Passing almost unnoticed last week amid the fuss over the Purloined Papers was another journalistic controversy. The questions: Does First Amendment protection extend to television and allow it to freely edit news? Does the Government have the right to judge whether TV's editing is deceptive? The answer may come soon, and with it perhaps a contempt-of-Congress citation for the president of CBS.
The argument resulted from CBS's now famous documentary The Selling of the Pentagon (TIME, April 5, 12), which showed how the Defense Department spends millions to promote its public image. After the Nixon Administration complained that the program distorted the...
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