“Whether the President wants it or not, there ought to be ‘more about that’ at the very next news conference,” commented the St. Louis Post Dispatch in a hard-hitting editorial. The editorial pointed out that in the face of rules that would make Adams’ contacts “improper,” President Eisenhower had “not only evaded a direct question about whether Mr. Adams’ intercession was improper but having evaded it, told Reporter Mollenhoff: ‘I don’t want anything more about that.’”
The Washington Post commented that President Eisenhower’s answer “gave a damning indictment of his own unfamiliarity with important national affairs yesterday in his fuzzy comments on the relationship of Sherman Adams to the Civil Aeronautics Board.
“For days there have been stories about the accusation by Dr. Bernard Schwartz that Mr. Adams in 1953 discussed the status of North American Airlines with the acting chairman of the CAB on behalf of the airlines counsel, Murray Chotiner. Yet Mr. Eisenhower said, almost incredibly, that he had never heard of the matter.”
The Post editorial concluded:
“Is it that Mr. Eisenhower just isn’t interested, or is it that Mr. Adams, who attempts to ease the Chief Executive’s burdens, filters what the President reads?”
Reports were already circulating in Washington that Sherman Adams had made some contacts at two other regulatory agencies on behalf of Bernard Goldfine, a wealthy New England industrialist. However, the claim of “executive privilege” still spread its protective covering over Sherman Adams and others at the White House. The officials of the regulatory agencies continued to refuse to give testimony on contacts with the White House. And, of course, at that stage Sherman Adams had no intention of giving public testimony.
Then, suddenly, the House investigation became a hot issue. Evidence was developed that Richard A. Mack, a member of the FCC, had been involved in some rather complicated financial dealings with a Miami attorney, Thurman A. Whiteside. Whiteside had loaned him money, and there was also an arrangement through an insurance firm which was putting a little extra money in Mack’s pocket. Whiteside checks totaling $2650 were received by Mack while he was on the FCC, and Whiteside also gave him a one-sixth interest in an insurance company that sold $20,000 worth of insurance to one of the applicants in the FCC case involving Miami Channel 10.
This case was to lead to the indictment of Mack and Whiteside for alleged conspiracy to fix the award by FCC on Miami Channel 10. Mack was forced to resign from the FCC after a pathetic appearance before the House Legislative Oversight Subcommittee.
In the criminal trial, Mack admitted receiving financial help and “loans” from Whiteside, but contended that it had nothing to do with the award of Channel 10 in Miami to Public Service Television, Inc. Mack contended it was merely an extension of the favors Whiteside had given him since they were boyhood friends. The first trial ended in a hung jury.
The former FCC member never went to trial again. In court he was described as ill and alcoholic, and unable to stand the ordeal of a trial.