Short Takes

> When she refused to tell a Pasco County, Fla., judge where she got information for a story on a grand-jury proceeding, St. Petersburg Times Reporter Lucy Ware Morgan was sentenced to five months in jail (TIME, Nov. 26). The Times's lawyers then appealed, arguing, among other things, that Mrs. Morgan's refusal to name sources might be considered an act of contempt only if she balked before the grand jury in question. Quick to oblige, State Attorney James T. Russell hauled Mrs. Morgan before the grand jury and again demanded her sources. She again declined but later had a partial change of heart. Last week she filed an affidavit naming "one of several" sources for her story: State Attorney James T. Russell. Mrs. Morgan claimed that Russell, who had subpoenaed her in the first place, had effectively "waived any right to confidentiality" through his persistent attempts to make her name names. Russell had no comment, but Mrs. Morgan's blockbuster has not extricated her from trouble. Still facing the sentence imposed by the judge, she now risks an additional contempt citation for refusing to identify all her sources before the grand jury.

> Where might the owner of the British weekly News of the World (circ. 6,000,000), the daily London Sun (circ. 2,600,000) and the Sydney Sunday Telegraph (circ. 622,000) surface next? Why San Antonio, naturally. Later this month Publishing Baron Rupert Murdoch, 42, will complete his $18 million purchase of the San Antonio morning Express (circ. 84,000) and evening News (circ. 63,000), sister dailies owned by Harte-Hanks Newspapers Inc. The choice of locale might seem odd for the ambitious Australian, who has specialized in reviving faltering papers with heavy doses of crime coverage, cheesecake and scandal. But Murdoch relishes competition, and San Antonio offers him a rousing circulation battle with the Light, a Hearst-owned afternoon daily. Wary Light officials have already begun huffing about "foreign ownership" in their city, despite Murdoch's pledge to "keep those newspapers steadfastly American." Whatever the outcome, Murdoch's San Antonio properties will give him a toehold in the U.S. that he plans to enlarge soon in a major way with the founding of a national weekly tabloid paper. Slated for introduction in the Northeast in February, Murdoch's National Star will, he promises, "fall somewhere between TIME and the National Enquirer in content and approach." He obviously wants a good deal of latitude in which to navigate.

> The television networks have been roundly criticized in recent years for cutting back on news documentaries, and the lackluster performance of local stations has drawn equal pummeling. But this year's Alfred I. duPont Awards in Broadcast Journalism (administered by Columbia University's Graduate School of Journalism) suggest that TV's flight from aggressive stories has gone into reverse, most noticeably at the local level. The jurors found so much to praise that they bestowed eleven citations in addition to nine regular awards. Of the total, 13 went to single TV or radio stations. In a report released this week, Awards Director Marvin G. Barrett emphasized the good news: "Five years ago there was one local documentary which the DuPont jurors found comparable in scope and technique to the best network product. This year there were dozens." The Columbia jurors, Barrett reported, found local stations taking on tough subjects--"the energy crisis, pollution, land use, law-and-order, urban decay, minorities, TV journalism itself"--and giving them "a human dimension, an originality and freshness, a broad-mindedness along with a specificity" that more generalized network programs rarely achieve. Given the hostility of Government, commercial sponsors and some program managers to on-the-air controversy, Barrett could only link the improvement to the "persistence, courage and increasing skill" of broadcast journalists--and to the growing willingness of the U.S. public "to sit still and pay attention."

> It has never been a secret that some American reporters working abroad maintain symbiotic relationships with the Central Intelligence Agency. In the shared quest for fresh information, correspondents and CIA agents have been known to swap tips to their mutual benefit. Recently, the Washington Star-News revealed that some 40 U.S. journalists--mostly freelance writers and "stringers" who work part-time for one or more employers--have been on the CIA payroll as undercover informants. Some are full-time agents using journalism as a cover. Only five of the 40 were said to be regular staffers for large news organizations. Still, the news raised eyebrows and caused some editors to wonder if that odd stringer who contributes occasional stories from spook-crowded environs like the Caribbean and Eastern Europe might be accepting more than news tips from the CIA. The agency, of course, named no names. But in response to questions, the CIA assured the Star-News, New York Times and TIME, among others, that their correspondents were not involved.

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