Page 139 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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SARNOFF, DAVID
Third, Safire is known as the king of "source wedging." Seizing one bit of
information about, for example, a closed policy meeting, he uses it to pry more
bits from others present until a coherent, if not necessarily completely accurate,
rendition of the "secret" proceedings is revealed. He is thus one of the most
powerful Washington columnists because he is able to disclose policy plans and
discussions that are inaccessible to other journalists.
Safire augments his persuasive vigor with sly self-depreciation. He is perhaps
the only citizen of the Beltway to admit that "sometimes everybody can be
wrong."
SOURCES: Steven Pinker, The Language Instinct, 1994; William Safire, "Pundit Bash-
ing," New York Times Magazine, May 27, 1990; William Safire, Safire's Political Dic-
tionary, 1993.
David C. Perlmutter

SARNOFF, DAVID (1891-1971) is respected as the father of American tele-
vision, starting the National Broadcasting Company (NBC) in 1926. Sarnoff,
born of Russian descent, started his broadcast career in the predecessor of broad-
casting—the telegraph. He was a messenger boy at the Commercial Cable Co.
and later worked for Marconi Wireless Telegraph Company.
But then a tragic event changed his life forever, as it did the rest of America.
He was the person who received the first news that the Titanic was sinking. His
smart, fast thinking and use of technology helped America and the rest of the
world gather information on the accident.
Sarnoff had his own ideas for the future of radio. He wanted to create the
first radio receiver and got his chance when he started to work for the Radio
Corporation of America (RCA) in 1928. He then led the company in creating
the first radio receivers, making millions of dollars. He later led efforts to create
radio programming, starting the National Broadcasting Company. Later he toyed
with television technology, even starting a small television station, but World
War II interrupted his plans. In the war, he was a communications consultant.
After the war, he returned to his idea of a television station, and once again
RCA led the revolution in new communications technology, creating television
receivers. He was instrumental in efforts to standardize color television tech-
nology in America.
SOURCES: Les Brown, Encyclopedia of Television, 1992; Contemporary Authors, vol.
113, 1985.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

SCHENCK. The decision in Schenck v. U.S. (1919) includes probably the most
widely quoted (and misquoted) statement from a Supreme Court decision. It is
the statement of Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that "the most stringent pro-
tection of free speech would not protect a man in falsely shouting fire in a
theater and causing a panic." What is frequently left out is the word "falsely."