- H.R. Manley: Mother, do you realize what I have done? Do you have any conception of the size of my accomplishment? In less than two short years, I have built up the biggest newsstand circulation of any magazine in America. And you ask me to walk away from it because of a few stupid remarks on a television program?
- Mrs. Manley: You don't really think it's really one TV program? Why, this has been going on for nearly two years... ever since you started the magazine. You have been constantly rebuffed... constantly attacked. And it makes me feel ashamed. I don't want to be ashamed of my son.
- H.R. Manley: Mother, you have nothing to be ashamed of. I am giving the people of this country something they... something they not only want but something they need. I'm giving them the truth. Every month more than 5 million of them walk up to their newsstands. They're not bribed... they're not threatened. They come because they want what I have to sell.
- Mrs. Manley: That same argument could be advanced by the people who sell opium to the Chinese persons.
- H.R. Manley: The truth is not an opiate. The truth never really hurt anyone.
- Mrs. Manley: It didn't do Governor Chetnam's daughter much good.
- H.R. Manley: Governor Chetnam's daughter did not attempt suicide because of anything I said about her. She did it because neurotic, sick, weak people are always attempting to find an excuse to... to dramatize themselves in the eyes of the world. If she hadn't used me, she would have found another. Some day she will find another excuse. Will I be at fault then?
- Mrs. Manley: I'm no prophet. I can't predict what will happen. But I do know what has happened.
- Allen J. 'Frank' Frederick: [Speaking on television] Our fourth and final panel member tonight is Mr. Frank Grover, the well-known crusading editor of the New York Evening Globe. Mr. Grover is filling in for H.R. Manley, editor and publisher of Real Truth magazine who, because of sudden illness, was forced to cancel his scheduled guest appearance. Now then, gentlemen, I think...
- Frank Grover: One moment please.
- Allen J. 'Frank' Frederick: Yes, Mr. Grover,
- Frank Grover: I'd like to explain Mr. Manley's sudden illness. The fact is that when I was asked to appear on this panel, I said I would be glad to do so on the condition that Manley was replaced. I insisted on this for a very simple reason. I am a publisher. I 'm proud of it. I won't sit on the same platform with a man who is dirtying my profession.
- Allen J. 'Frank' Frederick: Well, that certainly kicks us off into the subject of tonight's discussion, doesn't it? Now, Mr. Grover, you've used some rather, uh, strong language in relation to Mr. Manley and his magazine.
- Frank Grover: Not nearly as strong as I would like to use if we were off the air.
- [Audience laughter]
- Frank Grover: That was not intended as a joke. If our drinking water was being poisoned, none of us would think it funny. Why should we laugh at something that is doing us the same kind of damage?
- H.R. Manley: Nothing you have said alters the basic issue... which is the truth.
- Connie Martin: Mr. Manley, do you have any children?
- H.R. Manley: Unfortunately, no. But I can tell you one thing, Mrs. Martin, if I had children, I certainly wouldn't want them going around thinking their... their current TV hero is a god, when the fact is he's a convicted felon.
- Scott Ethan Martin: [Excited] I can't take it all in. You know, it's a funny thing, Seth. You... you push and you push and you push... and then one day when you're so tired and you... you think you can't push any more, suddenly it busts open, you've made it. You're in!
- H.R. Manley: [after the little boy leaves] 'That's a fine man. Fine boy. That's a new wrinkle. Never before have I had anyone bring in a small boy to plead a case.
- Seth Jackson: If you print that story on Scott Martin, you'll be ruining a family. I thought I'd show you a sample of what you would be ruining.
- H.R. Manley: The truth never ruined anyone. It's a rotten world full of rotten people. The sooner that boy realizes it, the better for him. Why should he go through life believing his father is a Galahad when you and I know he is nothing but an ex-convict who cut up a defenseless, innocent man in an attempt to rob him.
- Seth Jackson: You've taken the trouble to dig back through Scott Martin's life to the place where he did that terrible thing at 19. Between then and now he has done a lot of other things. They're all pretty good.
- Seth Jackson: If you set that music, I'm sure you'll enjoy quite a sale at the record shops.
- Scott Ethan Martin: It might interest you to know, Mr. Manley, that since you put that loaded gun to my head, my wife and I have talked about nothing else. We've discussed it back and forth, up and down, around and across til the words stopped meaning anything. We've talked at each other in a way we never dreamed was possible before you entered our lives. But it's not a dream, Mr. Manley, it's all true, thanks to you. This morning my wife took my boy and they moved over to her mother's house, so no matter what else happens in this thing you already have the credit for that. I thought I'd learned all there was to learn about dirt when I was a kid back in Brooklyn. But you are a new kind of dirt. You... you come all dolled up in $300 suits. You live on Park Avenue. You work in any office as big as a skating rink. You don't look like dirt. You look like someone a kid ought to get up for when you come into a room. You've got the whole country sitting on the edge of a cliff holding their breath, wondering who's the next guy you'll decide to shove over. Well, I don't mind being shoved over. Not anymore. The worst that could happen to me has already happened. Even before you've printed a word, I've got nothing more to lose.
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