Oatis Meets the Press

A week ago, the newspaper reporters of the United States made a pilgrimage to Idlewild airport to welcome William N. Oatis, the A. P. correspondent who had been imprisoned by the Czech Communists. But to those who wanted Oatis to recall forced confessions and false charges, the interview was disappointing. Oatis admitted no torture and did not even infer that his arrest was unwarrented. When asked whether he was gathering information for the United States government in defiance of Czech law, he replied, "I am not going into that."

The journalists, robbed of any honest sensationalism, fabricated a little of their own under headlines twisted to an "Oatis refuses to admit torture" type. The reporters forgot that Oatis admitted violating a Czech law and had long portrayed him as another Mindzenty. For so many months the press had assumed Oatis' innocence that when the facts did not justify their speculation, they were unable to reverse themselves. Of course, the American public relishes reports of Communist cruelty and injustice. But in this case, by lording sensation over truth, the free press has sacrificed its principles.

American newspapers have long attacked their counterparts behind the Iron Curtain for slanting news. In so doing, they based their criticism on the standards of a free press--reporting facts accurately, regardless of public or governmental pressures, with opinion confined to the editorial page. Acceptance of this thesis, however, carries with it a responsibility to merit the faith of those who accept newspaper coverage as accurate. By squeezing the facts of the Oatis case into a preconceived stereotype, the press has, in this instance, betrayed its trust.

Oatis justifiably has been the special hero of the press. But this bias has been extended even to the news columns of papers with large circulations and enviable reputations for accuracy. Though the Czech law is an abridgement of freedom of the press, each newspaper has the right to say so only in its editorial columns. For it is also an abridgement of the standards of the press to twist a valid case under a given law into an injustice. The newspapers can protest the Czech law but they have an obligation to the people that these protests be labelled as opinion. A responsible press should extend accuracy even to its sworn enemies.