The Hutchins Commission's Search for a Moral Framework

Reluctant to Criticize: Media, Academia, and the Press Council Without a Home

“…In deliberations, Commission members talked of recommending that the organization be affiliated with a university, perhaps the University of Chicago, but ultimately opted not to mention the issue (Commission on Freedom of the Press, 1945aPress, , 1945b. After going back and forth, they also decided not to lay the groundwork for the organization themselves before disbanding (McIntyre, 1979).…”

“…Since a pioneering monograph by Margaret Blanchard (1977), scores of works have analyzed the Commission on Freedom of the Press. Of published works relying on primary sources, the most notable are the studies by Jerilyn S. McIntyre (1979, 1987), Stephen Bates (1995, 2018), and Victor Pickard (2015), as well as more narrowly focused works by Roger Simpson (1995), Jane S. McConnell (1997), David Goodman (2011), and Sam Lebovic (2016). In addition, Robert M. Hutchins is the subject of biographies by two associates, Harry S. Ashmore (1989) and Martin Mayer (1993).…”

Is This the Best Philosophy Can Do? Henry R. Luce andA Free and Responsible Press

“…The Commission on Freedom of the Press is the subject of a vast and venerable literature: reviews and commentary in scholarly journals in the 1940s (Desmond, 1947; Lee, 1947), Four Theories of the Press in the 1950s (Peterson, 1956), a monograph and a dissertation in the 1960s (Bryant, 1969; Murrill, 1962), and then a flood of studies starting in the 1970s and continuing through (so far) 2015 and 2016 (Lebovic, 2016; Pickard, 2015). Leading works of history include published accounts by Margaret A. Blanchard (1977), Jerilyn S. McIntyre (1979, 1987), Roger Simpson (1995), Stephen Bates (1995, 2009), Jane S. McConnell (1997), Brett Gary (2005), and Victor Pickard (2015), plus several master’s theses and PhD dissertations (Armitage, 2001; Blevens, 1995; Bryant, 1969; Fackler, 1982; Golike, 1995; Pickard, 2008; Weber, 1971). Many other scholars have discussed the Commission in the context of social-responsibility theory, including J.…”