Correspondence Between American Broadcasting Companies and Senators Mike Mansfield and John O. Pastore Hon. MIKE MANSFIELD, AMERICAN BROADCASTING COMPANIES, INC., U.S. Senate, Office of the Majority Leader, NEW YORK, N.Y., April 24, 1973. DEAR SENATOR MANSFIELD: I discussed your letter of April 5 with Leonard H. Goldenson, Chairman of the Board of American Broadcasting Companies, Inc., prior to his departure for Europe. In his absence, he has asked me to respond in his behalf. We certainly recognize that adequately informing the public on issues of national policy requires giving exposure to the views of Congressmen who are instrumental in shaping those policies. We believe that ABC, in its coverage of national issues, has afforded opportunities for the presentation of a wide variety of contrasting views, including those of members of Congress of both major parties. With particular regard to the federal budget and related issues, our decision not to give live coverage to Senator Muskie's address of April 2, 1973, which followed President Nixon's address of March 29th, was based on the determination of ABC News that these are continuing issues which have been and will continue to be fairly and adequately covered in our regularly scheduled news and public affairs programs. Leading Congressional and other spokesmen have appeared on these programs and have presented their views opposing the Administration position. For example, the February 4 edition of Issues and Answers with Senators Muskie and Proxmire was primarily devoted to a discussion of the federal budget issue. On March 4, Issues and Answers featured Governors Holton, Mandel and Shapp. Governor Shapp and Governor Mandel were critical of the Administration on the budget issue. ABC Evening and Weekend News programs have broadcast filmed reports in which Senators Muskie, Humphrey and Hughes, Governor Gilligan, Mayor Lindsay and others have presented their viewpoints on this issue. In addition, ABC News filmed Senator Muskie's address and made excerpts available the same evening to ABC affiliates subscribing to our syndicated news service for inclusion in their late night local news broadcasts. Your letter states, "When the networks refuse to grant Congress the opportunity to communicate on the same scale as the President and the Executive, they are preventing Congress from fulfilling its co-equal role under the Constitution." The different nature of the Executive and Legislative branches of the Federal government poses a real dilemma for a broadcast network. The Executive usually speaks with one voice, that of the President. The Legislative, by its composition, usually speaks with many voices. In the case of Senator Muskie's speech on April 2, the Democratic Leadership of the Congress indicated that the Senator spoke for them. As was made clear to ABC by one of the Republican Congressional leaders, Senator Muskie did not speak for the Republican membership in Congress. Therefore we respectfully take exception to your allegation that our action was "preventing Congress from fulfilling its co-equal role under the Constitution." We reached our decision by considering not whether the Congress should be offered live time to reply, but rather by whether the Democrats in Congress should be offered that time. In the recent past we have dealt with this dilemma by examining Presidential addresses to determine whether our responsibility to inform the public on issues of national policy requires that we give exposure to differing Congressional views. Therefore, following President Nixon's recent series of messages in lieu of a State of the Union address-all of which were delivered on radio-ABC provided time on all four ABC radio networks in the past two months to the Democratic Congressional leadership for addresses by Speaker Albert (twice), Senator Proxmire, Senator Mondale, Senator Ribicoff and Senator Hughes. The question then becomes how frequently a broadcast network should provide the Congressional leadership of the opposition party its own forum for presentation of its views, over and above the presentation of representative and contrasting viewpoints on the particular issues in its news and other programs. In that determination we are guided in large measure by prior Federal Communications Commission rulings. Under Democratic Presidents, the Republican National Committee asked for the right of response for specific Presidential addresses. Under this Republican President, the Democratic National Committee sought to establish that right in numerous instances. In all cases where this question has been presented, the FCC and the courts have ruled in circumstances similar to those presented here that there is no automatic right of response on a one-to-one basis with the President. Nevertheless, as Mr. Goldenson indicated in his telegram to you and other Congressional leaders on August 17, 1970, a copy of which is attached, ABC "shared a concern that the constitutional balance between the Executive and Legislation branches of the government be preserved with respect to access to the television medium." We made a proposal at that time, as follows: (1) ABC would make available one hour of prime time to the Congress at the beginning of each session to present a report on the "State of Congress", (2) the Senate permit television coverage of its sessions on a reasonable basis to present to the public coverage of debates on critical issues, (3) ABC would make available one hour of prime time at the end of each session of Congress to present a report on the achievements of that session and the continuing important legislative problems, (4) the offers of time would be made to the leaders of both Houses and ABC would expect that they would work out a mutually agreeable format as well as to select the spokesmen for the majority and minority in both Houses. Although this proposal was not accepted, ABC continues to share this same concern. Admittedly we are dealing here with complex and difficult questions, all of which call for our best judgment. Despite the fact that you may sometimes disagree with that judgment, please accept our assurances that it is made in good faith and with a continuing effort to achieve for our audience a fair and balanced presentation of the major issues confronting this Nation. Your letter requests that ABC furnish certain statistical information covering a twelve-year period concerning television appearances by the President and by the Congress. Accordingly, we are enclosing three schedules of data available from our records. The schedules require some explanation. Schedule 1 is a list of Presidential addresses and news conferences televised by ABC beginning with the Johnson Presidency, which is the extent of our readily available, reliable records. We have not included ceremonial functions and appearances. The list covers both those occasions when the President has requested air time and those when he has announced he would have a statement or news conference which would be available for live coverage. Schedule 1 does not include "ratings" information. Since these broadcasts are unsponsored, national ratings for individual networks are not reported as part of the Nielsen Television Index service to which we subscribe. Nielsen does issue supplemental "subscriber bulletins" with estimates of the total three-network audience reached by unsponsored special broadcasts. We are separately enclosing copies of those subscriber bulletins for Presidential addresses which we have in our files. Schedule 2 lists those occasions when time has been given to the congressional leadership of the party not occupying the White House to present an alternative viewpoint to that of the Administration. It should also be noted that in addition to our regular schedule of news, public affairs and documentary programming. ABC has from time to time presented special timely programs on vital national issues featuring congressional spokesmen and other spokesmen opposing the Administration viewpoint. For example, following President Nixon's announcement of Phase II, on October 31, 1971, from 7:80 to 8:00 P.M., we presented "The Economy: A Continuing Report", in which Senators Humphrey and Proxmire and Dr. Arthur Okum presented their views on national economic policy. On December 6, 1971, a second program under the same title "The Economy: A Continuing Report", was broadcast from 11:00 to 11:30 A.M., consisting of an interview with Dr. Walter Heller, economic adviser to the Democratic Party. On the Indochina issue, ABC gave live coverage to a May 9, 1970 address by Democratic National Committee Chairman, Lawrence F. O'Brien, for discussion of the Cambodian incursion and other major issues which were the subject of earlier televised Presidential addresses. Special coverage has also been afforded over the years to Senate Foreign Relations Committee Vietnam hearings. Schedule 3 is a partial response to your request for data giving a breakdown of appearances by the President, his staff, Cabinet and sub-Cabinet vs. appear ances by Congressmen, on our early evening newscasts. The schedule provides this breakdown for the ABC Evening News and the ABC Weekend News for the month of March, 1978. Since we do not keep records in this fashion, the preparation of such a schedule requires assigning researchers to work with transcripts and tapes reviewing each day's broadcast. It is possible to prepare a similar schedule, if required, covering a longer period, but it would be extremely burdensome. We are also enclosing in accordance with your request a summary of estimated audience for the ABC Evening News since 1969, based on Nielsen Television Index data. We trust that the information enclosed will be found useful. We would be happy to discuss the matter with you further if you so desire. Sincerely, Enclosures. Hon. JOHN O. PASTORE, Washington, D.C. DEAR SENATOR PASTORE: During the course of hearings held approximately two weeks ago before the Senate Subcommittee on Communications, it became apparent that a number of Senators, as well as several of those appearing as witnesses including myself, shared a concern that the Constitutional balance between the executive and legislative branches of the Government be preserved with respect to access to the television medium. In the interest of furthering a voluntary solution to this problem which would maintain the Journalistic responsibilities of the networks, we are confirmIng the following proposal which was made informally to your office last week commencing with the next session of the Congress. First, we would propose to make available one hour of primetime to the Congress at the beginning of each session to present to the American people a report on the "State of the Congress.' This would be analogous to the President's state of the Union address and could highlight those issues which the leaders feel are most pressing at the time. Second, we propose that television coverage of Senate sessions be permitted on a reasonable basis which would enable the networks to give the American people coverage of debates on critical issues as they arise. Third, we also are rilling to offer one hour of primetime at the conclusion of each session which would give the Congress an opportunity to report to the American public the achievements of that session and the important continuing legislative problems. The offer of time would be made to the leaders in both Houses and we would expect that through discussions they would work out a mutually agreeable format for the presentation, as well as to select the spokesmen for the majority and minority in both Houses. We shou'd also like to make it clear that we would be willing to discuss any suggestions or modifications of the proposal which you of other members of the Congress would like to offer. Sincerely. LEONARD H. GOLDENSON, President, American Broadcasting Companies, Inc. |