"The Conscience Of Broadcasting"

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: News History

(CBS)

A lot of sad news occurred while we were gone, but there was one event that we wanted to give a special mention here: The passing of former CBS president Frank Stanton, who died on Dec. 24th at the age of 98. Stanton will be remembered as a fighter for first amendment rights and a staunch advocate for the journalists who worked for him. Here's some background about Stanton's most well known free speech battle:

He defied a U.S. House of Representatives subpoena for outtakes of a CBS News documentary in a move that solidified his status as the leading defender of broadcast journalism's equal status with print under the First Amendment.

Likening them to print reporters' notebooks, he told the full U.S. House in front of a television audience that he would not turn over outtakes from "CBS Reports: 'The Selling of the Pentagon,'" a 1971 report critical of the defense department.

It was a risk that could have put him behind bars, but after two days of hearings, House members in a roll call voted 226-181 not to hold CBS and its president in contempt.

You can read more on Stanton here, and check out a great "audio autobiography" as well. Says "60 Minutes" creator Don Hewitt: "If broadcasting had a patron saint, it would be Frank Stanton."