Tacoma's Censure

Last week the Nation agreed that Press and Radio had done a fine job on the 1937 Flood (see p. 17). But last week in Tacoma, the solid members of that town's Chamber of Commerce sat down to compose as grave a memorandum of censure as Press and Radio ever received from a responsible U. S. body. Grievance of the Tacoma businessmen was the handling by newsgatherers for ink & air of the kidnap-murder of 10-year-old Charles Mattson (TIME, Jan. 18). Sternly the Chamber of Commerce members agreed that newsmen had made "gross mistakes that many people believe may have prevented the return of this child, unharmed," listed what they thought were some of the worst errors:

The shadowing of the home--day and night--by a corps of newspaper men, making contact difficult. . . . The incessant trailing of Dr. Mattson [father] on his visits around the city, by these same newspaper men. . . . Unwarranted and untruthful emphasis on the words "mansion" and "rich." . . . Daily radio broadcasts by individuals who drew from their imaginations. . . . The publication by some newspapers of the alleged ransom note secured improperly, in all probability through bribery. . .

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