Former CBS President Dr. Frank Stanton, who helped mold the company into a symbol of excellence reflected in its "Tiffany Network" nickname and whose public stances on broadcasting issues, especially broadcast journalism, critically shaped an entire industry, died yesterday (24) at home. He was 98 and lived in Boston.

           Stanton is regarded as one of the greatest executives in the history of electronic communications and one of the television industry's founding fathers. He was the master builder of CBS, turning an also-ran radio network into a broadcasting powerhouse under company architect and founder William S. Paley, who appointed him president in 1946. Stanton held the title for 25 years -- longer than any network television head. Stanton was also a pioneering advertising researcher, inventing the first radio advertising audience counting device -- a precursor of today's "people meter" -- to give CBS an early competitive edge with sponsors.  But his biggest contributions to the industry and the society it served were his staunch efforts to defend freedom of speech whenever it was assailed and assuring that the new medium of television fulfilled its responsibility to broadcast in the public interest.

           Stanton's most public fight for free speech came near the end of his tenure as president when he stood up to the U.S. government in a First Amendment battle that became a landmark case.  He defied a U.S. House of Representatives subpoena for outtakes of a CBS News documentary in a move that solidified his status as the leading defender of broadcast journalism's equal status with print under the First Amendment.  Likening them to print reporters' notebooks, he told the full U.S. House in front of a television audience that he would not turn over outtakes from "CBS Reports: 'The Selling of the Pentagon,'" a 1971 report that exposed a massive propaganda campaign by the Pentagon to foster support for the Vietnam War. It was a risk that could have put him behind bars, but after two days of hearings, House members in a roll call voted 226-181 not to hold CBS and its president in contempt. Stanton was cited with his fifth Peabody award for this vigorous defense of broadcast journalism.

            "Like the CBS Eye logo that he unveiled in 1951, Frank Stanton was an American icon, recognized and respected around the world," said Leslie Moonves, the President and Chief Executive Officer of CBS.

           "Dr. Stanton was a broadcaster who established CBS's long history of programming innovation, dedication to news and to progress in the communities we serve.  He was a communicator, the standard bearer for our industry in any fight against limiting a free press or the flow of information.  He was an educator, and never lost his zeal for the preservation and strengthening of the democratic process. 

            "Frank will be sorely missed by his friends and colleagues, and those of use who have succeeded him at CBS, but his legacy will always be with us -- in our nation, in our company and in our hearts." 

            "Broadcast journalism thrives today, to a large extent, because Frank Stanton defended our rights under the First Amendment and guided us through the most dangerous crisis this industry ever faced," said Sean McManus, President, CBS News and Sports.  "This alone assures his place in history, but this was just one of many crucial triumphs, the benefits of which broadcasting and the society it serves continue to enjoy. That Frank Stanton worked at CBS should make us all immensely proud."

           Stanton had several run-ins with Washington over the years, but the one in 1959 over the quiz show scandals established him as television's leading statesman. The allegations of staging in America's popular game programs attracted the glare of government and prompted him to take drastic measures to convince politicians that the new medium could police itself. Stanton investigated, took responsibility for problems, and then, risking lawsuits from sponsors, canceled all of CBS' high-stakes and high-profit game shows.  He also demanded that everything broadcast by CBS News be exactly as it purported to be, laying down the foundation for the CBS News Standards still followed  today. The industry avoided government control, mostly because Stanton prosecuted the issue so vehemently himself.

             Even while Stanton was establishing the new CBS News documentary series "CBS Reports," there was still skepticism about television promulgated by critics like the Federal Communications Commission's Newton Minnow, who called the medium "a vast wasteland."  Stanton proved them wrong by initiating the first televised presidential debates -- the famous Nixon-Kennedy "Great Debates" of 1960 -- winning a Peabody Award for his efforts.  He also surprised critics when he allowed CBS News to broadcast commercial-free for four straight days after Kennedy's assassination in 1963. The bold move peaked the ire of profit-minded competitors who may have felt shame later, when the CBS News coverage was credited with helping to hold the nation together.

            Later in the 1960s, he withstood intense pressure from the Johnson White House for allowing CBS News to report critically on the Vietnam War, including Morley Safer's groundbreaking report in 1965 showing soldiers burning the huts of Vietnamese villagers.

            Taking stands was nothing new for Stanton, who went public on broadcasting issues soon after becoming CBS president. He spoke out in 1948 for the right of broadcasters to present editorials. In 1967, he supported public television in testimony -- and in deed -- making a $1 million CBS contribution to the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.  He fought a 1969 effort by a U.S. senator to have all television entertainment cleared by the National Association of Broadcasters.

               Throughout Stanton's years at the head of CBS, the Tiffany Network dominated the primetime three-network television landscape.  An average of 58 percent of each season's Nielsen top 10 programs from 1950 to 1973 were broadcast on CBS. Stanton's evening line-up success began on the legendary talents of Lucille Ball, Arthur Godfrey, and Jackie Gleason and continued into the '60s and early '70s with Red Skelton, James Arness and Andy Griffith. Chairman Paley was always known for his involvement with CBS' talent, but it was Stanton who signed Gleason and Ball. He is also credited with persuading Godfrey to join CBS in New York.

              Said Walter Cronkite, "It was William Paley's sagacity and great good fortune to bring along as his chief executive Frank Stanton, who recruited over the years the broadcasters, producers, reporters and writers that constituted the all-star cast, from Ed Murrow on down, that burnished CBS.

        "Stanton recognized the role that broadcast news would play in providing the American public with the essential news of what its governments were doing in its name. 

             He faced jail to challenge a federal suit brought by Congress demanding the news sources that CBS had used in a news documentary.  But Stanton's unflagging courage and the overwhelming justice of the case won the day and considerably strengthened the free press rights of broadcast as well as print news sources.   Frank Stanton lived and died and a genuine hero of the fourth estate."

             Don Hewitt, news pioneer and 60 MINUTES creator who witnessed Stanton in his heyday, said "If broadcasting had a patron saint, it would be Frank Stanton.  If CBS is the Tiffany Network, Frank Stanton deserves the lion's share of the credit."

             Stanton, always referred to as "Dr." for the Ph.D. he earned in psychology from Ohio State, joined CBS in the Research Department shortly after receiving that degree in 1935. His groundbreaking work in audience research techniques made CBS a leader in the field and him director of the department in 1938, which he helped build to over 100 staffers. He was promoted to director of advertising in 1941, but soon became involved in all aspects of CBS.  During World War II, he consulted for the Office of War Information, the Secretary of War and the Department of the Navy, and at the same time, served as CBS vice president and general executive.  In 1945, he was elected a director of CBS and made general manager; the next year he was named president and chief operating officer when Paley was elected chairman. Stanton served in that position until 1971, when he was named vice chairman. He left CBS in 1973 at the then-mandatory retirement age of 65.

              Born in Muskegon, Mich., on March 20, 1908, Stanton grew up in Dayton, Ohio, and attended Ohio Wesleyan University as a pre-medical student. He put himself through college by working in the advertising department of a Dayton retailer. He was graduated from Wesleyan with a B.A. in 1930 and taught typography for a year at a trade school before accepting an offer from Ohio State to teach psychology.  There he earned his masters and doctorate, both in psychology, before resigning his post to join CBS in October 1935. He married the former Ruth Stephenson in 1931; she died in 1992.

              Stanton was recognized with awards from many organizations, several for his defense of press freedom. Indeed, an internal 1965 CBS document used eight pages to enumerate just the awards bestowed on him over a 12-year period.  Some of the more recent and noteworthy include: lifetime achievement awards from New York Academy of Television Arts and Sciences and the Deadline Club ('99); elected to the Advertising Hall of Fame ('98), Hall of Fame of the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences ('86) and Radio Hall of Fame ('90); and First Amendment Award of the Radio and Television News Directors Association ('93). Stanton was the only person besides Cronkite to win the RTNDA's most prestigious honor, the Paul White Award, twice ('57 and '71). He also won five Peabody awards for excellence in broadcasting and two Emmys.

                Stanton pursued a myriad of opportunities in business, education, government and the arts when he left CBS. His affiliations were numerous and include: chairman of the American Red Cross (1973-79); overseer of Harvard College (1978-84); member of the President's Committee on the Arts and Humanities (1983-90); chairman of the U.S. Advisory Commission on Information (1964-73); founding chairman and, then, trustee of the Center for Advanced Study in the Behavioral Sciences in Stanford, Calif. (1953-70); trustee of the Museum of Broadcasting; and chairman of the Rand Corporation (1961-67).

            His corporate directorships included: CBS, Atlantic-Richfield, American Electric Power, Pan American Airlines, The Interpublic Group of Companies, New York Life, The (London) Observer, and the International Herald Tribune. Stanton was a trustee or director of the Carnegie Institution of Washington; Educational Broadcasting Corp.; Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts; President's (Bush) Committee on the Arts and Humanities; the Rockefeller Foundation; and the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

               A special citation from the National Association of Broadcasters, given to Stanton along with a leather-bound set of the papers of James Madison, who he quoted in his famous stand in front of the U.S. House, sums up Stanton's critical contribution: "For his leadership and his wisdom and his devotion to the objectives of the American democratic society; for his tenacity, boldness and courage in furthering broadcasting's capacity to achieve those objectives; for his uncompromising rejection of encroachments on freedom and his determination to advance the public interest..."

            Stanton had no immediate survivors.