Spaced Ranger said:

@ Turisu

Checking that scene on an early DVD (Warner 1999, just in case the 2007 Blu-ray fixed something) did not show damage, anywhere in the frame, throughout the scene. Three other scenes of ship/Earth communications also show nothing.

It's very faint on the Blu-ray but it is there. Look for the shot where it cuts back to Frank on the table and his father says "I think it's being broadcast next Thursday". To the extreme left of the shot is a faint vertical line running the entire height of the frame. It's actually barely noticeable on the Blu-ray, you may not even consider it worth correcting, but it really stood out at a theatrical screening of the same master that I attended recently. Weird.