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Bartley, Robert T. Regulation of Programs--How Far? How Good? Washington D.C., U.S. Federal Communications Commission, 1961. 19p. B102
Address before the Florida Association of Broadcasters.
Bascom, John. "Public Press and Personal Right." Education, 4:604-11, July 1884. B103
The great extension in the freedom of the press "has tended to remove the slightest protection which the law had previously provided for personal rights." There are few prosecutions for libel and even fewer successful ones. Liberty is given to the press with the supposition that it will be conscientiously used. "If the supposition is not true, the weightiest plea for liberty is taken away."
Bassett, Robert C. "Freedom of the Press." Marquette Law Review, 25:28-33, December 1940. B104
The fundamental purpose of the First and Fourteenth Amendments with respect to freedom of the press is "not to guarantee to publishers the right to print, but to guarantee the American people the right to read what is printed, to learn the facts concerning public affairs, to weigh conflicting opinions, and to form their own judgments, unhampered by the dictates of any one branch of government." A general discussion of the concept of press freedom in America.
Bastwick, John. The Confession of the faithfull Witnesse of Christ . . . London, 1641. 8p. B105
The author's own account of his life and martyrdom. Dr. Bastwick was a physician and Puritan theologian who was brought to trial, along with Henry Burton and William Prynne, before the Star Chamber for his Apologeticus (1636) and Leteny (1637). He accused the court of having decided the case "a long time in advance of the trial," and the clerk of the court with mispronouncing the Latin in the objectionable works.
[-------]. "Trial of John Bastwick, M.D., Henry Burton, Clerk, and William Prynne, Esq., for Seditious Libels, 1637." In Borrow, Celebrated Trials, vol. 1, pp. 467-68. B106
Dr. Bastwick, along with Burton and Prynne, were tried and convicted by the Star Chamber for their heretical writings. The three were fined, pilloried, shorn of their ears, and given life imprisonment. In 1640 they were released as heroes by the Long Parliament.
Bate, Henry. "The Right of Privacy: Right or Wrong?" Journalist's World, 3:6-8, September 1963. B107
Efforts by the Press Council in Great Britain, in the absence of judicial decisions, to uphold the right of privacy.
Bates, Ernest S. "Comstock Stalks." Scribner's Magazine, 87: 355-66, April 1930. B108
"The ghost of a ginger-whiskered censor of the 1870's inspires the Federal Customs Service and the police censors of Boston today. Anthony Comstock dead is a more powerful enemy of freedom and liberal thought than he was when alive. Mr. Bates in a telling article attacks the principles of censorship." The real aim of censorship is suppression of thought, not of vice, and the war is primarily against ideas, not indecent language. "One motive underlies all the attacks--fear of sex enlightenment."
-------. This Land of Liberty. New York, Harper, 1930. 383p. B109
A description of the many attacks made on liberty in the United States, including the use of private constabularies, illegal searches and seizures, the espionage law, the activities of the Post Office Department during World War I, and the Palmer raids after the war. There is also a description of propaganda and pressure groups and "major minority" tyranny.
[Bates, Henry M.]. "Freedom of Press and Use of the Mails." Michigan Law Review, 29:728-31, May 1921. B110
A critical review of decisions of the U.S. Supreme Court on the "tendency" test as a limit of freedom in the area of sedition. The discussion centers around the case of U.S. ex rel. Milwaukee Social Democrat v. Burleson (255 U.S. 407). During World War I the Milwaukee Leader was denied second-class mailing privileges for its denunciation of the draft law.
Bates, Miner S. Religious Liberty: an Inquiry. New York, International Missionary Council, 1945. 604p. B111
This study, prepared under the auspices of the Foreign Missions Conference of North America and the Federal Council of Churches of Christ in America, has numerous references to suppression of heretical publications throughout the world.
Bath, Gomer. "The Libraries Buy Propaganda." Freeman, 2:535-37, 19 May 1952. B112
"How public libraries are buying and circulating 'one-world' and pro-Soviet propaganda films is shown by the controversy in Peoria, Illinois." Bath, a columnist for a Peoria newspaper, was one of those who attacked the Peoria Public Library's film-buying program leading to the library's experiment with labeling of controversial films.
"Battle Against Censorship." Theatre Arts, 31:13-14, April 1947. B113
A brief editorial supporting the bill before the New York City Council which provided that "a license shall not be refused nor shall a licensee be punished for showing a picture or giving a performance where there has not been a prior conviction."
"Battle over Birth Control." Current Opinion, 59:339-40, November 1915. B114
The William Sanger case before New York Municipal Court Judge McInerney who, in pronouncing sentence, stated that proposals for birth control were "a crime not only against the laws of man but against the laws of God." Judge William N. Gatens of Portland, Oregon, dismissed a similar case against two others who had distributed Mrs. Sanger's pamphlets, with a statement defending sex education.
"Battling the Wolves." Christian Century, 48:470-71, 8 April 1931; 48:892-93, 8 July 1931. B115
"If the wolves of the literary underworld are not held at bay, the destruction of social and moral standards that will ensue is something not to be lightly contemplated." A defense of the Rev. Philip Yarrow, superintendent of the Illinois Vigilance Association, who was convicted of malicious prosecution by a Chicago jury and made liable for $5,000 damages. Yarrow had earlier brought suit against a Chicago bookseller for selling obscene literature. The bookseller was acquitted and sued the minister for malicious prosecution.
Bauer, Harry C. "Censorship or Fair Trial." Library News Bulletin (Washington State Library), 15:87-91, May-June 1947. B116
"The committee [appointed by the Mayor of Seattle] therefore believes that books or other printed material dealing with the subject of sex--aside from out-and-out pornographia--should, like controversial or substandard writing on other subjects, be challenged not in a negative but in a positive fashion by subjecting it to the competition of unquestionably healthy work, and that the task of both our institutions and our public spirited citizens is to do everything in their power to stimulate the recognition of good literature."
-------. "The Censorship Rides at Anchor." Pacific Northwest Library Association Quarterly, 25: 82-90, January 1962. B117
A discussion of the work of the two most active bodies in the field of censorship--the National Office for Decent Literature, a Catholic organization that opposes the distribution of salacious literature and endorses legal suppression of obscene matter, and the American Civil Liberties Union that takes the opposite view that all censorship is wrong, and opposes the NODL lists. The efforts of the two bodies seem to balance each other.
-------."The Dream and Reality." Antiquarian Bookman, 30:919, 3-10 September 1962. B118
"If I were King, there would be no censorship in my kingdom," the author writes of his dream world. But, facing reality, he finds that the plethora of printing today acts against an interest in reading. "Publications are so plentiful, they are impenetrable . . . Nowadays, the surest way of keeping a secret is to publish it. Paradoxically, to censor is to broadcast, and to publish is to repress."
-------."The Minority Pace." Library Journal, 89:3923-25, 15 October 1964. B119 §
"Minorities should be wooed and catered to by the one institution deliberately designed, established, and maintained for them--the library . . . A good library is one that serves a sufficient number of individuals or minorities of one to justify its existence, and not so many individuals as to overwhelm service capabilities."
-------. "Seattle Takes Action on Salacious Literature." Library Journal, 72: 712-13, 1 May 1947. B120
A committee, appointed by the Mayor to consider the spread of salacious literature, agreed upon a plan "to emphasize the good, play down and expose the bad, but not to resort to censorship which would be futile even if attempted."
Baum, Terry L. "On Obscene Matter: California's New Law." Journal of the State Bar of California, 36:625-35, July-August 1961. B121
The deputy legislative counsel of California discusses the new California law on obscene matter and its implication to the various media.
Baxter, A. B. "Censorship and Sex." Maclean's Magazine, 70:6, 47-48, 3 August 1957. B122
Censorship of obscenity in Great Britain.
Baxter, Richard. Life of the Rev. Richard Baxter . . . London, The Religious Tract Society, [186-?]. 160p. B123
Includes account of his trial for seditious libel.
[-------]. "Proceedings against Richard Baxter, clerk, for a seditious Libel, at Guildhall, before Lord Chief Justice Jeffreys, 1685." In Howell, State Trials, vol. 11, pp. 493-502 and in Modern Reports, vol. 3, pp. 68-69. (Also reported in Schroeder, Constitutional Free Speech . . . , pp. 302-4) B124 §
This English minister was brought to trial in 1685 for his book, A Paraphrase upon the New Testament, critical of orthodox Christianity and of the bishops of the established church. The court presided over by the notorious Jeffreys, found Baxter guilty of sedition. Baxter was unable or unwilling to pay his fine of £500 and so spent two years in prison. In 1688 Baxter's book, Holy Commonwealth or Political Aphorisms Opening the True Principles of Government, was burned at Oxford.
Bayle, Pierre. An Explanation Concerning Obscenities. (Appeared originally in the 2d ed. of Bayle's Dictionnaire Historique et Critique; English edition, edited by M. Des Maizeaux, London, D. Midwinter, 1738, vol. 5, pp. 837-58; published separately [1879] in Bruxelles as Sur les obscénités; reprinted in Schroeder, Free Press Anthology, pp. 114-48.) B125
This French rationalist was cited by the consistory of the Church for alleged obscenities in his famous dictionary (1697). He was required to make alterations in the second edition. In his explanation concerning obscenities (Eclaircissement sur les Obscénités) Bayle anticipates most of the present-day objections to frankness in sex expression. Henry S. Ashbee considers this essay "one of the most just, liberal, and forcible strictures ever written" on the subject of obscenity. In volume 10, page 330, of the English edition, Bayle also discusses defamatory libel, noting that "those who are pleased with reading defamatory libels, so far as to approve the authors and dispensers of them, are as guilty as if they had composed them."
Bayley, Sir John. Speech in Passing sentence on Richard Carlile, in the Court of King's Bench, Nov. 16, 1819, for Publishing The Age of Reason and for Reprinting Palmer's Principles of Nature. London, [1819]. 12p. B126
A Beacon Set on Fire. London, 1652. 16p. (Includes an Index Expurgatorius of "popish" books) B127
A group of Presbyterian stationers and printers, known as the "Beacon Firers," protested the publication of popish and sectarian books. They suggested a strict licensing system administered by "godly men," with the fines for violations awarded to the informer. The Levellers answered this appeal with Beacons Quenched.
Beacons Quenched. London, Printed by Henry Hills, 1652. B128
The Levellers charged the stationers with wanting to suppress the press in the interest of Presbyterianism. The stationers answered with a pamphlet entitled: The Beacon Flameing . . . The stationers issued A Second Beacon Fired by Scintilla. For the Levellers' answer to A Second Beacon see John Goodwin's Fresh Discovery . . . William M. Clyde gives a detailed account of the "Beacon Firers" in his Struggle for the Freedom of the Press, pp. 225 ff.
Beale, Howard K. "Freedom for the School Teacher." Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, 200:119-43, November 1938. B129 §
Includes a section on censorship of textbooks and a review of the subjects which most frequently cause trouble--religion, science, history, politics, patriotism, peace and war, social and economic questions, and radicalism.
Beard, Charles A. "Count Karolyi and America." Nation, 120:347-48, 1 April 1925. B130
Address given at an American Civil Liberties Union meeting honoring Count Michael Karolyi. The State Department, at the request of the rulers of Hungary, had refused Count Karolyi permission to speak or write, but modified the directive to permit him to speak, but not on politics. Mr. Beard's address is a protest against the decision as an insult to the intelligence of the American people.
-------. "Freedom of Speech and Press." In his The Republic, New York, Viking, 1944, pp. 149-63. B131
The author discusses with his imaginary friends, Doctor and Mrs. Smyth, the meaning of the First Amendment and its interpretation by the courts. Particular attention is given to the operation of the laws against sedition and espionage and to court decisions relating thereto.
-------. "Great American Tradition." Nation, 123:7-8, 7 July 1926. (Reprinted in Beman, Censorship of Speech and the Press, pp. 28-34) B132
§
Historian Beard traces the development of the idea of freedom of the press from the time of Jefferson to the sedition legislation of World War I. He urges that during peacetime we consider the implications of wartime sedition. He quotes Justice Hughes as wondering whether, in view of the severity of peacetime sedition laws, "this republic could survive another great war."
-------. "In defense of Civil Liberties." Current History, 44:66-68, April 1936. B133
Includes comments on the U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring void the Louisiana statute imposing a tax on newspaper revenues.
-------. "On the Advantages of Censorship and Espionage." New Republic, 27:350-51, 24 August 1921. B134
Commenting on the Lusk "subversive activities" bills before the New York legislature, Beard recalls the experience of the French in the mid-eighteenth century, when an edict against criticism of the government only stimulated such writing. The tyranny "revealed the system from which it sprang and multiplied its enemies." Secondly, it sharpened the wits of writers in their efforts to evade the law and thus improved French literature. Thirdly, it produced more writing than would have otherwise occurred, and fourthly, it made the forbidden more attractive. He quotes a wit who wrote in 1767: "It is necessary now for a publisher to beg a magistrate to burn a book in order to make it sell."
Beattie, A. M., and Frank A. Underhill. "Sense and Censorship: On Behalf of Peyton Place." Canadian Library Association Bulletin, 15:9-16, July 1958. B135
Text of the testimony of a professor of English and a former professor of history in behalf of Peyton Place at a hearing before the Canadian Tariff Board. The Board handed down a majority ruling which permitted the entry of the book into Canada. The statements give "a distinction between obscenity and realism in literature and an interpretation of modern fiction."
Beatty, Joseph M., Jr. "An Essay in Critical Biography--Charles Churchill." PMLA, 35:226-46, 1920. B136
Biography of the profligate but fearless coauthor, with John Wilkes, of the suppressed North Briton.
Beaty, John O. "Censorship, Gangs, and the Tyranny of Minorities." In Image of Life. New York, Nelson, 1940, pp. 131-53. B137
Freedom of the press in the United States is threatened by publishers themselves in their glorification of vice and in their deliberate deceptions. The author recommends self-censorship, citing as a good example the British press censorship in the Simpson-Edward VII affair and American Catholic pressures against bad films. The latter efforts, he believes, should be extended to print. The world is tired of obscenities imposed on the majority by the minority.
Beck, James M. Constitutionality of the New Federal Law Regulating Journalism. New York, l912. 17p. B138
The law requires publicity as to owners of periodical publications.
-------. Jefferson and the Liberty of the Press. n.p., 1931. 13p. mimeo. B139
Address given 20 October 1931 by a Pennsylvania Representative at the dedication of a room at Jefferson's Monticello to the liberty of the press.
Beck, John B., et al. Report of the Trial on an Indictment for Libel in "The American Lancet," Containing the Whole Evidence, Speeches etc. Accusers in Behalf of the State, Drs. J. B. Beck, E. G. Ludlow and Others against J. G. Vought, Wm. Anderson and Samuel Osborn, New York, 1831. 48p. B140
Becker, Callie. "Censorship Workshop at A.S.U." Arizona Librarian, 21:7-8, Winter 1964. B141
Report on a workshop in Censorship and Controversial Books held by the Department of Library Science at Arizona State University, Summer 1964.
Becker, Carl L. Freedom and Responsibility in the American Way of Life. New York, Vintage Books, 1958. 135p. (First published, 1945) B142
Chapter 2, Freedom of Speech and Press. If freedom of speech and the press are to be maintained "the people must have sufficient intelligence and honesty to maintain them with a minimum of legal compulsion."
Becker, William, and John H. Colburn. Pre-Verdict Publicity Dialogue. Columbia, Mo., Freedom of Information Center, School of Journalism, University of Missouri, 1964. 6p. (Publication no. 124) B143 §
Points of view of the bar and the news media in the matter of fair trial and fair news coverage, presented at the University of Missouri's Joint Conference on News Coverage of Crime and the Courts.
Beckerly, J. G. "Government Control of Technical Data." Confluence, 5:147-57, July 1956. B144
"The secrets we keep are determined by small groups of men, often unidentified to the general public." The author calls for an overall government policy and review by a competent body acting in the public interest.
"Becoming Intolerable." Crucible, 3:1, 8, February 1920. B145
Reprint of a statement from the Seattle Union Record that the New Republic and Survey are excluded from the high school library.
Bedborough, George. "Comstock Rex." Adult, 2:63-65, April 1898. B146 §
The editor reports on the American suppression of publications of D. M. Bennett (Truth Seeker) and Dr. Kime, editor of the Iowa Medical Journal. The Firebrand, Emil Ruedebusch's Our New Humanity, and Oswald Dawson's Outcome of Legitimation are also reported on.
[-------]. "Police and the Press; Scotland Yard Censorship." Review of Reviews, 18:162, 15 August 1898. B147
Bedborough was arrested for selling Havelock Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex.
[-------]. "Trial of George Bedborough; Verbatim Report." Adult, 2:333-38, December 1898. B148
§
Bedborough was brought to trial on obscenity charges for selling Ellis' Studies in the Psychology of Sex; The Adult, of which he was editor; and Oswald Dawson's Outcome of Legitimation. Much to the embarrassment of the Free Press Defence Committee, formed in his behalf, Bedborough pleaded, guilty. Schroeder, in his Free Speech Bibliography, states that Bedborough was both fearful of the competency and honesty of his lawyer and wanted to protect one of his financial backers who "had a skeleton in his closet." Reports on the Bedborough trial consumed most of the second volume of The Adult. In the December 1898 issue (p. 331) Bedborough writes an apology to his friends and supporters for letting them down. The article is entitled, George Bedborough: Coward.
Bedford, Arthur. Evil and Danger of Stageplays: Shewing their Natural Tendency to Destroy Religion, and Introduce a General Corruption of Manners, in almost Two Thousand Instances, Taken from the Plays of the Last Two Years. . . Bristol, Eng., Bonny, 1706. 227p. B149 §
The author, a vicar in Bristol, was an associate of Jeremy Collier in a crusade against the stage which he charged was a promoter of vice and a blasphemer of religion.
-------. Serious Remonstrance in Behalf of the Christian Religion, against the Horrid Blasphemies and Impieties Which Are still Used in the English Play-houses. London, Hammond, 1719. 383p. B150
Bedinger, Margery. "Censorship of Books by the Library." Libraries, 36:390-95, November 1931. B151 §
The author is concerned with "books of literature or fiction that have been kept away from the public on the pleas of the danger they carried to the morals of the young." It is her contention that "instead of keeping information away from youth, it is rather our duty to let them have all we can give them, provided it is true knowledge sincerely expressed." Emotion and sentiment instead of logic and scientific investigation have too often determined decisions.
Beecher, Edward. Narrative of Riots at Alton: in Connection with the Death of Rev. Elijah P. Lovejoy. Alton, Ill., George Holtman, 1838. 159p. (Reprinted with an introduction by Robert Merideth. New York, Dutton, 1965. 98p. Dutton Paperback) B152
A contemporary account of the "premeditated murder" of Lovejoy, written by his friend the president of Illinois College. Rev. Beecher describes Lovejoy as "the first martyr in America to the great principles of the freedom of speech and of the press." Lovejoy was an abolitionist editor who lost four printing presses and finally his life at the hands of a mob. Beecher notes in the introduction that the original manuscript sent from Jacksonville, Illinois, to New York never arrived and "must either have been lost or otherwise disposed of." The introduction to the 1965 edition is entitled "Edward Beecher's Narrative and Conservative Abolitionism."
Beford, Sybille. "The Last Trial of Lady Chatterley." Esquire, 55(4):132-55, April 1961. B153
A novelist's detailed report of the trial, Crown v. Penguin Books, Ltd., before Mr. Justice Byrne and a jury at the Central Criminal Court, London, 20 October-2 November 1960, in which D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover, is found to be not obscene under Britain's Obscene Publications Act of 1959. The book was for the first time in Great Britain judged as a whole, with its literary merit permitted as a justification, and with expert evidence allowed.
Beichman, Arnold. "The Unmanageable Issue behind 'Managed News'!" Columbia University Forum, 6(2):4-10, Spring 1963. B154
"A press fretful about 'managed news' might remember that it cannot be both critic and confidant of government when survival of the nation, or the earth itself, is in peril." The real issue is: "Does democracy today charge us to place in the hands of a civilian Chief Executive the power to issue ultimatums, to respond to hostile actions or not to respond, to do nothing, when whatever he alone decides may become, as never before, irrevocable for eternity?"
Beinart, B. "Postal Censorship." South African Law Journal, 67:350-71, November 1950. B155
A review and criticism of South African postal regulations permitting clandestine censorship, probably never intended by the Legislature.
Bell, Clair H. "What the Censor Saw." University Chronicle (University of California), 21:347-68, 1919. B156
Censorship in the United States during World War I.
Bell, Clive. On British Freedom. London, Chatto and Windus, 1923. 86p. B157
A caustic and sometimes witty attack on present-day restriction of British freedoms including sex expression in literature.
Bell, Edward P. The British Censorship. An Examination of This Institution, and of the General Position of American Correspondents in London, from the Point of View of One of Their Number . . . London, Unwin, [1916]. 21p. B158
Criticism of British military censorship given in an address before the American Luncheon Club, London, 19 November 1915. "The Censorship is discharging its function improperly and has become a grave menace to the successful prosecution of the war." The charges are answered by "Libra" in the March 1916 issue of English Review.
-------. "Foes of Press Freedom." Quill, 28(9):13, 16, September 1940. B159
Government and wealth may be foes of press freedom, but the deadliest foe is the self-applied censorship.
Bell, Howard H. "The Relativity of Freedom." Journal of Broadcasting, 5: 199-204, Summer 1961. B160
"Mr. Bell holds that freedom of speech guarantees should apply to the communication of ideas, regardless of the technology of the medium; and that flourishing economic competition should dispel fears resulting from technological monopoly." He believes that "while it is technologically essential that the allocation of spectrum space be controlled, the program output must be left to the free interplay of the market-place."
[Bell, Robert]. A Few more Words, on the Freedom of the Press, Addressed by the Printer, to the Friends of Liberty in America. Philadelphia, Robert Bell, 1776. 4p. (Appended to Josiah Tucker, The True Interest of Britain, set forth in regard to the Colonies . . . published by Robert Bell) B161
"If new modes of Government, are either in reality, or in appearance, approaching towards the inhabitants of America; it is more peculiarly necessary on these extraordinary occasions, that the liberty of the press should be freely exerted: For, if in these changes, we do not fully retain all our present happy privileges, but weakly suffer any restrictions or curtailings of liberty to advance upon us with new establishments, it will afterwards be next to impossible, to regain the desirable possession."
Bell, W. S. Liberty and Morality; a Speech by W. S. Bell at the New York Free Thinkers Convention at Watkins, August 26, 1882. Boston, W. S. Bell, 1882. 36p. B162
References to censorship of literature dealing with sex education, pp. 16-19.
Bellamy, Paul. Challenge of War to Freedom of the Press. New York, Department of Journalism, New York University, 1943. 19p. B163
-------. "Why Print Crime News?" In Attorney General's Conference on Crime. Proceedings, 1934. Washington, D.C., Govt. Print. Off., 1936, pp. 86-97. B164
"I regard the publication of crime news as one of the primary obligations of a newspaper, arising out of its mission to improve society. I believe that we shall not make a better society on the hush-hush method." The author was then editor of the Cleveland Plain Dealer.
Bellanger, Claude. Press Clandestine, 1940-1944. Paris, Armand Colin, 1961. 264p. B165
The story of the underground newspapers in Europe during World War II.
Belle, Minnie. Public Library Practices in the Exclusion and Restriction of Printed Materials. New York, School of Library Service, Columbia University, 1941. 95p. (Unpublished Master's thesis) B166
Belloc, Hilaire. The Free Press. London, Allen & Unwin, 1918. 102p. B167
A group of essays attacking "the evils of the modern capitalist press" and in defense of "its correction by the formation of small independent organs." Originally published serially in The New Age.
-------. "Modern Life; the Source of Information." English Review, 1:799-808, March 1909. B168
"The whole mass of public information upon which Englishmen depend for the nourishment of public opinion, has long been, and is now everywhere admitted to be tarnished at the source." Belloc detects a conspiracy of secrecy that can only be combatted by public opinion which develops an attitude that "mistrusts secrecy above all things, and would actively punish, in some social way, every alias, and every anonymity." Belloc demonstrates how he would name names; the editors, however, mindful of British libel laws and also to reinforce Belloc's thesis, have deleted the names by black slugs of type.
Bellowings of a Wild-Bull.[London, 1680]. 3p. B169
A pamphlet attacking Chief Justice William Scroggs for his attempts to suppress the Whig press. Scroggs is depicted as a wild bull who roared that whoever invented the heretical art of printing should be "frying in hell."
Bellows, Henry A. "Is Radio Censored?" Harper's, 171:697-709, November 1935. (Excerpted in Summers, Radio Censorship, pp. 102-3) B170
"It is censored by the Federal Communications Commission, despite the law, through interference with program quality and content, made possible by the threat of refusal to renew licenses; it is censored by the broadcasters themselves because, owing to the limitation of facilities, they cannot do otherwise." There is no censorship in the sense of denial of the air to critics of the administration.
[Belmont, August]. A History of the Libel Suit of Clarence H. Venner against August Belmont. How a plaintiff who had been called a practical blackmailer discontinued his suit for libel when confronted with an order for his examination as to the truth of the charges. [New York, 1913 ?] 155p. B171
Venner had distributed circulars attacking the management of the Interborough Rapid Transit Company and assailing the validity of a bond issue. Both suits were dismissed by Judge Hough in the U.S. District Court because "complainant has shown no right to maintain these actions."
Beltran, Pedro G. "Freedom of the Press in a Republic." In The Enduring American Press. Hartford, Conn., Hartford Courant and Connecticut Mutual Life, 1964, pp. 7-10. B172 §
The publisher of La Prensa of Lima, Peru, and president of the Inter American Press Association discusses the struggle for press freedom in Latin America, in which he has played a part. The occasion of the talk is the 200th anniversary of the Hartford Courant.
Beman, Lemar T., comp. Selected Articles on Censorship of Speech and the Press. New York, Wilson, 1930. 507p. (Wilson Handbooks, series 3, vol. 5) B173
A compilation of articles dealing with various aspects of censorship, pro and con, arranged so that the material might be useful to debaters. Part I deals with general background and history; Part II deals with free speech, particularly as it relates to propaganda for the overthrow of the United States Government; Part III considers the Minnesota Nuisance Law that had just been upheld by the Minnesota Supreme Court; and Part IV considers the proposition that the federal government create a Board of Review for all books of fiction, with power to deny copyright to obscene works and exclude them from the mails.
-------. Selected Articles on Censorship of the Theater and Motion Pictures. New York, Wilson, 1931. 385p. (Wilson Handbooks, series 3, vol. 6) B174
A collection of articles, pro and con, compiled to assist debaters.
[Benbow, William]. The Trial of William Benbow, for publishing certain Libels (alledged to be licentious), in "The Rambler's Magazine," and a Translation of a French Romance, entitled "The Amours of the Chevalier Faublas;" with a full report of the eloquent and successful Speech of the Celebrated Irish Barrister, C. Phillips, Esq. against the Society for the Suppression of Vice. London, Printed for Wilson and Smith, 1822. 21p. (Also in Macdonell, Report of State Trials, vol. 6, pp. 228 ff.) B175
Benbow, a Strand bookseller and publisher, was prosecuted for the sale of a French novel, but was found not guilty when it was proved that an English translation had been available in English circulating libraries for more than 30 years. This was the first time in its 19 years that the vice society failed to get a conviction in a case of obscene libel. Benbow is said to have pirated Byron's Cain and to have published anything anyone was likely to object to.
Bendiner, Robert. "The FCC--Who Will Regulate the Regulators?" Reporter, 17:26-30, 19 September 1957. B176
A criticism of the FCC, an agency administered by men who are reluctant to regulate--"A regulatory system of regulation by anti-regulators." Reference is made to the investigation of FCC by the House Subcommittee on Legislative Oversight.
Benenson, Peter. A Free Press. London, Fabian Society, 1961. 36p. (Fabian Research Series, 223) B177
A discussion of freedom of the press in relation to the individual, the state, the newspaper owners, the journalists, and the advertisers.
-------. "The Law's Pressures on the British Press." IPI Report (International Press Institute), 11:1-2, January 1963. B178
A British lawyer comments, generally in agreement, on the charges made by Cecil Harmsworth King in a report of the General Council of the Press, that the British press operates under oppressive legal censorship.
Benét, Stephen Vincent. They Burned the Books. New York, Farrar and Rinehart, 1942. 25p. (Reprinted in Wilson Library Bulletin, May 1945, and in Benét, We Stand United )B179
A radio play, written at the request of the American Writers' War Board to remind the world of the declaration of war against mankind that took place 10 May 1933. On this date the Nazis made a bonfire of 25,000 books in which men had set down their belief in themselves.
[Benjafield, John, plaintiff]. Statement of Facts, together with the Trial of the Printer and Proprietor of the "County Chronicle" for a libel, 22nd December 1812. Bury Saint Edmunds, Eng., [1813]. B180
Benjafield, former publisher of the paper, brought suit against the present publisher J. Wheble, for accusing him of accepting a government annuity for suppressing information. Benjafield lost the suit.
Benjamin, Harry. "Sex Censorship in Medicine." Sex and Censorship, 2:4-16, Spring 1958. B181
Benjamin, Hazel C. "Lobbying for Birth Control." Public Opinion Quarterly, 2:48-60, January 1938. B182
A description of techniques used by the National Committee on Federal Legislation for Birth Control during the years leading up to the decision of the Second Circuit Court of Appeals in the case of U.S. v. One Package. . . , dismissing a federal libel suit against contraceptive materials.
Benn, Sir Ernest J. P. The BBC Monopoly. London, Individualist Bookshop, 1941. 23p. (Post-war Questions, no. 6) B183
A British publisher criticizes the British Broadcasting Corporation as a government monopoly that tends to standardize opinion. While crediting the BBC with doing a good job in an impossible task, he recommends legislation to insure effective competition in the radio broadcasting industry.
Bennett, Arnold. "Censorship by the Libraries." In his Books and Persons . . . London, Chatto & Windus, 1917, pp. 167-77; 181-94. B184
A collection of satirical comments originally appearing in The New Age during the hubbub caused by British circulating libraries setting up a censorship committee to screen current novels. Comments on the committee's passing of Elinor Glyn's novel, His Hour, also elicit a satirical essay (pp. 271-77). The suppression of passages in certain editions of Oscar Wilde's De Profundis is discussed on pp. 217-21.
-------. ["On Censorship"]. Authors' League Bulletin, 15(1):18, April 1927. B185
"I regard censorship as a great nuisance to a respectable dramatist, but as a smaller nuisance than the absence of censorship." Some controls over drama are necessary and the present British system works fairly well.
-------. "The Public and the Censor." Harper's Weekly, 59:508-10, 28 November 1914. B186
Bennett offers suggestions for ways to comprehend the principles on which the wartime censorship works so that the British public may be able to judge facts accurately concerning the war and not "live in a world of illusions."
Bennett, De Robigné M. Anthony Comstock; His Career of Cruelty and Crime. A Chapter from "The Champions of the Church" by D. M. Bennett. New York, Liberal and Scientific Publishing House, 1878, pp. 1009-1119. B187
"Those who in the name of morality and the Christian religion have been persecuted and annoyed." Bennett cites 26 cases prosecuted by Comstock: Charles Mackey, James Sullivan, Leander Fox & Sons, Mrs. Woodhull and Miss Claflin, George Francis Train, John A. Lant, Mr. Simpson, Hunter & Co., David Massey, Dr. John Botts, Mr. Kendell, Mr. Weil, Dr. William Morrison, Charles Conroy, Dr. E. B. Foote, Dr. E. C. Abbey, John Manning, A. Prosch, Charles F. Blandin, Louis Wengenrath, Edgar W. Jones, E. H. Heywood, D. M. Bennett, Frank Rivers, Edward W. Baxter, and Madam Restell. The cases range from the criminal abortionist and pornographer to the respectable bookseller and the sex educator.
-------. Eighth and Last Letter from Ludlow Street Jail, Where Obscenity Is. New York, D. M. Bennett, 1879. 79p. (Truth Seeker Tracts, no. 162) B188
-------. From Behind the Bars; a Series of Letters Written in Prison, by D. M. Bennett . . . Imprisoned Ostensibly for Depositing Prohibited Matter in the Mail, but Really for Entertaining and Speaking His Honest Convictions. New York, Liberal and Scientific Publishing House, 1879. 565p. B189
A collection of letters, most of which were published in Bennett's paper, Truth Seeker.
-------. Letters from the Albany Penitentiary. By the Editor of the Truth Seeker, While Serving Out an Unjust Sentence. New York, D. M. Bennett, 1880. Various paging. (Four of the letters are Truth Seeker Tracts, nos. 165-68) B190
-------. An Open Letter to Samuel Colgate Touching the Conduct of Anthony Comstock and the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice. New York, D. M. Bennett, 1879. 93p. B191
For more than 20 years Colgate, a soap manufacturer, was president of the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice.
-------. Trial of D. M. Bennett in the United States Circuit Court, Judge Charles L. Benedict, Presiding, New York, March 18, 19, 20 and 21, 1879, upon the Charge of Depositing Prohibited Matter in the Mail . . . New York, Truth Seeker Office, 1879. 189p. B192
Bennett was the iconoclastic editor of the Truth Seeker, a weekly paper devoted to free thought and a crusade against the vice societies. Anthony Comstock considered Bennett the embodiment of all that was vile and blasphemous. In 1878 Bennett, then aged 60, was arrested for selling a copy of Ezra Heywood's Cupid's Yokes, a birth control pamphlet. He was convicted of mailing obscene matter and sentenced to 13 months at hard labor. His case became a cause celébré for liberals and Bennett achieved the martyrdom he seemed to be seeking. Broken in health, Bennett died within a year and a half of his release.
Bennett, Edward H. An Investigation of Censorship in the Libraries of Massachusetts. Boston, School of Library Science, Simmons College, 1953. 43p. (Unpublished Master's thesis) B193
[Bennett, George C.]. The Strong-Bennett Libel Suit. Senator Demas Strong v. George C. Bennett. Proprietor Brooklyn Daily Times. Damages Claimed, $10,000, as Found by the Jury, Six Cents . . . Brooklyn, 1866. 151p. B194
The charge against Bennett was for accusations of bribery which appeared in his Brooklyn paper.
Bennett, James O. Deceiving the Whole World. American Newspaper Men Arrested in London for Telling the Truth about Germany--A Personal Letter. Chicago, The Chicago Tribune, 1914. 4p. (Reprinted from the Chicago Tribune, 6 October 1914) B195
Bennett, a Chicago Tribune correspondent, was later criticized by George Creel, chairman of the wartime Committee on Public Information, for sending pro-German cables from Stockholm.
Benson, Allan L. "Press Not Free to Give True Information to the People." Pearson's Magazine, 28(6):97-106, December 1912. B196
"The Federal Constitution guarantees free speech and a free press but we have neither. We have free speech just so long as it pleases city councils--and no further. We have free speech so long as we say nothing that displeases the men who run our towns--that's all. Our press is free of oppressive laws, but it is a long way from being free of advertisers. No newspaper prints much that would hurt a big advertiser . . . --Editors." The article accuses the press of protecting wealthy businessmen, of not telling the truth about political candidates, failure to inform the public of a lack of fire safety in department stores, accepting political subsidies (small town papers), suppressing facts about socialists and radicals. "Every line of politics they read in their newspapers should be read with suspicion. If it does not contain outright lies it probably at least suppresses the truth."
Bensusan, S. L. "Ghouls and Garbage in Literature." Contemporary Review, 188:336-39, November 1955. B197
An attack on the writers who besmirch the reputations of deceased famous persons and the publishers who publish such "garbage."
Bent, Silas. Ballyhoo: The Voice of the Press. New York, Boni, Liveright, 1927. 398p. B198
A debunking account of the pressures that influence American journalism. Chapters 14 and 15 relate to the press and state.
-------. Newspaper Crusaders; a Neglected Story. New York, Whittlesey House, 1939. 313p. B199
Includes chapters on Colonial newspaper editors who fought for freedom, editors who were persecuted under the Alien and Sedition Acts, and editors who were martyrs in the fight against slavery.
Bentham, Jeremy. The Elements of the Art of Packing, as applied to Special Juries, particularly in Cases of Libel Law. London, Effingham Wilson, 1821. 269p. (Also in his Works, Edinburgh, William Tait, 1843, vol. 5, pp. 65-186) B200
Bentham attacked the system of keeping a corps of special jurors who were paid by and took their orders from the agents of the Crown. The jury packing was an issue in the libel trials of John Horne Tooke and T. J. Wooler. When Bentham's work was first published in 1821, a note in the edition indicated that the work had been printed many years earlier (1809) but "circumstances prevented its being at that time exposed to sale." If the causes of the suppression were brought to view, the note states, "those causes would afford a striking illustration of the baneful principles and practices [this work] is employed in unveiling."
-------. "Liberty and Licentiousness of the Press." In his Book of Fallacies. London, John Hunt, 1824. (Also in his Works, Edinburgh, William Tait, 1843, vol. 2, pp. 451-53, "Sham Distinctions") B201
Bentham attacks the "sham popular distinction" between "liberty" and "license." Licentiousness of the press, he points out, is charged when suppression is to the advantage of the government. Liberty of the press is the right of any expression that does not inconvenience those in power.
-------. On the Liberty of the Press, and Public Discussion. London, Printed for William Hone, 1821. 38p. (Also in his Works, Edinburgh, William Tait, 1843, vol. 2, pp. 275-97) B202
This philosopher, jurist, and political theorist took an active part in the struggle for a free press during the last decade of his life, defending both Carlile and Cobbett, though he disagreed with many of the ideas of the former and personally disliked the latter. The present work is written in the form of a series of letters to the Spanish people in opposition to a proposed censorship law. The letters were not delivered in time to prevent the objectionable law from passage, but the pamphlet was widely distributed in England. In his Fragment on Government, Bentham took issue with Blackstone's limited concept of a free press. He believed a man should be free to "make known his complaints and remonstrances to the whole community" and that the people should "practice every mode of opposition short of actual revolt, before the executive power can be legally justified in disturbing them."
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