Newspapers throughout the United States which subscribe to the Jewish Telegraphic Agency’s news service have editorially condemned the exclusion of the JTA correspondent in Washington from a State Department briefing as a violation of the principle of freedom of the press and as an insult to the English-Jewish press.
Several of the newspapers, according to a survey of editorial comment made today, called on Secretary of State Dean Rusk to reprimand the official responsible for the barring of the JTA correspondent and to take measures to ensure that there be no recurrence of such acts of discrimination.
The Jewish Telegraphic Agency formally protested to Mr. Rusk last week that Robert C. Strong, director of the Office of Near Eastern Affairs in the State Department, had denied JTA correspondent Milton Friedman admission to a briefing on the Arab refugee problem on the grounds that the briefing was for American news media only and that Mr. Strong was dissatisfied with the news reporting of the JTA and Mr. Friedman. The JTA protest termed the incident a violation of freedom of the press and a discrimination against large sections of the American Jewish community served by the 46-year-old agency.
The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia termed Mr. Friedman’s exclusion a violation of one of our Constitutional guarantees–freedom of the press. It pointed out “that our own State Department should allow one of its officials to make a mockery of freedom of the press is not only shocking, it is inexcusable, indefensible.” Noting the reaction in Congress and elsewhere, the editorial said that “with public pressure mounting, it will be interesting to watch the State Department’s response. Without any doubt, there is a moral obligation here to rectify the situation and to make certain such an affront shall not happen again.”
The Jewish Chronicle of Pittsburgh said that Mr. Strong had made out “a weak case” barring Mr. Friedman from his briefing and expressed hope that Secretary of State Rusk or President Kennedy “properly reprimands Mr. Strong for his lack of awareness of American press freedom and for stupidity on how newsmen work.”
ACT IS CONSIDERED AN AFFRONT TO THE ENTIRE JEWISH PRESS
The Jewish Advocate of Boston said Mr. Friedman had been “disgracefully denied admission” to the briefing. “This insult,” it said, “is a serious infringement of freedom of the press.” The editorial said the “affront” to Mr. Friedman “casts an intimation of second-class citizenship on the entire American Jewish press.” It expressed hope Mr. Rusk would act to prevent a repetition.
The Jewish News of Detroit, which, with other papers, paid tribute to Mr. Friedman’s integrity and zeal in his assignment, said the incident “calls for severest condemnation by all liberty-loving Americans who cherish the ideals of a free press.”
The Baltimore Jewish Times said that “at a time when the Kennedy Administration is particularly sensitive to the charge of ‘managed news,’ “the State Department official “has apparently been guilty of a monumental political blunder and has added further fuel to the fire over ‘managed news.’ “It said he would be well advised “to report frankly and openly to all of the press and let the facts speak for themselves.”
The Jewish Times of Brookline, Mass., agreed editorially that “the notion of a free press is at stake here and let there be no mistake that the ‘bias’ or ‘slant’ of a news correspondent is within the framework of a democracy.”
The American Israelite of Cincinnati declared editorially that the nature of the incident was “so flagrant that the very disclosure of the incident should be certain to bring a prompt dressing down of the official responsible and a high-level apology.” The publication declared that “it ought to be spelled out quite clearly to Mr. Strong that the English-Jewish press in the United States is quite as American as Mr. Strong–and even more so when it comes to devotion to the American principle of a free press.”
The Jewish News of Newark, N. J., stressed that the basic issue concerns freedom of the press. It said that “as an individual. Strong has every right to approve or dislike the way JTA reports the news. As a Government official answerable not only to his immediate superiors but to the American public, he is obliged to participate, whether he likes it or not, in the constant dialogue between the people and the men who initiate or carry out policies of concern to us all.”
After quoting former President Truman’s dictum: “If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen,” the Jewish News editorial said that ‘it is the obligation of the U. S. press to report, to analyze, to criticize or to praise. Similarly, it is the duty of our individuals to deal fairly with all legitimate news agencies and to be fully responsive within the common-sense limits of security requirements.”
The Southern Israelite of Atlanta editorially interpreted the ban on Mr. Friedman as a reflection on itself and called on the State Department to “brief itself over whether the Jewish communities of this nation are American or not, whether the … publications which use the JTA services are American or not.” It described the incident as an attempt to compel Mr. Friedman to change his writing approach and expressed the belief that “he will not be whipped into line.”
The Buffalo (N. Y.) Jewish Review described the incident as “the bureaucratic exercise of censorship” and an attempt to compel the JTA correspondent to follow the official line. “We know that Mr. Friedman will not bow to such pressure, nor will the rest of the Washington press corps,” the editorial declared.
The Texas Jewish Post of Ft. Worth-Dallas called the action “a flagrant violation of the freedom of the press” and warned that this violation of rights “is not in the best interests of the Administration of the Government of the United States.” The paper said that “Mr. Strong should be called to task by his superior for this abuse of his office. Secretary of State Rusk should outline the rights of journalists to Mr. Strong–whether they cover the general scene or report for particularized media like the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
