APPALACHIAN PRAVDA?

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP75-00149R000200600004-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: November 11, 2016
• Document Release Date: March 9, 1999
• Sequence Number: 4
• Publication Date: May 11, 1967
• Content Type: OPEN

FOIAb3b
Sanitized - Approved For Release : CIA-
1'i2a?/ 11, 1967 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD SENATE
would involve two mobile units which would
transmit through commercial stations at
Boone and Spruce Pine.
This seems to be a hard, hard way to cre-
ate jobs, The desire to build up newspaper
readership in the so-called low income group
is commendable. But with the sum of $179,-
000 (which doesn't include any printing
equipment since the weekly would be printed
under commercial contract) and with 28
persons who would be employed, person-to-
person instruction on how to read a news-
paper could be given to a lot of people, com-
plete With free subscription to the existing
county seat newspaper. This wouldn't be a
hard lesson to teach, for example, with Bob
Rivers' sprightly Watauga Democrat, a prize-
winning weekly at Boone.
Developing an interest in newspaper read-
ing is one thing, but having Uncle Sam foot
the bill to publish a federally supported
but not a federally controlled newspaper
(that's what the man said) is something else
again.
Perhaps the WAMY people thought they
would allay any fears on the part of existing
newspapers by making it clear that they
would not accept any advertising. Why should
they? With the Office of Economic Oppor-
tunity putting tax money into it, no revenue
is needed. But the statement doesn't prevent
concern. Starting with 8,000 free subscribers,
a weekly tabloid produced by such a staff
would beg to be read by everybody in the
area. Soon there wouldn't be a high income
or medium income family in the entire re-
gion as, far as subscription lists are con-
cerned. Then the frugal mountain people
l
"
Wou
d begin to feel,
Why should I pay for
the county seat paper when Uncle Sam sends
this to me for nothing?" Even If that doesn't
happen quite that way, present advertisers
would begin to imagine that the government-
financed paper is "taking over" the readers
of the area and therefore the fine papers,
which are good advertising media now, must
somehow be losing subscribers and therefore
it wouldn't pay to advertise as much as
heretofere.'The result: Irreparable damage.
If the WAMY people want to create 28 jobs,
they can find an easier way. Let them be
farmed out to the established newspapers
and radio stations for work and training
which they envision in their proposed pro-
ject. They will learn more in such on-the-
job training than the community action staff
could teach them, certainly if the teachers
are as idealistic as the dreamy eggheads who
thought up the project In the first place.
What worries us is who sold this "bill of
goods" in Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yan-
cey counties, recognized as the home of high-
ly individualistic mountain stock who don't
want to be beholden to anybody, especially
to federal bureaucrats and more especially
Democratic ones.
If it can happen there, the WAMY may
be ahead. for all of us.
[From the Winston-Salem (N.C.) Journal,
May 6, 1967]
ANTIPOVERTY NEWSPAPER IS OPPOSED
MORGANTON.-The N.C. Press Association
yesterday spoke out against a proposed gov-
ernment-supported newspaper and radio
operation. by an antipoverty agency in four
Northwest North Carolina counties,
The project is proposed by WAMY Com-
munity Action, Inc., of Boone, an antipoverty
agency in Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yan-
cey counties. The agency receives support
from the U.S. Office of Economic Opportunity.
Speaking for the press association were
C.M. Ogle, president, and publisher of the
Time News at Hendersonville; and F. D. Fitz,
secretary, and editor of the Morganton News-
Herald. They sent a telegram to Dr. William
H. Plemmons, chairman of the four-county
agency, saying the members of the press as-
sociation are "deeply disturbed" about the
;r oposal.
TEXT OF MESSAGE
"We belive present newspapers and radio
stations serving your area," the message said,
"are doing an adequate job and, in some
cases, are widely recognized for their excel-
lence.
"It is difficult to understand how a federally
financed newspaper, no matter how lofty its
motives, could be regarded as noncompeti-
tive with existing efficient newspapers.
S 6733
The guiding principle here should be
need. Could an 01;0 newspaper do more for
the area than its many good newspapers are
already doing? The case would be hard to
make, we suspect. And we further suspect
that the Office of Economic Opportunity
could find more productive ways to spend
$179,000-with more to follow.
"It seems impossible to avoid eroding the SWORDS AND PLOWSHARES
readership, and therefore the revenue, of
private news media. We, therefore, strongly Mr. CHURCH. Mr. Presdient, our dis-
oppose this invasion of the field of journal- tinguished colleague from South Dakota,
ism, and we hope your group will take a Senator MCGOVERN has begun to awak-
second look at the adverse effect." en, as no one else, our realization that we
CLOSE LOOsI - no longer have vast surpluses of food. As
Fitz said later that the press organization the former Director of the food-for..
Plans to take a close look and "see what we Peace program, he speaks with authority
can do to stop it." He said that recent at- in pointing out that when we move into
tempts to get a similar project approved for the next century, the world will have
the eastern part of the state were defeated. twice as many mouths to feed as now.
Victor Wuamette, WAMY public relations An excellent appraisal of what this
representative, said the newspaper and radio
operation would be handled by a staff of means, in relation to our agricultural
28-eight full-time and 20 part-tirre. The States, to U.S. foreign policy and the con-,
newspaper editor would draw a salary of tainment of communism, appears In the
$10,000 a year. May 4 issue of- the Intermountain, a
Total cost of the project would be about newspaper published in Pocatello, Idaho.
$179,000. The article, written by Ben Goddard,
Wuamette said the weekly eight-page news- sharply emphasizes that we would do
paper would be mailed free to about 8,000
low income families of the four counties well to heed the distinguished Senator's
.
One hour of broadcast time daily is planned. words.
The newspaper would not carry advertising, I ask unanimous consent that it ap-
but would hire 20 correspondents, Waumette pear at this point in the RECORD.
claimed the proect would not compete with There being no objection, the article
local and area newspapers and radio stations. was ordered to be printed In the RECORD,
~a f ll
The Office of Economic Opportunity-spon- Senator George McGovern of South Da-
sared WAMY Community-Action Program- kota tells us we have about twenty years
serving the four mountain counties of war win what stcalls the most import the
Watauga, Avery, Mitchell and Yancey- war w against the history of this world the
wants a grant from Washington to establish hunger.
a poor folks' newspaper. It would cost $179,- There has been so much talk over the past
000 for the first yeaa'-enough to hire a size- ten years about soil banks, price supports
ents." It would be designed to acquaint the
rural folk of the Appalachian area with local
news and job opportuuzities.
Possibly; the Asheville Citizen over-
reacted when it labeled this proposed fed-
erally-sponsored newspaper-radio operation
an "American Pravda" and called it "a lim-
ited experiment in printed brainwash," Per-
haps It would be, though in fairness It
should he noted that the WAMY paper would
be published by a board consisting of repre-
sentatives of privately-owned newspapers
and radio stations.
The federal government, like all govern-
ments, is already deeply in the public in-
formation business-in thousands of ways,
Every government department has publica-
tions, some of them excellent. Every gov-
ernment department does a good bit of
radio advertising, some of it most construc-
tive. So the issue here is an issue of propor-
tion and degree rather than principle.
We think the taxpayers Whose funds would
support such a venture agree that programs
like the war on poverty should have ade-
quate channels of communication and con-
tact with those whom they serve. The stick-
ing point is a subsidized press, which is a
noxious and dangerous idea, whether It re-
sults from the secret shenanigans of theme
or USIA, or from needless intrusions on the
private press.
Northwestern North Carolina, fortunately,
is not impoverished in respect of function-
ing newspapers. Boone, the focus of the
WAMY project, is the home of the Watau
a
g
,
Democrat, a weekly newspaper that is a
perennial prize winner in North Carolina
Press Association contests, There are many
all but lulled ourselves to sleep. We no longer
have the great surpluses in this country that
gave rise to the food for peace programs.
There are now approximately three and
one half billion persons in the world . . . In
thirty odd years there will be over seven
billion mouths to feed.
Communism thrives on hunger, poverty
and want. It Is the professed foreign policy
of the United States Government to curb
the growth of communism throughout the
world. If that, and not imperialism, is our
goal It behooves us to heed the words of
Senator McGovern.
IDAHO WOULD CAIN
In Idaho, as in other agricultural states, we
have a vested interest in a radical change in
our foreign policy. No Idahoan should sup-
port a foreign policy of bombs and bullets
when we can support a foreign policy of
butter and accomplish much more.
At one period in her history Idaho sent
two men to the United States Senate who
were loudly and effectively opposed to war
as an extension of foreign policy.
The Isolationist views of Senators Borah
and Pope are no longer popular, but the
motivation for those views is no less sound.
WAR INDUSTRIES
Senator Pope served on the committee that
touched off an international commotion
with their revelations of business practices
within the munitions industry, The Nye
Committee dared to suggest that the U.S.
just may have avoided World War I had
there been a more enlightened policy to-
ward the financial and material support of
European conflicts.
Some thirty years later an American Prnr.t-
lAeuiu, rn a rarewen address, Warned his public
circulating range of, the. ;'cynr-county area, to beware of the rowan 'mill -i
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Sanitized - Approved For Release CIA-RDP75-00149ROf020~60DOO
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