Marilyn A. Lashner, 80, authority on media issues

Marilyn Auerbach Lashner, 80, of Center City, a media analyst and expert witness at trials involving First Amendment rights, died of cancer Tuesday, Aug. 24, at her home.

In 1979, Dr. Lashner earned a doctorate in communications from Temple University. Five years later her dissertation, The Chilling Effect in TV News: Intimidation by the Nixon White House, was published as a book.

For the dissertation, she compiled statements or actions by the Nixon administration that could have been interpreted as threats to the press, including Nixon's protest at a 1973 news conference of "outrageous, vicious, distorted reporting."

According to Dr. Lashner, though newspaper columnists returned fire, Nixon's remarks had a "chilling effect" on television coverage and TV discussion of the presidency plunged.

She pointed out that, unlike newspapers, TV was subject to FCC regulations, which could be influenced by the White House. She argued that TV's vulnerability to political interference was justification for deregulation of broadcasting and the extension of greater First Amendment protections.

"What made Marilyn's work important was not just her conclusion, but the rigorous methodology she developed to reach it," said David Elesh, director of the Social Science Library at Temple University.

Her methodology, he said, allowed her to "unambiguously document bias in transcripts of words, phrases, sentences, and paragraphs," and "lifted her work to the level of science."

After earning her doctorate, Dr. Lashner founded Media Analysis & Communications Research. She used the methodology she developed for her dissertation as an expert witness in legal cases related to libel, copyright infringement, plagiarism, and the interpretation of contracts.

"As an expert witness, she successfully combined her love of words and her familiarity with the legal profession," her son William said. "Since my father was an attorney, she had been around lawyers all her married life."

Last year, Dr. Lashner was honored as a distinguished alumna of the School of Communications by the Temple University Alumni Association.

Dr. Lashner grew up above her father's soda shop near Shibe Park. She graduated from Philadelphia High School for Girls and earned a bachelor's degree in English and a master's degree in education from the University of Pennsylvania.

While at Penn, she met her future husband, Melvin. Their first date was at the Dad Vail Regatta and they were inseparable after that, their daughter Suzanne Dayanim said.

The couple married in 1952 and raised four children in Meadowbrook. He died in 1995.

Before starting a family, Dr. Lashner taught English at Cheltenham High School. Later, in the 1970s, she taught at Pennsylvania State University's Ogontz campus.

She enjoyed theater in Philadelphia and New York, fine dining, and traveling abroad.

She was a devoted mother and grandmother, her daughter said, and organized a Disney cruise and a winter getaway in the Poconos for her extended family.

In addition to her son and daughter, Dr. Lashner is survived by a son, Bret; a daughter, Jane; 11 grandchildren; and her close companion, Richard W. Moyer.

The funeral will be at 2 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 26, at Goldstein's Rosenberg's Raphael-Sacks Memorial Chapel, 6410 N. Broad St. Burial will be in Roosevelt Memorial Park, Trevose.