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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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case the lid blew off. The other thing was I wanted to be able to tell, in a speech I was going to make to the N.A.B. [National Association of Broadcasters] in Chicago, at the convention -- I was going to tell the story of what was happening, and I wanted to be able to say that it was so serious that I convened the board of directors to endorse the decision I had made. I disclosed that to Pastore, because he was going to make a speech excoriating me, or CBS, for not cooperating and doing the right thing by the public.

The morning of his speech, or the morning of the day I thought he was going to make his remarks, I told him what I was going to do -- because I thought I owed it to him. If you can believe it, we were friends. He's the guy who helped me get the debate legislation.

Q:

I remember that.

Stanton:

So, this was an honest difference of opinion. I wanted to let him know I was going to go public, and that I was going to tell what I had done with my own board, etc. He didn't take it to the floor of the convention, and I didn't take it to the floor of the convention. I don't think a handful of our affiliates ever knew what had taken place. There wasn't any reason to blow the whistle on Pastore. I would have if he had gone public with it, but he was still doing it behind closed doors, and NBC and ABC didn't peep a word about it. I think maybe I told -- We had a little inner circle or an executive committee of our affiliates, and at a dinner I might have told them about it but it never got into the trade press or anything.

But, that was as close, I guess, as I came to really bringing the house down. No. There was another occasion. I guess it had to do with the debates. We had the Affiliates Advisory Board. See, we had over 200 affiliates. You could tell them things on a closed circuit, but it





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