Newscasting: The Great Imponderable

"We are," says NBC News Vice President Reuven Frank, "the most nervous and guilty industry in the country."

If Frank sounds slightly beleaguered, it is only understandable. All winter long, he and other TV newsmen have been warding off a chilly gale of complaints from Senators, Congressmen, city officials, policemen and viewers in general. The most frequent charge leveled by the critics is that television, with its vast reach and visual impact, is in a sense the germ carrier that spreads the plague of riots across the U.S. The question, in short, is...

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