Biden defended bid by segregationist Jesse Helms to gain control of CBS in 1980s: Report
Joe Biden in 1985 defended a controversial attempt by the late segregationist Sen. Jesse Helms to buy CBS News, according to a local news report from the time. Biden was speaking at a political forum at Jacksonville State University in northern Alabama when he weighed in on Helms’s attempt to take over the news network through a shareholder coup. During the event, Biden also stressed the importance of “fiscal conservatism,” according to the report. “Allowing each side the right to be involved in the process of disseminating information, Biden said he believed Jesse Helms has a right to try and buy CBS,” reported the Anniston Star on May 11, 1985.
Helms, who served in the senate for 30 years and passed away in 2003, launched a campaign to take over CBS News in 1985, arguing that the network was biased against conservatives. Fairness in Media, a conservative group affiliated with Helms, tried to organize 1 million supporters to purchase controlling stock in CBS. Helms penned a letter on behalf of Fairness in Media, which was sent to conservative donors in an attempt to raise money for the takeover of CBS, citing the network's "liberal bias." The network responded by suing Helms's group. In the lawsuit, CBS claimed that one of the Fairness in Media's founders, Helms's chief political strategist, Thomas F. Ellis, had previously run a white supremacy advocacy group, according to a Washington Post report from the time. A Biden campaign official said Biden was not arguing in favor of the takeover but rather that Helms had a right to do it. "Believing someone has the right to do something and believing someone should do that thing are very different," said the official.
A staunch conservative from North Carolina, Helms got his start in politics in 1950 as an aide to Sen. Willis Smith, who ran on a platform of racial segregation. Flyers for Smith’s 1950 campaign read: “White People Wake Up! … Do you want Negroes working beside you and your wife and daughter? … eating beside you in all public eating places? … If you don’t, vote for and help elect Willis Smith for senator.” Helms was also a vocal opponent of the Civil Rights Act, filibustered legislation to make Martin Luther King Day a national holiday, and argued that segregation was a states’ rights issue.
During Biden’s remarks at Jacksonville State University, the senator reportedly emphasized the importance of having a range of political views in the media. “Besides diverse views in the political process, Biden also encouraged diversity among the media that report on the process,” the paper reported. “He asked if a concentration of media outlets among a few parties, coupled with an increasing cost to start an outlet, were not an impingement itself on the freedoms of press and speech.” He also “characterized himself after the speech as part of ‘an emerging Democratic Party'" that was “more John Kennedy Democrats than George McGovern Democrats.” Biden described this as “a group of us that think you have to have a lot more fiscal conservatism” while also supporting civil rights. Biden was speaking at the Student Conference on American Government at the university, along with Alabama Sen. Howell Heflin.
https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/biden-defended-bid-by-segregationist-jesse-helms-to-gain-control-of-cbs-in-1980s-report
CBS filed suit Thursday against Sen. Jesse Helms' Fairness… UPI Archives Feb. 14, 1985
https://www.upi.com/Archives/1985/02/14/CBS-filed-suit-Thursday-against-Sen-Jesse-Helms-Fairness/3130477205200/