Vanderbilt Television News Archive

(Studio) Upsurge in movement to ban certain books from libraries noted occurring after recent president election Adolf Hitler mentioned.
REPORTER: John Chancellor

(DC) Wisconsin community's battle over books examined; films shown. [Student Maggie SMITH - doesn't think anyone other than her parents can control her reading.] [Concerned Citizens spokesperson Charles SOLTERMAN - feels he has right to control other's lives.] Recent effort to purge school library by Solterman and his organization recalled. [SOLTERMAN - restates his right to censor other people's activities.] [Newspaper editor Gene CONRAD - equates situation with movement towards Third Reich.] American Library Association's findings with regard to ntnwide. censorship effort outlined; map shown. [ALA spokesperson Judith KRUG - says representatives of Moral Majority, fundamentalist ministers are putting pressure on libraries.] [Reverend Thomas WILLIAMS - calls public library's inventory obscene and pornographic.] Authors sought banned by Williams listed. [Librarian Kathy RUSSELL - notes purpose of library.] Efforts to gain access to circulation lists to discover reading preferences of indivs. noted; books and mags. targeted by self-styled censors listed, shown. [KRUG - thinks First Amendment is under attack.] [WILLIAMS - thinks God has given him an opportunity.] Incr. in such oppressive mvts. since president election by Moral Majority and others noted.
REPORTER: Gene Pell