Page 90 - Historical Dictionary of Political Communication in the United States

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LIBEL
SOURCE: Jay M. Shafritz, The HarperCollins Dictionary of American Government and
Politics, 1992.
Jacqueline Nash Gifford

LEMMON, WALTER S. (1895-1967) pioneered "educational" radio pro-
gramming for a worldwide audience. In 1934, he organized and became head
of the noncommercial World Wide Broadcasting Foundation, which operated
shortwave station W1XAL, located outside Boston. The call letters were
changed to WRUL (World Radio University) in 1939. The station at that time
did not carry advertising and relied on corporate donations and listener support.
WRUL stressed English-language training programs. It also featured aviation,
poetry, world affairs, music, astronomy, and natural sciences programs. The
station relied heavily on faculty and students at universities in the Boston area
for program production. Throughout the 1930s, the Department of State and
other government agencies were uneasy about shortwave stations in private
hands, seeing them as central to U.S. efforts to counter fascist government pro-
paganda in Europe and Latin America. With the notable exception of WRUL,
most international shortwave stations featured entertainment fare. During the war
years, WRUL programming supported the Allied cause, and the station was
often singled out for criticism in Nazi propaganda. By 1942, WRUL was pro-
ducing programming in 24 languages. Despite Lemmon's unquestioned loyalty,
during late 1942 he and other shortwave broadcasters were pressed to lease their
facilities to the government so that government agencies could centralize the
war effort. These lease efforts are recognized as the roots of the Voice of Amer-
ica. Lemmon was the only broadcaster who steadfastly refused to arrange lease
terms.
On November 5, the Board of War Communications, acting on an executive
order, took the drastic step of issuing an order of closure on WRUL. Lemmon
reconciled himself to the wartime takeover and continued to operate WRUL
with programming furnished by government agencies. He regained WRUL in
1947 and in 1950 accepted commercial advertising. Lemmon relinquished own-
ership of the station in 1960, selling it to the Metropolitan Broadcasting Cor-
poration.

SOURCES: Andre J. E. Mostert, Jr., "A History of WRUL: The Walter S. Lemmon
Years, 1931 to 1960," M.A. thesis, Brigham Young University, 1969; "Nazi Hate and
Fear WRUL: Propaganda from the U.S.A.," Life, December 15, 1941, p. 43; "Walter
Lemmon, Inventor, Is Dead," New York Times, March 21, 1967, p. 46.
Michael B. Salwen

LIBEL is written defamation. A plaintiff in a libel case must prove three things:
1. Publication, which covers not only print media but also broadcast media. It also has
been held by courts to apply to letters where person A writes to person B about per-
son C.