Ipse Dixit

Charlie Manna (October 6, 1920 to November 9, 1971) was an Italian-American standup comedian from New York, who was popular in the 1960s. He often appeared on television variety shows, and performed at venues in New York and elsewhere.

In 1966, Manna released an LP titled "The Rise & Fall of the Great Society on Verve Records. The record consisted of 9 comedy routines. This is the first, titled "Supreme Court." It satirizes the Supreme Court's obscenity jurisprudence of the 1960s, especially its decision in A Book Named "John Cleland's Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure" v. Attorney General of Massachusetts, 383 U.S. 413 (1966), better known as the "Fanny Hill" case.

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In the 1940s and early 50s, Republican Senator Joseph McCarthy of Wisconsin ((November 14, 1908 to May 2, 1957) was the face of the United States government's anti-communist crusade known as the "Red Scare." His tendency to make reckless and unsubstantiated accusations became known as "McCarthyism."

In 1953, McCarthy became the Chair of the Senate Committee on Government Operations, which included the Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations. McCarthy used the Subcommittee to investigate the presence of communists in the United States Government, including in the United States Army. In response, the Army accused McCarthy of seeking special treatment for Private G. David Schine, a consultant to the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations and close friend of Roy Cohn, chief counsel to the Subcommittee.

The Senate decided to use McCarthy's own committee to investigate the conflicting allegations. The hearings were held from April 22 to June 16, 1954, and became known as the "Army-McCarthy Hearings." They were broadcast nationwide, and led to McCarthy's disgrace and censure by the Senate.

On January 14, 1964, filmmaker Emile de Antonio released the documentary film "Point of Order!", which consisted entirely of edited Kinescope footage of the Army-McCarthy Hearings. The idea for the movie was suggested by Daniel Talbot, who co-produced it with de Antonio.

The movie was very successful, and this LP was released later in 1964. It consists of excerpts from the soundtrack of the movie, as well as additional narration by the television journalist Eric Sevareid.

While the Army-McCarthy Hearings are remembered primarily as the beginning of the end of the Red Scare, they also reflect a profound homophobia on both sides, which is quite uncomfortable today.

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Adam Clayton Powell Jr. (November 29, 1908 to April 4, 1972) was an American politician, who represented Harlem in the United States House of Representatives from 1945-71. He was the first African-American to represent New York in Congress, and the fourth African-American elected to Congress in the 20th century. He was also a Baptist pastor.

Powell became a prominent leader in the civil rights movement in the 1930s, leading picket lines and boycotts. In 1941, he became the first African-American elected to the New York City Council. In 1944, he was elected to Congress on a civil rights platform. In the 1950s, he became well-known for introducing "Powell Amendments" to legislation, which would deny federal funds to segregated jurisdictions.

In January 1967, the House Democratic Caucus, dominated by southern whites, voted 307 to 116 to exclude Powell from the House, on the basis of corruption allegations. In response, Powell asked his constituents to "Keep the Faith, Baby." He won the special election to fill his seat, and in June 1969, the Supreme Court held in Powell v. McCormack that the House's exclusion of Powell was unconstitutional. However, in 1970, Powell lost his seat to Charles Rangel.

In January 1967, Powell released this LP, responding to his critics. The album is titled, "'Keep the Faith, Baby!", Adam Clayton Powell's Message to the World, Dateline: January 1967, An Exclusive Live Recording."

Side 1:

1. Keep the Faith, Baby
2. My Dear Colleagues
3. Handwriting on the Wall

Side 2:

1. Burn, Baby, Burn
2. Death of Any Man
3. One Day

The album was produced by Jerry and Steve Blaine, and released by Jubilee Records.

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From the 1950s through the 1970s, it was common for large corporations to stage elaborate theatrical productions celebrating their business and products, often referred to as "industrial musicals." This LP is a recording of the musical numbers from an industrial musical produced by IBM in 1968. The full title of the album is, "Midwestern Region 1967 Hundred Percent Club, February 11-14, Chicago." The album was produced by MWR [Midwestern Region] Promotional Services, and performed by the "MWR Quintet": Don Bradshaw, Pat Creadon, Wayne Cook, Pete Jorgensen, and John Sirich. An amusing relic of mid-century industrial policy.

Side 1:

1. Overture
2. Opening Medley
3. Better Tomorrow
4. How To
5. Thoroughly Modern IBM
6. Think Big

Side 2:

1. Leading Salesmen
2. Captain IBM
3. Proposal
4. Ode to District Manager
5. Finale

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In early September 1973, Syntonic Research, Inc. or "SRI," released a 45rpm single titled "The Altered Nixon Speech." The A-side of the single consisted of a 1 minute audiotape collage of President Richard M. Nixon's August 15, 1973 speech on the Watergate break-in. The collage was created by Irv Taibel, the phonographer who created the "Environments" series of LPs of nature sounds. Using 140 tape splices, Taibel edited Nixon's words to create the following statement (adding some reverb to camouflage the cuts):

The B-side of the single provides the original elements from which Taibel constructed the collage. Here is the text of the original materials:

The A-side of the single includes this disclaimer:

And the B-side includes this offer:

Incidentally, Taibel often testified as an expert witness on magnetic tape technology.

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In this episode, Andrew Gilden, Assistant Professor of Law at Willamette University College of Law, discusses his article "Copyright's Market Gibberish," which will appear in the Washington Law Review. Gilden observes that while the dominant form of copyright rhetoric holds that copyright only protects economic interests, court actually allow many copyright owners to achieve non-economic goals. He argues that this misleading use of economic language - "market gibberish" - obscures the real normative decisions courts are making and effectively discriminates against those without market power. He suggests that copyright ought to be circumspect about economic rhetoric and more sensitive to legitimate privacy claims. Gilden is on Twitter at @andrew_gilden.

Keywords: Intellectual Property, Copyright, Right of Publicity, Estates, Property

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In 1961, Ronald Reagan, then the recently-resigned president of the Screen Actors Guild, recorded this LP on behalf of the American Medical Association. In the 1950s, the AMA launched "Operation Coffeecup," part of an effort to block the plans of the Democratic Party to extend Social Security to include health insurance for the elderly. The AMA encouraged the wives of its member doctors to organize coffee parties at which they could convince their friends to write letters to the Congress opposing government-provided health care.

The AMA recorded a 10 minute speech by Reagan specifically opposing a bill supported by Representative Cecil R. King of California intended to provide senior citizens with medical care, and released it as the record "Ronald Reagan Speaks Out Against Socialized Medicine," along with instructions about how to write a letter to Congress opposing the bill. Ultimately, the AMA's campaign was unsuccessful, and the Social Security Amendments of 1965 established what we now know as Medicare and Medicaid.

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In this episode, Howard M. Wasserman, Professor of Law at Florida International University College of Law, discusses his new book, "Infield Fly Rule Is in Effect: The History and Strategy of Baseball's Most Infamous Rule," which is published by McFarland and Company. Wasserman begins by describing how the oft-misunderstood infield fly rule actually works, what it is intended to accomplish, and why it was adopted. He then reflects on the 40+ year "legal history" of the rule, which began in 1975 with William S. Stevens, unsigned note in the University of Pennsylvania Law Review, "The Common Law Origins of the Infield Fly Rule," one of the few law review articles with its own Wikipedia page. Wasserman considers the infield fly rule in relation to the aesthetics of baseball and jurisprudence, and concludes that the rule is here to stay. Wasserman blogs at Prawfsblog.

Keywords: Sports, rules, baseball, Infield Fly Rule, cost-benefit, economics

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In this episode, Kate Klonick, Assistant Professor of Law at St. John's University School of Law, discusses her scholarship on the governance of private Internet platforms like Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. Klonick begins by discussing her influential article "The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech," which was published in the Harvard Law Review, in which she argued that private Internet platforms effectively must regulate speech internally and explored how they develop and enforce governance norms. And she continues by discussing her new essay, "Facebook v. Sullivan," in which she discusses how private Internet platforms like Facebook show balance privacy and free speech concerns in light of the principles they have borrowed from the Supreme Court's First Amendment jurisprudence. Klonick is on Twitter at @Klonick.

Keywords: online speech, private platforms, internet platforms, internet intermediaries

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In 1971, Clifford Irving wrote a sensational biography of the eccentric and reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, which Irving claimed was both authorized and co-authored by Hughes himself. In fact, it was a hoax, and Irving manufactured the book from whole cloth. But Hughes did not immediately deny co-authoring the book, leading many to believe it was genuine, including McGraw-Hill, which paid Irving a $765,000 advance for the right to publish it.

On January 7, 1972, Hughes held a "telephonic press conference" from his penthouse suite at the Xanadu Princess Resort on Grand Bahama Island, in which he denounced Irving's book and denied any involvement in its creation. Mark 56 released this LP of the press conference, which was produced by George Garabedian, with Wayne Thomis, the aviation editor for the Chicago Tribune, narrating and standing in for the journalists who questioned Hughes.

Irving was eventually convicted of fraud and spent 17 months in prison. In 1977, he published The Hoax, telling his version of the story. In 2006, Richard Gere starred in the movie The Hoax, which was also based on these events.

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