Search JTA's historical archive dating back to 1923

St. Louis U. Radio Chief, a Priest, Warns of Anti-semitic “deluge” over Coughlin Ban

October 15, 1939
See Original Daily Bulletin From This Date
Advertisement

The Rev. W.A. Burk, S.J., faculty director of St. Louis University’s Radio Station WEW, has written to the Code Compliance Committee of the National Association of Broadcasters warning that if Charles E. Coughlin is barred from the air as a result of the code, “you are going to be responsible for stirring up such a deluge of anti-Semitism in this land as we have never seen or experienced before and which would be most deplorable.”

Declaring that Coughlin’s broadcasts were credited by the Gallup poll with having four-and-a-half million listeners, Father Burk said: “Think of the indignation of all this audience against the Jews who will inevitably be credited, despite any endeavor of Father Coughlin to quell the indignation, with having brought about the denial of Father Coughlin’s undoubted right as an American–the right of free speech on the air.” The letter is published in the current issue of Coughlin’s organ, Social Justice.

Recommended from JTA

Advertisement