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Activity on issues between the federal government and the press continued during the third quarter of 1955. However no single major flare-up resulted although there were several vital questions opened up for debate. The Eisenhower administration continued to issue "dry-up" orders on information in several new areas including firms holding defense equipment orders. At least two congressional committees entered the field of investigation of press v. government relations. Newspaper organizations heard several discussions and disquiet over the situation was evident at a number of conventions although no outright, official action was taken. In the radio and television field great interest in the theoretical merits and drawbacks of "pay" television programs continued. The status of the FCC as a result of the Lamb case also was being watched.

A verdict of guilty was returned against the Kansas City Star and its advertising director after a trial on an indictment charging violation of anti-trust laws in relations with advertisers. Publisher Roy Roberts was dropped from the suit shortly before the start of the trial hearings. Second Jelke trial was held in New York with press representatives in attendance during the quarter. Also in the field of courts and the press, Walter Winchell and the Hearst interests publicly apologized to the N. Y. Post for Communist-sympathy remarks as part of settlement of a million dollar libel suit. In the management field, the Brooklyn Eagle announced suspension of the newspaper after 47 days of a strike by Newspaper Guild. Efforts to find a new publisher were being made at the end of the period. The Toronto Globe-Mail was sold to a Montreal industrialist as part of an estate settlement but was announced as continuing under the same editor and policies.

Journalism ethics were debated sharply in relationship to several widely varying incidents which erupted at various points in the nation during April, May and June. General Motors Corporation withdrew advertising from the Wall Street Journal in apparent retribution for an article which revealed coming automobile styling on GM automobiles. This method of retaliation for an alleged breach of confidence was attacked by many editors. This incident followed alleged pressure by big automobile companies to induce newspapers to turn-down classified advertisements for new cars from all but company-authorized dealers. In New England, a score of news men were revealed to have accepted extra pay from race track corporations and from state governmental units. While at least two wire service employees were separated from their news jobs as a result, some newspapers defended the right of their employees to such outside remuneration. A New York appeals court reversed a lower court decision in the Jelke case because newspapermen were kept from the courtroom during a portion of the trial. A sensational libel suit brought by writer Quentin Reynolds against columnist Westbrook Pegler was notable because most newspapers ignored or played-down this seeming newspaper "natural." In simple communication activity, the second quarter will be remembered for the McCarthy-Army hearings in Washington. Issues arising from this hearing may arise for years but the immediate effect in periodical articles was not especially noteworthy.

The release of Associated Press correspondent William Oatis from a Czech prison was the most spectacular journalistic event of April, May and June 1953. The settlement of this two-year-old newspaper issue between the western world and the Communist bloc of nations coincided with the so-called "Peace Offensive" in general events of the world. The New Orleans Times-Picayune unit advertising rate case, another cause celebre of the journalistic world, also was settled during the quarter. The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the newspaper but without clearly indicating whether the general practice of unit rate setting would stand in the eyes of the judges for other press units. The shelving of all major efforts to investigate the "one-party press" charges of the 1952 election was announced by several professional bodies, mostly on the grounds that no adequate criteria existed for judging the performance of newspapers in the campaign. Fast superseding the "one-party" controversy in the area of newspapers and politics was the James Wechsler-Joseph McCarthy clash. At the end of the period it was under review by a committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors to determine whether press freedom was involved in the senator's official grilling of the New York Post editor in a Senate sub-committee.

Adjustment of press and radio relations with the new administration was the subject of a great number of the articles in American magazines during 1953's first quarter. With the details gradually falling in place, it appeared that the relationships at most levels in Washington were starting out along the same lines of custom that prevailed during recent years. A tentative indication from the White House hinted that the previous administration's order on classification of governmental information, which drew heated criticism last year, would be continued. In New York several newspapers appealed the judge's ruling in the Jelke case barring newsmen from the courtroom during a large part of the trial. The appeal was lost in the highest New York appeal court. Also attracting great interest was the outcome of the New Orleans Times-Picayune advertising case still before the Supreme Court when the quarter ended. In preparation for trial was a Kansas City Star advertising suit. Both cases involved the right of newspapers to fix "forced combination" advertising regulations which the government contended restricted trade.

Suspension of publication of the major New York City dailies for a period of 11 days in early December because of an engravers strike resulted in controversy in several categories of journalism literature. Besides obvious interest in the results of the strike in the areas of labor relations and economics, debate developed over the action of related unions in making the strike mandatory by honoring the picket lines of the engravers union and the decision of the New York Herald Tribune in refraining from publishing although not a direct party to the strike action. Relations between the working press and the Eisenhower administration developed enough friction on at least two points to produce noteworthy articles of comment and criticism. Information "leaks" to favored correspondents were charged at a presidential press conference and defended as justified under some circumstances by the President. Even more partisan bickering developed as a result of Attorney-General Herbert Brownell's revelation about the handling of suspected security risks in the Truman administration. After a stormy presidential press conference at which some reporters failed to obtain all requested information on the affair, a New York Times poll of correspondents showed that a majority felt the administration, but not the President, was succumbing to "McCarthyism." Direct radio transcriptions of some presidential conferences were sanctioned and an "unofficial transcription" for newsmen was instituted during this quarter.

Main controversy in the literature of journalism during the third quarter of 1953 was the denouement of the Wechsler-McCarthy feud growing out of the earlier questioning by Senator McCarthy of the New York Post editor before a Senate sub-committee. A majority of a committee of the American Society of Newspaper Editors, asked to review Wechsler's contention that it was an attempt to intimidate editors, expressed no opinion about the charge but asserted that it was a matter for editors throughout the country to interpret for themselves. Chairman James R. Wiggins of the ASNE committee with three other members issued a minority report declaring that the senator's action did in fact infringe on editorial freedom. Senator McCarthy then wrote to all majority report signers asking that Mr. Wiggins' record as managing editor of the Washington Post be investigated. In the field of advertising, the course of new personnel in the administration of the Federal Trade Commission was watched with great interest. New interpretations were being given to some regulations relating to advertisements, although the commission itself denied that any great change in policy was taking place despite the charges of a departing director. More "industry influence" was thought to be a possibility, however, through a FTC proposed "advertising liaison committee." Quantities of new data on the impact of TV on radio listenership and newspaper readership were being presented by trade bodies. More and more survey results on the effects of TTS circuits on editing and publishing also appeared.