The Press: What's the President Say?

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But last week Sullivan got his chance in a guest appearance on Manhattan radio station WMCA. He pointed out that Winchell has been calling Negro Singer Josephine Baker* pro-Fascist, Communist-guided, anti-Jewish and even anti-Negro since she charged that the Stork Club had refused to serve her food (TIME, Nov. 12). Cried Sullivan: "I despise Walter Winchell for what he has done to Josephine Baker. Long before [Senator] McCarthy came into the character-assassination racket, Winchell was one of [its] originators . . . This small-time vaudeville hoofer who never even got to the Palace . . . has developed into a small-time Hitler ... He has capitalized on the Big Lie . . ."

Winchell, who "has the audacity to give out sage opinions on foreign policy," has never set foot in any European country, "never even crossed the ocean ... A dangerously ill-informed man [of] tremendous egotism [and] great power unaccompanied by greatness or nobility of thinking . . ."

Winchell, who covers Broadway up to half the year from the sands of Miami, slapped off Sullivan's attack as if it were a beach fly. Said he loftily in Miami: "I didn't hear what Sullivan said. I do not want to engage in bouts with small-timers. I would rather hear what the President has to say about me."