GIVE US YOUR TV CAMERAS But only for 16 minutes, unless they belong to ABC

By James Kelly.

Producer David Wolper does not believe in small gestures, especially when large expensive ones will do. For next month's four-day extravaganza celebrating the refurbished Statue of Liberty, Wolper has lined up 850 drill- team members, 300 tap dancers, 200 Elvis Presley impersonators, 150 banjo players, two aircraft carriers and one President of the United States. To help pay the spectacle's $30 million bill, Wolper offered the TV rights to the networks. ABC bid $10 million, beating out NBC, the only other network that took part in the auction. ABC's competitors did not mind losing the mock Presleys, but they did have an interest in reporting on that last fellow in the lineup. As part of its deal with Wolper, ABC agreed to provide the others with live coverage of the news portions of the festivities. But the networks, including CNN, disagreed on what constituted news. ABC offered to share its airing of Ronald Reagan's remarks and the lighting of the statue and its torch; the rest of the President's activities, including his presentation of the Medal of Liberty to a dozen famous naturalized citizens, would be carried live only by ABC.

The other networks complained that ABC had no right to treat legitimate news as its own property. ''Anything the President does constitutes news,'' said Lane Venardos, executive producer of special events for CBS. ''Maybe not big news, but news of one form or another.'' Wolper, who staged the glitzy closing ceremonies for the 1984 Olympics, countered that ABC owned the Medals of Liberty presentation and thus had the exclusive right to broadcast the awards. ''It's my medal, and I sold the thing to ABC,'' said Wolper.

Nonetheless, compromise seemed in order, especially after Administration officials quietly pressured Wolper. Just to be sure ABC got the message, Interior Secretary Donald Hodel issued a statement last week saying that public events ''held on Interior-administrated property should be open to the media.'' The next day ABC announced that the other networks could air the opening ceremony remarks made by Hodel and Chrysler Chairman Lee Iacocca, who heads the foundation that raised funds for the statue's restoration. ABC's competitors will also carry the speeches of Navy Secretary John Lehman and French President Francois Mitterrand, as well as reaction shots of Reagan after he lights the statue. Finally, all four networks will carry not only the swearing in of 258 new citizens by U.S. Chief Justice Warren Burger but also reaction shots of the audience. Only ABC, however, will air the Medal of Liberty awards. The network argued that since the winners have been announced and Reagan is not speaking during the presentation, the event will not provide fresh news. Before the compromise was reached, ABC had planned to share about nine minutes of its 17 1/2-hour coverage with its competitors; now the network estimates it will share about 16 minutes. CBS, NBC and CNN seem satisfied, though at least one executive still believes that ABC has overplayed its role in the ceremony. ''I was mad last October when I saw that ABC was calling it an 'ABC exclusive,' '' says Ed Turner, executive vice president of CNN. ''I haven't stopped being mad.''

With reporting by David Beckwith/Washington and Naushad S. Mehta/New York