NBC’S WRIGHT SUGGESTS FORMING PAC

Robert C. Wright, NBC’s new president, has raised the possibility that the company might start a political action committee--and has been told that NBC News employees couldn’t participate in one should it ever be created.

“He understood that and supported that,” NBC News president Larry Grossman said Tuesday when asked about a memo that Wright wrote last month and sent to various NBC executives for comment.

“There was no confrontation,” Grossman added. “I made the point that the news division, by our definition and guidelines, would be precluded” from involvement in or contributing money to a political action committee.

“And his answer was, ‘Of course, obviously we can’t have the news division involved in that.’ He totally understood and was very responsive.”

The reason NBC News staffers couldn’t participate, Grossman said, is “that it’s inappropriate for journalists in any way to be in a position of being publicly--or even privately--partisan.”

Wright’s memo, in discussing the idea of a political committee to which NBC employees would contribute money, said in part that employees should recognize a need to invest “a portion” of their earnings to ensure that NBC is well represented in Washington.

And, it added: “Employees who elect not to participate in a giving program of this type should question their own dedication to the company and their expectations.”

Wright, a former General Electric executive who became head of NBC on Sept. 1, was not available at press time for comment on his memo, which an NBC spokesman said was sent to NBC’s chief attorney, Corydon B. Dunham, with copies sent to Grossman and others.

“What he (Wright) asked for was a report on the feasibility (of such a committee), on whether there’d be FCC (Federal Communications Commission) problems, and the pros and cons of forming such a committee,” said the spokesman, Curt Block.

He said that Dunham has not yet reported back to Wright, nor have any meetings been held on the memo. He said he didn’t know when such a meeting would be held. Dunham was reported out of town and unavailable for comment.

While General Electric, which bought NBC this year, has a political action committee, neither CBS nor ABC has one, although ABC is considering that as a possibility, an ABC official said.

“We’re in the process of looking at what would be appropriate for a company with a news division to do,” said Patty Matson, spokeswoman for ABC, which was purchased this year by Capital Cities Communications.

“However, we have not gotten into specifics.”

A source at the company said it would be highly unlikely that Cap Cities would try to form a political action committee, considering that it never had done that before.

“We don’t have a political action committee,” and have no plans to start one, said George Schweitzer, a CBS spokesman.

However, several broadcast groups and the National Assn. of Broadcasters have such committees, which seek to influence legislation and support candidates who are sympathetic to their particular causes.

James McKinney, chief of the FCC’s mass media bureau, said there is no law against a network forming a political action committee. However, he said there could be a problem if the committee’s political activities affected what the network airs.