An Annotated Bibliography of Journalism Subjects in American Magazines

Abstract

In an unprecedented legal action, the U. S. government filed a suit against the Lorain (Ohio) Journal on charges of conspiracy to effect a monopoly. As this historic case began, the question which might ultimately be answered by the courts was whether the inevitable economic trend toward non-competitive facilities may, if aggravated by the owners’ deliberate moves to discourage renewed competition, be actionable in the interest of public welfare. The government's ability to prove any ground for prosecution, however, had not been demonstrated in the Lorain case as the fall quarter of the year ended. In another important economic field, the prolonged strike of Chicago typographical unions suddenly ended in a compromise, and with it came the end of a significant and successful experiment in publication of metropolitan newspapers without benefit of compositors. In the radio and television field, two developments highlighted the late summer and early autumn—the order of the Federal Communications Commission curtailing the give-away programs which had become a virtual craze and an added bit of Americana for observers foreign and domestic to wonder at; and the marked “plateau” which the television industry reached after its meteoric postwar rise—a pause which was blamed on various ineptitudes in both industrial and governmental policy controlling “video.” —W. F. S.