Tuesday 15 May 2012

On Walter Annenberg & American Bandstand

Regarding Not So Nice, by Ms. Eichel:

As a professor for the opening years of Penn's Annenberg School, I was puzzled in 1960 when graduating students who came to my office to explore job prospects wondered why the WFIL-TV had such low standards, often alluding to Clark's segregated "Bandstand".

And my Greenbelt Knoll neighbor the Rev. Leon Sullivan expressed his contempt for the paper's complete refusal to cover his Black Clergy's TASTEE KAKE boycott (no black jobs, no black patrons).

I went immediately to Annenberg for an explanation. The best he could do was his executive editor E.Z. Dimittman's ---"We hired a colored copyboy last summer, but he didn't cut the mustard."

In short, it would take a Gene Roberts to transcend such small-minded prejudices.

The plain truth is that Annenberg had much more money than ethical sensitivity.

Dr. Patrick D. Hazard, Weimar, Germany.

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