72-00337R000200130054-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 4
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: January 2, 2002
• Sequence Number: 54
• Publication Date: February 17, 1970
• Content Type: NSPR

? TRE Witsiim,ToN POST
Approved For Release 2002/01/22 Rt1iN72-00337R000200130054-4
ETA AXQS?Sh(YVY:.
1, .1
? ? 1,
L
Asisleading'
, WETA-TV (Channel' 26). , Hunter said that the station 1 ,
cancelled a scheduled tele- .. had called in three "highly . ?
"
east of an "NET Journal" qualified" experts to preview,
W;ho Invited US?" and had .?
, ,..
fprogram called "Who Invited ...shown the program tom d'?I '
last night and told ?,;bers of the WETA staff."eWme1
: t viewers that the program ,, decided," Hunter said, "that
. t, ' ? the facts in the program are
.' was "unnecessarily mislead- ?
, essentially correct" but thel .'
t.? .,.
i?ing." . ' use of "gross techniques"'4
'. L; The cancelled program : caused the content to be I ?
. k
was written and produced by misleading.
il:,','?Alan NI1 Levin and it blamed ''. Hunter said he would have 1
American economic interests
,;, approved the program "In
t.'... 'another context," particular-:.':
$. as the main cause of .1..i.s. .
r.. ly if it were clearly identi4 ?
',military interventionfied as "Alan Levin' state-1
1:other nations. ? .ment." He added that the ,
s
William J. McCarter,. vice ..film isn't "Public Broadcast.
,.prestent and general man-
..
'd. ::.,?.ing's statement or the 'NET i
i:
,vJournaVs statement. , It isA
V'ager of WETA-TV, said that i?!':'just one guy's opinion." ? ' ,i
. ,station officials "had been .
i? place of "Who InviteV
wrestling with whether to -' .13srt
In ,
went a filmed program i
'show the film "for several '';'+ on the life and , music of
. 'days." The decision not to 1, ?Diraitri Shostakovich. ? ? : .,4
show it was made late yes- .. ,, James Day, president of
t, terday afternoon. At 9 p.m.,.:,:?? National Educational Tele-1
. ;,7a Channel 26 announcer read.?.-
.:, vision (NET) could not be .
' I:a statement: ? .f reached for comment. Jim;
, "After thoroughly review- -.Karam, Washington bureau,
,ing the program, WETA had chief of NET, said that ."Who''4
. ?determined that the content t4, Invited US?" ran on the full,1 .
.: els sufficiently distorted by ?'. 160-station non-commercial .
? t.over-simplification and omis- ,
I+ ' . network, with the exception
. .siort of important, relevant, . of stations in Austin, Tex - .
. , ty-i
? t information as to render the .? Richmond and Norfolk, Va.1
final product unnecessarily , , and Washington. '
' misleading." , ; ,., The film was previewed In
'? :; The announcement ended . Washington last Wednesday.,
' 'with WETA's apology for . by an invited audience that
1)"nny inconvenience to our included Sen. Erank Church;
1
'?
'viewers that may result from .. (D-Ida.), retired ? Marin&i
-' 1,.this change." .,i :Corps ? Commandant ? Davidt;
., ; Dr. Jack Hunter, program ,'.' M. Shoup, 1. Congressional:
. . ,
? tdireetor, said that only once . '. staff members and the presti ,
before thud the station . can., il ''.,,,.11,.%40.1;;?? It ? '.: ' ' .,'e ' ' ....' . ?ii ?
t eel e d a scheduled program
, t That was :a three- and-a-half,1
?., thour program from a Boston.)
i,t.ottoP?OnAirakdaders*.,244
Approved For Release, 2002/01/22 : cIA-ROP72463,37,14000200130054-4
THE 11/1SHINGTON POST
Approved For Release 2002/01/221; tIGUICYOZe2-00337R000200130054-4
- RADIO/TELEVISION
ETA Rapped .as ;Censors ?
.,,
. .
The 54-member Public,. ' Last night William J. Mc- .' manipulation of the material
'Television Producers Assn.. ' Carter, vice president and .,?.?it did include. Thus, by
? general manager of Channel ,, broadcasting the program
ciation (PTPA) yesterday , -.26, said that the scheduled - - '
. we would have presented as
. called on the Federal Com- ,..: telecast was canceled be- ,'
'objective truth what was in
,munications Commission to ?? .cause the program is "decep..,;,, fact only one view of an is- ?
.investigate the cancellation ., tive" and "distorted by the .sue."
of an educational television, . enormous amount of materi....,? ? Nor did McCarter agree
program as "a flagrant de- al it chose to omit." .... that "Who Invited Us?"
.nial of the public's right to ,:?;,, This was McCarter's first ... should have been telecast
.'e? public statement since the ,..
,know." with the addition of a panel
. .WETA, the local educa...., program, scheduled for Mon- '. 'discussion. McCarter said
tional: television station ;.:2day night, was canceled that ,this,
. "might have rectified
(Channel 26), was among ...afternoon...0 the distortion. But. our ex
five stations that refused to .,!?,. McCarter said he is perience is that few viewers
on ?
telecast the program, "Who :,, posed , to censorship. 1-
i.' -..
? i stay tuned for such a discus-
Invited US?" The PTPA i added that the station would 1,
sion after an hour-long
statement charged that the.?,- be "abrogating" its "respon.'7,,
station "acted as censors." ....sibility if it were to broad..,,,i dramatic documentary."
J ?
? The strongly-worded state-:'.cast material which we be The documentary is an at-
The
from the PTPA ,was, ':, lieved was . deceptivc. -cliii-,?:, tack ori United States mili-
1 !released in New York ? yes. ?':, torted or dishonest.'!, ;.. ?' ,;::;tary intervention. It argues iterday by Alan W. Levin,: -. He accused the xanceltd..:...ltulisautallAymerlcan troops' have
the program's producer. . ? ... .? program, of vaoral :and .yitual:.' :, been sent ,abroad to
_ - k .,.. 0.,!-?protect U.S. investments in
?foodstuffs, metals or oil. It.
'also accused. the. military ?
'`ancl: the, CIA ,Of , playing im-.:
ortatit :roles ' in .. A/aerie...an -
., i. foreign 'policy. . ....... ..., ? , ,
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PHILAPr T.P HI AAppAr P.
oved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000200130054-4
INQUIRER
M ? 505,173
S ? 913,045
FEB 1 7 1970
Screening TV
6 ? 1.,r?
nvi
By HARRY HARRIS
Of The Inquirer Staff
Sunday's NRC small-fry spe-
cial, "Uncle Sam Magoo," de-
pleted America 'through a my-'
opic cartoon character's rose-
colored glasses. The shade .
turns bilious green in an
"NET Journal" documentary,
"Who' Invited US?" to be tele-
cast on Channel 12 at 9 P. M.
Tuesday and 7 P. M. Sunday.
A satur-
nine survey
of past, cur-
rent and ?
who knows?
?future US.
military in-
terventio n s,
it indicts for-
cign policy-
makers'
Inn china-
tions in vari-
ous climes
a t various
times, attri-
buting them mainly to dollars-
and-cents, rather than heart-
and-sense.
The sympathies and indig-
nations of producer-scripter
Alan M. Levin, who won a top
award for a "PBL" entry,
"Defense a n d Domestic
Needs: Contest for Tomor-
row,".are never in doubt.
"While much ? of the world
moans in agony and yearns
for change," charges narrator
Dave Dugan, "our most vigor-
ous commitment is to stability
. . . Few would deny the vir-
tues of preparedness, but
with pledges from 42- nations-,
many unstable, what criteria
for action do we use?"
? Many questions are posed.
- One of the most troubling:
"Has our intervention really
solved internal problems?"
; A country-by-country run-
? down suggests that many are
no better off after a deluge of
U. S. bullets and dollars.
? American qualms about the
nation's course, yesterday and
today, are quoted.
Mark Twain assails "Ameri-
can expansionism." Marine
hero Brig. Gen. Smedley But-
ler, once PhiladelphiaAglin
tor of public safety, ticks off
HARRY HARRIS
?9
0
military actions that earned
him "honors, medals and pro-
motions," then adds, "Looking
back on it, I feel I might have
given Al Capone a few hints."
Charles A. Meyer, assistant
secretary of state for inter-
American affairs, deplored,,
"an ironclad umbilical cord
that runs from us to the
southern half of this hemis-
phere ... It's high time that
we treat a sovereign nation
like a sovereign nation."
Sen. Frank Church, of the
Foreign Relations Committee,
equates U. S. and USSR inter-
ventionism and opines "We've
got to become less fearful of
other people's ideologies."
Adds former Ambassador to
Chile Ralph Dungan, "There
has to be a good deal of live
and let live."
...211c..,41/141. among numer-
ous targets in this devastating
documentary, patently so con-
troversial that several NET
stations?not including finan-
cially hard-pressed WIIYY-TV
promptly scheduled P. S.
Panel discussions.
The harrowing hour begins;
and ends with Moratorium for
Peace picket signs bearing
dead GIs' names beingk
stacked in a coffin. These'')
emotional scenes hardly suit,
the rest of the program's re-
lentless rationality.
'Uncle Sam Magoo'
Is Pageant Guide
The aforementioned "Uncle
Sam Magoo," with its near-
blind "star" a red-white-and-
blue-clad guide through the
American past, was a primi-
tive patriotic pageant, a dim- ?
visioned and dimwitted ver-
sion of U. S. history.
If there's anything children
don't need, it's a "Magoofy"
hour of chauvinism in which It
Indians and Orientals are
caricatured and Leif Ericson
and Christopher Columbus
speak with low-comedy ac-
cents, but a black commer-
cial-including sponsor warily
uses only two raised hands to
This supposedly "light-j'
hearted" but continuous&
heavy-handed collection of
ches, libeling two Philadelphi
ans, Ben Franklin and Betsy;
Ross, among other historie;
personages, suggested that
the moronic Magoo wasn't the:
only one connected with thec;
project' obviously short4
sighted.
In this instance 'UPA ha
perpetrated a PU.:
VOW'
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STATINTL
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Approved For Release 2002/01/22 : CIA-RDP72-00337R000200130054-4