Talkathon of Comment

Open up, speak out, controversy before caution, and the hell with the censors. That sums up the mood of TV 1968, and it cuts across all phases of programming.

Until recently, controversy on TV was considered as offensive as dead air. Sponsors would not have it, and neither would the viewers -- or so it was supposed. Only a few commentators with clout, including Edward R. Murrow and Eric Sevareid, could get away with expressing sharp personal opinion. And certainly nobody succeeded with blatantly risque humor. This past season, the Smothers Brothers, Rowan and Martin, and Johnny Carson, among others, have waged a deliberate campaign to get sex jokes past the censor -- whom Carson sardonically calls "Miss Priscilla Goodbody." But it is in the realm of serious discussion that television's growing maturity really clears the air. "We no longer shut our eyes or shut off the facts," savs CBS Censor William Tankersley. "The world is a madhouse. TV gives some voice to what is going on in the world."

Battle of Talkathons. Much of TV's comment and controversy are heard on the day-and-night conversation shows, which seem to be trying to turn TV into a talkathon. They frantically compete with each other for big-name, talkers. Joey Bishop interviews Ronald Reagan, Carson brings on Ayn Rand, Merv Griffin chats with Bertrand Russell. One night, Dick Cavett has Norman Mailer as his guest, the next night he leads a spirited discussion between James Bald win and Yale Philosopher Paul Weiss.

The talk shows aside, commentary is increasingly moving into straight news programs. ABC, in particular, recently revamped its news format to make room for more discussion and debate, interspersing its regular coverage with the broadcast equivalent of columns. Publisher Bill Moyers, former White House aide, recently went on camera to predict that the next President will be faced with "a national political nervous breakdown." Critic Marya Mannes razzed fashion models who have "no visible sexual equipment." Other commentaries have ranged from the trivial to the trenchant. Samples:

> Newspaper Editor James Kilpatrick on the Poor People's March: "All the visible 'poor' at Resurrection City appear remarkably well-fed. Some are downright fat. Most are young, ablebodied. Every man jack of them could find a job in Washington--carrying a hod, if nothing else. But work? Take jobs? Earn a living? Not this gang."

> Author Gore Vidal on actors in politics: "I made my contribution to the problem back in 1964, when I was casting the movie The Best Man, which dealt with two men running for the presidency. I offered a part to Ronald Reagan, who said he was not interested in a small part but that he was interested in playing one of the candidates for President. I then sent back word that I did not think Ronald Reagan would be credible as a national candidate. So much for my gift of prophecy."

> Negro Leader Charles Evers on discrimination: "I remember how we'd go to this great big old one-room country shack [in his home town of Decatur, Miss.] and how we had one teacher to teach first through eighth grade. We didn't have a desk to write on. We didn't even have a crayon to write with. You see, this is what we're trying to tell our white friends. How could you continue to do this to us? People who have worked for you, who have taken care of you, who have washed your clothes, made your beds, taken care of your children. While you go play bridge, we stay at home and watch over your children and keep them safe. And then they say we're lazy."

The leveling agent in ABC's teeter-totter talkfest is Anchorman Frank Reynolds, 44, a former White House correspondent who often projects his own point of view into his recitation of the day's news events. Two days after ABC's telecast of the Kennedy-McCarthy debate, which he moderated, Reynolds observed: "I've never bought the idea that the camera relentlessly reveals a man's true personality. Television is filled with phonies whose public image does not reflect their private beliefs. So, for what it's worth, I'm against televised debates between candidates for the presidency because they are irrelevant to the presidency."

Distorted Image. Such editorializing can do a lot to complement merely visual reporting, which can be all too misleading. ABC's Howard K. Smith, for instance, complains that the TV camera often distorts life by focusing on the negative. During last month's march on the Pentagon, he points out, the nation's TV screens left the impression that "America's youth was in implacable revolt against the armed services. A phone call to selective service would have told us that the same week, many times the number of youths who rebelled volunteered for those same armed services. That was not reported."

The best TV comment can counteract such erroneous impressions; much of it, unfortunately, is itself irrelevant and provocative merely for the sake of being provocative. Still ABC's "new news" seems headed in a direction that the two older and more established networks are also planning to emphasize. Next season, CBS will inaugurate a biweekly "magazine" series called 60 Minutes, which will carry commentary by as many as 50 guest contributors, ranging from Art Buchwald to John Kenneth Galbraith. If nothing else, by posing divergent views, the talk trend honors the viewers by assuming that they are capable of thinking for themselves--a rare idea for TV.

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