Howard K. Smith: News and Comment

Synopsis

Howard K. Smith: News and Comment was a half-hour ABC news and documentary program hosted by commentator Howard K. Smith, which aired from February 14, 1962, to June 16, 1963. It was broadcast at the 10:30 Eastern time slot on Sundays opposite CBS's long-running quiz show, What's My Line?, hosted by John Charles Daly, himself the first ever ABC News anchorman. In 1961, Smith left CBS News because of a dispute about a documentary that he produced on police violence against civil rights demonstrators in Birmingham, Alabama. He then joined ABC, where his contract stipulated that neither the network nor sponsors could interfere with the content of his program. While at CBS, Smith hosted the documentary program Behind the News with Howard K. Smith for twenty-one weeks from January 11 to September 20, 1959. Selected episodes focused on communism in Cuba, the status of Berlin, the Cold War, Charles de Gaulle, Nikita Khrushchev, unemployment in depressed areas, and the St. Lawrence Seaway. Smith's News and Comment began early in 1962. On November 11, five days after mid-term elections were held on November 6, Smith broadcast a program entitled "The Political Obituary of Richard M. Nixon", which proved highly controversial as well as premature. He included an interview with Nixon nemesis Alger Hiss, the Cold War convicted perjurer from Massachusetts, as well as remarks from Nixon loyalist Murray Chotiner. Some said that Smith's program in the long-run benefited Nixon's six-year political comeback because there was a backlash of sympathy caused by Hiss's appearance.