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Frank StantonFrank Stanton
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-- and at 4:00, as I recall, went on a closed circuit to all of our affiliates, all over the country, and told them exactly what had happened: and that if they believed in getting this legislation through they should get on the phone with their congressmen, to make sure they would support the temporary change in rules -- not that they had to vote for it. Well, I wanted two things: I wanted them to support the Speaker, for having put it on the agenda, but the second thing was that when it came up, to support the change. The Senate had already done it, so we weren't asking for something crazy. I talked to every affiliate. It was easy to do it, because you just sent out a bulletin on the wire saying I was going to do a closed circuit, and they could go into their studio, alone or with anybody they wanted, and watch the thing. All I did was to tell what happened and how important it was to get the vote. By that time, all my Johnny-One-Note stuff, they knew what I was talking about and were pretty well adjusted to the idea of doing it.

So, within, I think, two days, I knew I had all the votes I needed to get the thing through. I guess somebody could say I took unfair advantage of the network in the sense that I could do that. But, would I let somebody else do that if they were in opposition to me? I expect, in fairness, I would have to say yes. But, I could have done the same thing by telephone. It's just that I was sitting there, in front of the camera, and it was a little more dramatic, I guess. But, there were other techniques for doing what I did. But, I certainly pressed technology to the limit by getting that quick response, because every television station that called its congressman and said, “This is important to me --” That was important to them, because that meant someday they'd get some time on the station that maybe they wouldn't ordinarily get.

So, these were the things that had to be done.





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