Of Presidents and Panelists

...Senators can understand the pocket-book approach...

...My conclusion is that it would not be in the public interest for the Senate to run the networks...

...Two people are debating on tv, he explained...

...The panelist said that because he was not an authority on films, he assumed that Kauffmann had invited him as an expert on military affairs...

...Yet they came to Washington with hats in their hands and feet in their mouths...

...The minute or two they received on the evening news shows served to satisfy only the integrity of the various news departments...

...Even if there is too much violence, the good doctor-president pointed out, the broadcasters have their own internal police force, the widely feared National Association of Broadcasters...

...In the history of television discussion shows, there has not yet been anyone who has said, "No, that's not what I'm saying at all...

...After the technical aspects of the work of art are explained on Critique, Kauffmann holds a broader discussion with his panelists about what it all means...

...He would have been wiser to take the Fifth Amendment than encourage the Senate to get into an area where it has no special expertise...

...The senators appeared to be trying to gain an insight into the broadcasting decision-making process in pressing Rule for an explanation of what turned him off on his new show after only one performance...

...Or: "I don't want to put words in your mouth...

...If the actors memorize their lines with us, they're dead...

...One of them finishes his statement by gratuitously wrapping up his opponent's argument, inaccurately, and then asking if that, in fact, is a valid summary of his position...

...These senators seem to fancy themselves critics...

...ON TELEVISION By Marvin Kitman Of Presidents and Panelists For some reason the major networks didn't give the recent hearings held by the Senate Subcommittee on Communications the full coverage they deserved...

...The subcommittee chairman, Senator John O. Pastore, (D.-R.I...

...gave me the impression he had been over this ground before—that this was another installment in a kind of soap opera, called "As the Worm Turns...

...According to my informant, the ploy works something like this: Sevareid: So, Mister Nixon, what you seem to be saying is that the late General Eisenhower was a do-nothing President who lulled the country into a false sense of security, right...

...The public wants violence, and a network can't say the public be damned any more than a senator can every six years...

...The network presidents might try this technique the next time they are summoned by the Pastore subcommittee...

...Still, if I were a television stockholder (which I am not, because of the obvious conflict of interest), I would have been very upset with top management's performance at the Pastore hearings...

...Let me pursue what you just said," Kauffmann would continually interrupt...

...As long as I am in a critical mood, I would like to say a bad word about one of the panelists on a recent episode of Critique (net, March 2), Stanley Kauffmann's generally brilliant and entertaining review of the arts...

...Now while it may be true that, unlike the other arts, everybody who watches television is a critic, some members of the Subcommittee on Communications appear to have only a passing knowledge of the field...

...The subject was the movie Greetings, an aboveground sex-draft-Vietnam protest currently playing in New York...

...Art, Stanton implied, follows life...

...may be a John Wayne on consumer problems, but he is a Wally Cox on television...

...Kauffmann then interviewed the two young important film-makers, whose names I have forgotten, on their craft...

...Margarine could have melted in Goodman's mouth as he came out in favor of less violence on television...

...National Educational Television rushed into the information vacuum the very night of the hearings with an hour-long special featuring the testimony of the big network presidents on the role of violence in commercial broadcasting, but unfortunately the show was biased...

...In all fairness, the subcommittee members were playing fast and loose with Rule when they trapped him into a discussion of the program Turn On...

...I blame that on inexperience: This was only Goodman's second appearance before the panel...

...The handsomest of the three presidents (this is one area where abc is ahead of the other networks), he resembled Sonny Tufts both in looks and in his gift of gab as he handled the senators' questions...

...One good thing you could say about that limp "Son of Laugh-In" is that it was nonviolent...

...Since I was familiar with the panelist's remarks, what Kitman said was not nearly so interesting to me as the interplay between him and the moderator...

...The other innovator added, "If you try to remember what you said before, you go stale...

...I thought this was only a coincidence until a friend of mine pointed out that is is an integral part of tv debating, which he calls the "You Steal My Thunder and I'll Steal Yours Syndrome...

...But then he looked puzzled when the star ran in another direction...

...Senator Philip Hart (D.-Mich...

...At least I have never seen network presidents looking so bad on tv...

...Another time: "Perhaps I can carry on your thought this way...

...Nixon: Right...

...No matter how much the presidents may try to appear unaware of program content, they will have a hard time convincing anybody there isn't too much violence...

...Critic Margot Hentoff said she didn't experience any kind of shock at what these revolutionaries had presented on the screen...

...The senators are not stupid...

...A beautiful woman in a pants suit, she came over very well cinematographically, although she did sound a lot like that other critic with her same last name, something bound to happen to anybody living with Nat Hentoff...

...Hand-held cameras gave him motion sickness...

...Rule seemed just as puzzled by the sudden turn of events as the rest of us...

...His major contribution was to hold up a newspaper ad for a tv showing of La Dolce Vita and ask how long this has been going on...

...These network presidents, I have heard, are ruthless men...

...I learned a lot from my first appearance on a panel show...

...Frank Stanton, president of cbs, gave his customary persuasive performance with his traditional aria, "Mea Culpa...

...For continuity, Pastore opened the soap opera by saying, in effect, that there is too much violence on television...

...Nothing on The Smothers Brothers show last season matched the Pastore-Stanton exchange that followed on why cbs didn't allow the dreaded nab censors see his network's violent shows before they went on the air...

...The hearings proved there is more diversity in network presidents than in network programs...

...He said he had a six-year-old child at home, and knew from personal experience why better shows were needed...

...What, he demanded to know, are the networks going to do about it...

...My advice to Stanton, Goodman and Rule, all of whom will be back soon for another thrilling installment, is to exercise leadership and come out firmly for violence...

...At first the panelist always looked relieved at having the famed critic carry the ball for a rhetorical touchdown...

...nbc's performance, it seemed to me, did not measure up to the standard set by cbs...

...As a matter of fact," Kitman continued, "before I came to the studio to discuss this picture, 1 had to take a Dramamine...

...Senator Pastore, of course, is a man of stature who could easily replace Jack Gould at the New York Times...

...But I was dismayed by Senator Daniel Inouye (D.-Hawaii...

...And Senator Frank Moss (D.Utah) asked questions that sounded like he was sitting at the wrong hearing...

...He denied there is too much violence on the tube, and insisted that what there is of it is necessary for plot development...

...Eisenhower was a vigorous President who helped forge the dynamic foreign policy we needed...

...Pointing out that he was a veteran, he declared: "I am against the draft, and think it should be ended after everybody has served his time...

...Stanton was supported by a star-studded cast of two: Julian Goodman, president of nbc-tv, and Elton Rule, head of abc-tv...

...As much as the network brass, incidentally, I was alarmed by the new pugnacity of the subcommittee...

...Rule provided the touch of comic relief needed to make the hearings work as entertainment as well as education...

...A president with a quicker mind could have easily turned the conversation around to a discussion of senatorial decisions...

...The discussion took a turn for the worst with the next panelist, Marvin Kitman...

...It may have been smutty, but this wasn't a hearing on the role of softcore pornography on tv...

...The senator from Hawaii would have enjoyed the scenes from Greetings which the New Republic critic used to introduce his subject, even though the best, or dirtiest, parts were cut...

...Obviously, the networks have a vested interest in violence—good, solid, economic reasons for wanting to maintain the status quo in the ratio of violent to nonviolent programming...

...If humility is supposed to be the strategy, the stockholders interests would be better served by character actors, who could put on a more facile performance...

...For one thing, if you're going to be ironic, you'd better wink at the moderator...

...It is an issue worth fighting for to the death...

...And: Which leads to something else...

...His eager-to-please, deferential tone was enhanced by a soft Kentucky accent...

...Stockholders have the right to expect their top executives to stand behind their programming decisions...

...When moderator Kauffmann asked how he felt about the film, he explained that he had a gut reaction to new wave films...

...Rule, who was making his debut before the subcommittee, shows promise...

...Right...

...His script, which sounded well researched, bordered on contempt...

...We don't get hung up on the words, those 100-page scripts," one of them said, explaining his contribution to the cinematic art...