Frank Stanton (executive)

Frank Nicholas Stanton (March 20, 1908 – December 24, 2006) was an American broadcasting executive who served as the president of CBS between 1946 and 1971 and then as vice chairman until 1973. He also served as the chairman of the Rand Corporation from 1961 until 1967. During World War II, he consulted for the Office of War Information, the Secretary of War, and the Department of the Navy, while serving as a vice president at CBS. He was selected as the administrator-designate of the Emergency Communications Agency, part of a secret group created by President Eisenhower in 1958 that would serve in the event of a national emergency that became known as the Eisenhower Ten.

Career

Color television

Stanton helped lead the fight for color television. By 1950 CBS had been working on its field-sequential system of color TV for a decade. On October 11, 1950 the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) approved CBS's system as the first official color standard for commercial broadcasting in the U.S., although subsequent court challenges delayed actual commercial broadcasting until June 25, 1951.

On that day, Stanton appeared on an hour-long special, Premiere, with Robert Alda, Faye Emerson, Ed Sullivan, Arthur Godfrey, William S. Paley and others to introduce the CBS color system.

CBS color broadcasting only lasted for four months. CBS suspended it when the manufacture of color television receivers was halted by the US government as part of the Korean War effort. When the ban on color sets was rescinded in 1953, CBS announced that it had no plans to resume broadcasting using its field-sequential color system. A major problem with the CBS system was that the video was not "compatible" with existing black-and-white TV sets. A competing dot-sequential color system being developed by RCA was compatible, and in late 1953, the FCC switched its approval to an RCA-based system of broadcasting color TV.

1950s controversies

During the period of McCarthyism, Stanton created an office at CBS to review the political leanings of employees. Stanton and Paley "found it expedient to hire only those who were politically neutral" as they wished to avoid taking a position against the FCC and Congress or to jeopardize profit by taking "a stand against the vigilantes." According to radio historian Jim Cox, "CBS and the blacklisting became synonymous." Radio producer William N. Robson was one victim of the CBS purge; initially reassured by Stanton that his listing in the anticommunist Red Channels pamphlet would not mean the end of his career with CBS, Robson eventually found the executive office of CBS nonresponsive to his inquiries, and his earnings collapsed.

The Selling of the Pentagon

As president of CBS, Stanton's greatest battle with the government occurred in 1971, and focused on just this parallel to print press rights. The controversy surrounded "The Selling of the Pentagon," a CBS Reports documentary, which exposed the huge expenditure of public funds, partly illegal, to promote militarism. The confrontation raised the issue of whether television news programming deserved protection under the First Amendment.

The program came under intense criticism from two men who appeared on the program, from the House of Representatives, other media and some prominent politicians. Daniel Henkins, Undersecretary of Defense for Public Relations, charged that statements from his interview with Roger Mudd about his work had been doctored, as did Col. John MacNeil, who accused CBS of rearranging his comments in a speech he gave about the situation in Southeast Asia. The Investigations Subcommittee of the House Commerce Committee subpoenaed CBS's outtakes to determine whether or not distortion had taken place. Meanwhile, critics at the Washington Post and Time magazine, while not taking issue with the thesis of "Selling" that the Pentagon was engaging in propaganda, objected to the editing techniques employed in its production. The program was also criticized by Vice President Spiro Agnew and Secretary of Defense Melvin Laird. Stanton continued his relationship with CBS, contractually receiving at least $100,000 per year for consulting until 1988, plus office space, secretarial support, and other expenses. In 1975 Stanton held about 355,000 shares in CBS, then worth more than $18 million.

From 1969 to 1970, while still president of CBS, Stanton served on the Metropolitan Museum of Art's 100th Anniversary Committee.

Death and legacy

Stanton died in his sleep at his home in Boston on December 24, 2006, at the age of 98.

The Center for Communication in New York, founded by Stanton in 1980, presents a Frank Stanton Award annually to "individuals who exemplify achievement and excellence in any genre of mass communication". The Center's mission is to connect students of media to professionals in the industry. Stanton cofounded with Andrew Heiskell the Center for Public Policy in Telecommunication at the City University of New York.

The Frank Stanton Studios in Los Angeles house American Public Media's Marketplace Productions.

The Harvard School of Public Health established the Frank Stanton Directorship of the Center for Health Communication, with Dr. Jay Winsten as the incumbent.

The philanthropic Stanton Foundation was created upon his death.

In 2007, donations in undisclosed amounts were made on Stanton’s behalf to the Cooper Union college in New York City. The funds endowed the position of the college’s professor of design and contributed to the Cooper Union Building Fund.

On October 5, 2011 the Stanton Foundation awarded the Wikimedia Foundation $3.6 million, the foundation's largest-ever grant. The Frank Stanton Veterinary Spectrum of Care Clinic at the Ohio State University was named in his honor when it opened in spring 2021.

Accolades

1957: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1971: Paul White Award, Radio Television Digital News Association
1986: Television Hall of Fame
1990: National Radio Hall of Fame