In the Public Interest

The Reaganites have found a new bugaboo and, together with a number of exporting corporations and right-wing ideologues, are whipping up a storm. The object of their hysteria is a mild set of consumer protection guidelines proposed by the United Nations Economic and Social Council for adoption later this year. These voluntary principles are, in…

Washington –So far the signs are not auspicious for much media coverage of Ben Bagdikian new book (released June 1) “The Media. Monopoly”, (Beacon Press, Boston). As the most penetrating, specific and reflective book on both the electronic and print media in many a year, the industry of journalism should be buzzing over its arrival.…

The fish processing ‘industry got away in the late Sixties when stronger federal health laws were passed regarding red meat and poultry products. Lively, graphic hearings were held before Senator Warren Magnuson’s Senate Commerce Committee on diseased and contaminated fish. But the result was a standstill between consumer advocates of mandatory inspection of fish plants…

Sometimes revolutions are neither heard nor seen; they are only felt. Looking at the placid processions during the graduation ceremonies of the nation’s largest universities in recent days, there is no hint of the convulsive changes going on at these institutions. But the American people will feel the consequences of the increasing corporate control over…

Think of the images associated with the modern semiconductor industry, most prominently associated with Silicon Valley in California. Workers with white gowns, head coverings and gloves manufacturing chips in a well-lighted, dust free workplace replete with the latest ventilation systems are the pictures which come to mind. Now a report has just been published in…

Senator Jennings Randolph (D-WV) has one more wish before he completes his four decades in the U.S. Congress at the end of this year. He wants to see the Congress enact legislation establishing a United States Academy of Peace. The burly lawmaker started in the House of Representatives in 1933. He has seen the effects…

All over the country the Bell operating companies want you to pay for your local telephone service on the same basis that you pay for long distance telephone calls. Instead of the “flat rate” monthly bill that most residential customers receive, these telephone companies are planning for local calls to be measured according to how…

The House Judiciary Committee is in the midst of hearings inquiring about the low quality of competition in the insurance industry. Forty years ago this powerful industry rushed through Congress a law called the McCarran-Ferguson Act, without any public hearings, to exempt the insurance industry from the federal antitrust laws except for actions of industry…

Owen Bieber, the new leader of the United Auto Workers (UAW), denouncing the huge bonuses which the top auto executives are receiving. He thinks such big bucks are going to make his members more demanding when the UAW opens contract negotiations the the auto companies in July. The bonuses are big — by any standard.…

There are over 12 million students at colleges and Universities and over 99 percent of the national television time devoted to them covers their athletic activities. A Martian visiting this country would conclude from the televised athletic contests that higher education is dribbling, throwing and batting and very little. But there is much more that…