Always Articulate on Sunday

By Thomas Griffith

Newswatch/Thomas Griffith

Lincoln's Gettysburg Address, brief as it was, would not be brief enough now for television. Oh, the cameras would be there, but they would focus first on the man from ABC-CBS-NBC describing the scene and recalling the battle. In the background Lincoln would be seen speaking but would not be heard saying, "The world will little note, nor long remember, what we say here." TV's formula these days is words 100 words from the reporter, and a "sound bite" of 15 or 20 words from the speaker. At long last Lincoln's turn comes; he is heard pledging that "government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth." This is Horace Everyman, ABC-CBS-NBC News in Gettysburg.

In these days of short attention spans and mandatory commercial breaks, a similar This of the political process is now taking place every Sunday. This is the talk pace of the questioning of public figures on network talk shows, which used to be soporifically but sedately informative. The new style is faster and sharper. "Those with a little to say come through better," laments Marvin Kalb of NBC's Meet the Press. "Those with a lot to say have a harder time."

The revving up began on ABC's highly successful This Week with David Brinkley, where Sam Donaldson is teamed with Columnist George F. Will, whom Brinkley describes as "an Encyclopaedia Britannica on wheels." Side by side, they take turns at boring in on a guest. Only a politician with aplomb and a fast tongue can escape being overwhelmed by this pair, even though, as the old saying goes, a fool can ask ten questions while a wise man answers one. Sometimes an affable Brinkley eases up their questioning: "We've become aware of very bad public reaction if we seem rude and aggressive."

Meet the Press decided to meet the competition. The program used to be like a tidy congressional hearing; now it is more like Ping Pong. Kalb was made moderator, while his predecessor, Producer Bill Monroe, took Kalb's old job as lead questioner. A fourth camera was added, permitting cutaway shots between questioner and guests; in the speeding up, everyone became interruptible.

More articulate more guest lists are narrowed to what Kalb calls "an articulate elite" reflection both sides of issues, which, he argues, "is not really an honest reflection of reality." Brinkley agrees: "If you're windy and verbose you just don't get on the air."

Just who belongs to this articulate elite? One favorite is Senator Bob Dole of Kansas, knowledgeable, funny and fast on his feet. Of the Cabinet, Brinkley singles out Treasury Secretary Donald Regan. Among foreign leaders, Brinkley and Kalb prize West Germany's ex-Chancellor Helmut Schmidt. "He's the TV era's ideal West German Chancellor," says Kalb, since Schmidt speaks English well and can be "irritable and irritating." Kalb also finds Menachem Begin fascinating because "he says what he feels." Interesting historical question: Would the Middle East have been different, at least in American eyes, had Yasser Arafat been as personally appealing and articulate as Anwar Sadat?

Presidential candidates are apt to be fluent, prudent and unresponsive. Questioning them is like pressing a computer button and watching a lot of information splat them a screen. Kalb blames this on media consultants who coach them on what to say and advise, "No matter what they ask, you go with that." One exception is Senator Fritz Rollings of South Carolina, whom Brinkley regards as perhaps the brightest of the Democratic candidates. He answers the question asked. Another exception is California's Alan Cranston, who, Kalb adds, sometimes surprises with "an unconventional answer." Obviously, anybody who merely restates familiar positions is not much of a guest.

Sunday talk shows are presumed to educate the public on the issues, but they get their interest and drama by showing how a political figure responds when put through the hoops. To speed up the pace and thus narrow the choice to an articulate electability is to add one more artificial test of a candidate's electability without providing the electorate with much guidance on how he would be in office. This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so viewer discretion is required.