Law Forum Hears Columnist Assail 'Iron Curtain' Trend of Newspapers

Increasing tendencies on the part of newspapers and government to restrict the contents of news columns have resulted in the United States' own "iron curtain," columnist Thomas L. Stokes told the Law School Forum last night.

Speaking in the Rindge Tech auditorium, Stokes shared the platform with Laurence E. Spivak '21, publisher of the American Mercury, and Zechariah Chafee, Jr. Langdell Professor of Law, in a discussion of the question" Is the American Press Free and Responsible?"

Stokes hit the refusal of many papers, especially those in his native south, to carry news in direct opposition to their editorial policy, citing their disregard of the Negro problem and a low-wage economy as examples. "Papers do not want to print, in fact, will not print news that displeases them," he said.

"If the phrase 'freedom of the press' is to have any meaning," he declared, "the press must combat restrictive influences outside the industry and its own inertia and acquiescence to the status quo."

Decrying the effect that federal law would have on the Press, Spivak declared that "laws to make the press more responsible, beyond those which we now have, would tend to only make it less truthful and therefore less responsible."

"The right to be irresponsible within the law is a good thing." Spivak maintained, suggesting that the only cure for an ailing press lies in its courageousness.