NBC, and Gulf Oil, the program’s sponsor. Network officials stated that they were helpless to interfere, citing Rogers’ First Amendment rights, but two weeks later NBC Radio censored all mention of race, segregation, or lynching from a show about the twenty-fifth anniversary of the NAACP. Wilkins cranked up the telegrams again, but NBC found a way out of the crossfire: Will Rogers switched to the more acceptable term “darky,” and shows dealing with the NAACP ceased to be heard on NBC.
Even TV has racist roots.
