The People & the Papers

Because the freedom, responsibilities and mores of the U. S. Press are today a public issue, TIME Inc. last year undertook a nationwide survey of the Press, using its own reporters and the machinery of the FORTUNE polls. In its August issue, out this week, FORTUNE prints the results of that survey. They constitute, for the first time in the long history of the free-press debate, a comprehensive body of fact, showing what the people think of the Press. Notable findings:

> 36.2% of the People get most of their news from sources other than newspapers, one-fourth of them from the radio. The non-newspaper readers are mostly among the poor.

> Of the 63.8% who rely on the Press, one-third considers radio more accurate, two-thirds consider it less prejudiced. (A fact that is not remarkable since radio shies away from controversial subjects.

> The majority of People believes that publishers soft pedal unfavorable news about friendly politicians, personal friends, advertisers, business.

> 64.2% feel that the Press does not abuse its freedom; only 21.3% feel that it definitely does. Chief abuses they list: prejudice and politics (36%), sensationalism, exaggeration and distortion (30.8%).

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.