Imperial Valley Press

Broadcasters Disputes on Air

WASHINGTON, Oct. 4. (UP)- The National Association of Broadcasters today outlawed discussion of "controversial issues" on paid radio time, a move which many observers believed would seriously hamper the radio activities of Rev. Charles E. Coughlin, famed Detroit priest-orator.

The NAB, which includes 437 radio stations, 92 per cent of the nation's total, in its membership, ruled specifically that revision of the neutrality act is "a matter of public controversy" and that any discussion concerning it henceforth will be barred from broadcasts on paid time.

The new regulation was adopted by the NAB's code committee, which appended it to a code of practice which the organization adopted last July. It was placed in operation Oct. 1. At the meeting, it was agreed that fair, impartial handling of controversial issues constituted the industry's most pressing problem.

Coughlin's name, it was understood, was mentioned frequently while the issue was debated, as were those of the Rev. Walton Cole, of the Unitarian Fellowship of Social Justice, and Judge J. F. Rutherford, of Jehovah's Witnesses.

Observers pointed out, however, that the Detroit priest, a bitter foe of the administration's neutrality revision program, is the only individual in the United States who pays for the time of an entire network to project his views on the air.

Coughlin's repeated attacks on the proposed repeal of the embargo on arms, ammunition and implements of war are largely credited as responsible for the flood of mail which descended upon the capital in opposition to the neutrality revision program.