THE PRESIDENT ON TELEVISION:

...and points of view, and the compara- the important thing, and he keeps pilIt may be that by ignoring or flout- tively little access which is available ing up the points, BOOKS CHESTERTON AND THE TRUTH OF '74 DENNIS O'BRIEN G. K. Chesterton Shilling for My Thoughts can have no a figure in my growing up days, I reDUDLEY BARKER contemptible intelligence...

...After having collapsed, to jazz up these new director of the White House Ofthe election, Haldeman, Ehrlichman, speeches with charts and films-a "pres- fice of Communications calling up TV Ziegler and other advertising men were entation" in ad agency style...

...Since the appointments are people are asking him real questions...

...Address, just one of his media weapons, in fact moved in against Big Media We may recall that the format chosen can not only be broadcast on all chan- power on a number of fronts-some for this campaign was a series of care- nels whenever the President pleases, rhetorical, although threatening, others fully controlled question-and-answer but it also carries with it a tradition in the form of specific rulings and sessions with a hand-picked audience, of respect and authority which has muscular urgings from the FCC, the moderated by Bud Wilkinson...

...cisions concerning new technologies trust himself as a communicator...

...Out of his shame comes the re- administration and the news media may Quello, is a former broadcaster (to resolve to play the game in his own lie in legal and economic history...

...One is the veals that the replica is on the back lot at the Warner corrupt governor of the territory, and the other a YidBrothers studio...

...Basic Books, $8.95 Nixon's present reputation as a master of media...

...tried to package and release all Presi- privacy of the TV studio he falls back More fundamental, and a piece of dential messages and activities like so frequently on two devices: a) the short odd bad luck, is that if Mr...

...This is what hushed and solemn, his gaze steady...

...Nixon many commercials...

...place Nicholas Johnson, the consumer style and to beat it...

...government has become easier and with admittedly uncomfortable situa- There has been a recent flood of books, easier, and that free speech in the tions: that if one point of view is ex- articles and panel discussions on the context of modern technology is an pressed on the air, an opposing point subject of government vs...

...NEWTON W. MINOW, So we might imagine Richard JOHN BARTLOW MARTIN, Nixon's football career at Whittier Col- LEE M. MITCHELL lege...

...There are two separate But as the camera zooms back from this scene, it re- roles in which Brooks appears as an actor...

...media...

...Quite simply: Is the First Amendment advocate) and a contributor to Mr...

...b) the astounding of the Federal Communications Com"good at" television when informed statement, which leaves everyone too mission...

...with it...

...feud between the Nixon recent Democratic appointee, James H. ers...

...Eight scious of the media...

...Frank Shakespeare, of manipulation...

...these are barriers to be over- the tar of Herblock's brush...

...It's no wonder that he plays Maybe Brooks himself has tried to go in too many the governor •as cross-eyed...

...Minow, Martin and Mitchell hundreds of books such as these...

...Nixon is at to date, and they make it clear that to many dilemmas about the regulation least doing us the service of prompting media management on the part of the of radio and television...

...and he is throwing in smirks and regularly on television to draw his picThis must have been what Nixon him- smiles...

...that power inevitably are relatively new additions to the long time going over ground already accrues to those who are in charge of list...

...member that...

...of view for his own good...

...veling reporters...

...Nixon and national, are in business for-the is available to the executive branch has operated often without flair or dissemination of news...

...Ashmore's book is the result of a I suppose, necessarily ponderous...

...cessors, and at the same time he has the Checkers speech in the first Eisen- Between that time and the present, organized an impressive governmental hower campaign was a high point in Nixon has battled the media with injuggernaut to control everybody else's this effort...

...The really be in trouble...

...These closing scenes all go in a dozen pate in a scene, then to stand aside and admire his different directions at once...

...I sense that there must have as he obtained in his own day...

...The of course, the commission is "indepento imitate their style...

...PRESIDENT MELVYN H. BLOOM His form was downright depressingdrab, awkward and flailing...

...By law, him and makes a conscientious effort serious impact on our institutions...

...on this activity, but the rhetoric is still Frank Shakespeare meant by "televi- Soon, however, confidence fails him, rolling...

...Speeches commentators, while they are on the installed in Washington with the job before a live audience of partisans air, to demand retractions of what they of getting Nixon through, and they seem to give him comfort, but in the have just said...

...Which was for the promulgation of its programs grace, he still knows that scoring is probably his intention...

...The elusive term...

...that any li- major areas of concern: Mr...

...and at least minimal goodwill, and conference sponsored by the Center Still, it is a symptom of the problem without the pressure of intense parti- for the Study of Democratic Institu- that one State of the Union address, sanship...

...The fact that Commonweal: 63 the airwaves are a scarce resource and ing the traditional accommodations to anyone else...

...the act rapidly disintegrates...

...Gilbert Keith Chesterton was greatest American literary figure of the 22 March 1974: 64...

...work, he seems to have no real talent absolve him of any wrongdoing- For a time, despite the trauma of the for this game, no natural sense of mainly in order to absolve Eisenhower Great Debates, television was seen as the easy rhythms of demagoguery by for choosing him-that he could have the means to by-pass the print media, media, no feeling for the smooth swing said anything at all and gotten away his ancient enemy...

...But 22 March 1974: 62 because he is so good on television he Nixon were any better at it we might -the government to move in...

...will get through despite the press...

...Between working so hard different directions at once...

...are in some sense the property of and loose arrangements between gov- These volumes help to bring us up everyone, has led through the years ernment and media, Mr...

...They seem to feel that John Kennedy cost him the election...

...No President has been more con- come rather than tools to use...

...But the result must have been a TV executive who joined the elecMr...

...vision point out, the increasing use of solescent...

...for seven years, and since crucial deBasically, I think Nixon does not This all might be harmless enough...

...The seemed, until recently, to guarantee the FTC, the Office of Telecommunications crowd's reactions were rehearsed and truth of what is said...

...The fight now spills over onto a sound dish-speaking Indian chief...

...Bloom spends too much commodated...

...The and pince-nez to shame the false idols "Chesterton, Gilbert Keith...

...Nixon approaches the media as inspiring to the young candidate...

...speech as he remembers other Presi- White House documents outlining the They were entirely under the control dents doing it-his rich baritone battle plan have been a wet blanket of the product managers...

...stunned to be critical...

...And even when these charstage where filming of a musical is in progress, and it acters are not on the screen, Brooks still seems to be eventually ends up at Grauman's Chinese Theater...

...As he goes challenge is stated bluntly by Kevin dent," and must have three members through the motions, he feels graceful, Phillips, the former White House aide, not of the President's party, but no but he suddenly sees that it isn't com- as quoted in Fear in the Air: "The one should be surprised that the most ing off-there are giggles in the bleach- key to the...

...But then, gifts...

...the Twentieth Century Such situations can only be dealt with hower's first campaign to the present...

...Yet because of some obsessive Fear in the Air desire, and after hours of dismal prac- HARRY S. ASHMORE tice, he got to the point where his ball Norton, $6.95 went doggedly in the basket or his bat chopped out mean-spirited singles Presidential Television MICHAEL MURRAY through the infield...

...and centralized opposition...

...English-speaking world...

...This invites-and even obliges stitutions and regulations...

...Yet despite all this hard that the electorate was so eager to tle understanding of the basic problems...

...If power...

...We are left a new examination of the whole thing...

...As the authors of Presidential Tele- to the United States Constitution ob- Nixon's last election campaign...

...Actually, it is probable creasingly fierce determination and litappearances...

...Statistics in Presi- the Nixon team is always talking about years later came the abrupt reversal dential Television, for example, indi- getting past the media and reaching of this success when, in his view, a cate that he has popped up on prime people directly, without distortions and single half-hour on television with time far more often than his prede- interpretations...

...But somehow they are still handiwork, seems to reflect Brooks' own dilemma as not as funny as they ought to be considering all the director...

...In a tion campaign of 1968, is quoted by he does everything else, with wary hos- single stroke he lifted himself beyond Joe McGinniss in The Selling of the tility...

...On ture of a vicious and distorting press, self had in mind as the most effective occasion he has been advised, dignity and recent reports have depicted the way to "get through" to people...

...He has not only tried to behind the camera and working in front of it as well, work on too many levels of consciousness at the same Brooks himself must have been cross-eyed by that point...

...As Budger truly says, "The man I am afraid that the mocking inter- when I graduated from high school, who invented the two exquisitely apt change of 1908 has become the truth I thought Orestes Brownson was the titles of All Things Considered and A of 1974...

...trying to recapture ever since, with let him get through to the people...

...Nixon cation, evidence of some magical...

...Fund report is truly informative but...

...time, but has taken on too many jobs: actor, director, COLIN L. WESTERBECK, JR...

...Thus the scare tactics of Clay tions at which spokesmen for all points with cameras discreetly focused on the Whitehead, outgoing head of the Office of view discussed the problems of cheering galleries, seems to outweigh of Telecommunications Policy, suggest- media regulation, with an emphasis on ten replies by Mike Mansfield, twenty ing that local situations must monitor possible intimidation by government...

...there in the person of Bart...

...My own feeling is yes, As in every aspect of Nixon's PresiTV as a tool of the Chief Executive the Amendment is obsolescent and dential performance, the most serious has the potential to undermine the therefore cannot cope with Big Media damage is to the spirit behind the inchecks and balances in our system...

...in an atmosphere of common sense Mr...

...never- Poor G. K. C. his day is past- been a period when I thought he was theless there is reason to believe he was Now God will know the truth the greatest intellect of the modern not without certain fugitive mental at last...

...These three neatly span the three covered by Theodore White, Joe Mcthe inevitable networks...

...In this way, reway too, the same questions and an- of it, but the President, with everything turning to Nixon's old theme, the Presiswers could be repeated, more or less, going for him, botched his opportunity, dent could talk directly to the folks, week after week in different regions, and the tradition itself may now be a without the nuisance of an informed without boring anyone except the tra- thing of the past...

...his ap- ON Crowell, $10 pearance robbed the whole game of TELEVISION class...

...They do not dig very of view must somehow also be ac- three books under consideration here deep: Mr...

...The great convert, the Thus G. K. C.'s own speculation on devastating critic of all the sins of Stein and Day, $8.95 the attitudes of possible future biogra- modernity, a Christian totem in cape phers in a letter to E. V. Lucas...

...Like The rub is that his failures in this de- will be made in the near future, the the untalented high school athlete, he partment have led to aggressive tactics Nixon FCC will be another enduring watches the graceful performers around elsewhere, and these may have a more memorial to his point of view...

...In this stood this and they rushed to make use to the local stations...

...Wall all remember from high school '~' the athlete who had no gift for Public Relations and THE Presidential Campaigns sports but who made the team anyway...

...Ashmore's censing and regulation of radio and considers election campaigns, tracing chatty conference transcripts are lively TV will sometimes seem in conflict the mushrooming influence of public reading but cannot pursue any single with the First Amendment, and so on...

...the questions were pleas- ample, the maiden Presidential speech munications and the Justice Department antly uninformed...

...would not have a prayer of being MICHAEL MURRAY is a free-lance writer "common touch" which he has been elected because the press would not and theater director living in New York...

...Bart's ambiguity, this too Brooks' zaniness, his instinct for incongruities, doesn't agile dexterity of his which allows him first to particifail him here...

...It became President: "Without television, Richard for him a model of political communi- Nixon would not have a chance...

...Witness, for ex- Policy, the White House Office of Comenthusiastic...

...So too we might think of Mr...

...Like Bart, Brooks has to juggle too many points energy they are expending...

...From joke is that it was Lucas who had sug- of the intellectuals-Chesterton was the the fragments left by this now for- gested the titles for these early col- universal object of doting admiration gotten writer it is difficult to under- lections of Chesterton's essays...

...The Presidential We know that the government has press doesn't matter any more...

...These programs of anyone who formerly had been only -all with the intention of taking power were made and shown locally, to a a candidate or a Vice President: his away from the three major networks particular state or region, to stress the words now resonate with importance and the Public Broadcasting Service candidate's desire to speak to people and sober wisdom...

...Nixon has a way of starting off a Watergate and the publication of These were, of course, commercials...

...It for fear of losing their licenses, may offer the results of a study for the reminds us that, although the basic be legalistically correct but would Twentieth Century Fund which deal ineptness of this Administration has have the effect of hampering one of primarily with the new Bully Pulpit- sometimes taken the urgency out of the main things that broadcasters, local the extraordinary media access which the problem, and although Mr...

...Patrick Buchanan turns up sion" which Nixon was "so good at...

...Lucas from those charged with my early edustand the cause even of such publicity replied on a postcard: cation...

...Recently, of course, speech, in which he makes a few an- stays in office until June he will have this system has broken down and the nouncements and is gone before the been able to name all seven members President finds it not so easy to be giggles can begin...

...Bloom Ginniss and others...

...relations men and methods from Eisen- point in depth...

...interpretations by Eric Sevareid, and the fairness of network news programs, Messrs...

...Thus mounting panic and confusion...

...Nixon's men under- and distributing it in small quantities on a homey, one-to-one basis...