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Today's
Stories
June
30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
The Political Function of PBS
June
29, 2005
Mike
Schaefer
How the Washington Post Lied About
Its Own War Poll
Roger
Burbach / Paul Cantor
Bush's Big Democratic Hoax in Iraq
Sharon
Smith
Democrats Shift into Reverse
Sam
Husseini
A Quick Way to End the Insurgency
John
Stauber
Put a Photo of Mad Cow #2 on a Milk Carton
Ahmad
Faruqui
Is Militarism Irreversible in Pakistan?
Linda
S. Heard
Bush's Speech: the View from Cairo
Stew
Albert
Chet Helms: a Rock and Roll Hero
Ray
McGovern
Bush at Ft. Bragg: Stay the Crooked
Course
June
28, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
A Defeat Bred in Deceit
Landau
/ Hassen
Bush's Meddling in Internal Syrian
Politics
John
A. Murphy
Keeping Nader Off the Ballot: an Analysis of Political Profiling
in Pennsylvania
Mike
Whitney
More Lies from Rumsfeld: Those "Meetings"
with Insurgents
CounterPunch
News Service
JFK on Staying in Vietnam: Is Bush Reading
from Kennedy's Playbook?
Dave
Zirin
Pining for the Pistons
Dave
Lindorff
Showtime in Washington
Patrick
Cockburn
Iraq: a Bloody Mess
June
27, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Blood Sacrifices for Empty Slogans
Mike
Marqusee
G8: Who are the Hijackers?
Mark
Scaramella
When a Corporate Raider Claims
Economic Hardship: the Court-Approved Lies of Charles Hurwitz
Leigh
Saavedra
Press Apologists for Torture
Kathy
Kelly
Where is the UN?
June
25 / 26, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
The Supreme Court's Jackboot
Liberals
Jennifer
Van Bergen
America's Parallel Legal Systems
George
Corsetti
This Land is Their Land: Condemnation
for Corporations
Mark
Chmiel / Andrew Wimmer
Let's Open the Gulag: a People's Mission
to Gitmo
Kevin
Zeese
Counter-Recruitment: How to Keep
the Military From Getting their Hands on Your Kids
P.
Sainath
Russian Roulette in Vidharbha
John
Stauber
How to Bury a Mad Cow
Scott
Handleman
Gay in the Third World
Tom
Barry
The Politics & Ideologies of
the Anti-Immigrationists
John
Walsh
Looking for Peace in All the Wrong
Places
Justin
E.H. Smith
The Hairless Apes of Kansas vs.
the Reality-Based Community: Why Progressives Have a Stake in
the War on Evolution
Alan
Wallis
The Story of Pinky: the Drug Trade
in My Neighborhood
Ben
Tripp
Negative Space: an Artful Lesson
Frederick
B. Hudson
Songs to Lose Your Loneliness By:
the Raised Voices of Sweet Honey in the Rock
Poets'
Basement
Gaffney, Engel, Davies, and Albert
June
24, 2005
Ray
McGovern
The Downing St. Fixation: Fixing
to Fix "Fixed"
Jorge
Mariscal
"They Only Call Us Americans
When They Need Us for War": the Paradox of Mexican Americans
in Iraq
Desiree
Hellegers
Portland vs. the FBI
Zeynep
Toufe
What Do the American People Know and
When Did They Know It?
Joshua
Frank
Call Him Senator Con Job
David
Lindorff
Which Flag Would Jesus Burn?
Michael
Neumann
Victory and Recruitment
Website
of the Day
Gagging
Dr. Dean
June
23, 2005
Christopher
Brauchli
Thomas Griffith and Rule 49:
He Practiced Law Without a License; Now He's a Federal Appeals
Court Judge
Clay
Conrad
Killing Off the Jury with Tort Reform
Standard
Schaefer
A Retort to Military Neo-Liberalism
P.
Sainath
Vidharbha: No rains and 116F, But
It Does Have "Snow" and Water Parks
Mark
Engler
CAFTA Deserves a Quiet Death
Norman
Solomon
Voluntary Amnesia in America
Cockburn
/ St. Clair
Frank Calzon
Kathy
Kelly
Where You Stand Determines What You
See
June
22, 2005
Kevin
Zeese
The Bush Administration's Psy-Ops on
the American Public: an Interview with Col. Sam Gardiner
William
S. Lind
Afghanistan: the Other War
Arsalan
Iftikhar
Patriots Against the PATRIOT Act
Dan
Nagengast
Give Populism a Chance: From
France to Kansas
David
Krieger
To the Graduates: We Live in an Interdependent
World
Kathleen
& Bill Christison
Tempest in Santa Fe: Confronting
Israeli Myth-making
June 21, 2005
Brian Cloughley
Destroy
the Unbelievers!
Mike Whitney
President
Disconnect
Dave Lindorff
Who Needs Big Bird, Anyway?
Mark Weisbrot
Bush's Lonely Campaign Against Hugo Chavez
Matthew R.
Simmons
The Coming Saudi Oil Crisis
Dave Zirin
The Crass Slipper Fits: Ron Howard's Terrible "Cinderella
Man"
Virginia Rodino
The Anti-War Movement and Impeachment
Paul Craig
Roberts
A
War Waged by Liars and Morons
June 20, 2005
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Tariq Ali
To
the Gates of the Gleneagles Hotel!
Mickey Z.
WMDs American-Style: It's 60 Years Since Alamogordo
William Blum
Some Things You Need to Know Before the World Ends
Gary Leupp
Old News Indeed: In 1999, Bush Craved Chance to Attack Iraq
Jason Leopold
Someone Tell Bush Iraq Wasn't Behind 9/11, Before He Starts Another
War
Dave Lindorff
Why the Media Should be Schiavo'd
Alan Maass
The
GM Job Massacre
Uri Avnery
Condi and Hamas
Website of
the Day
Crimes Against Poetry
June 18 / 19,
2005
Alexander Cockburn
Is
the Jury Dead?
Greg Moses
Race
Bias and the Death Penalty, One More Time
Benjamin Shepard
Arrested for Stickering, Biking and Other Misadventures: Creative
Direct Action in the Era of the PATRIOT Act
Stan Goff
Stuff to Do to Stop the War: 95 Days to Pre-Nixonize George W.
Bush
Lee Sustar
Does Iraq's Main Labor Union Support the Occupation?
Jude Wanniski
The Tipping Point: Getting Out of Iraq
Diana Barahona
Librarians as Spooks: the Scheme to Infiltrate Cuba Via Libraries
Brian Concannon, Jr.
Justice Dodge in Haiti, Again: Impunity and the Raboteau Massacre
Fred Gardner
How Many Wins Can We Take?
Mike Whitney
Gen. Tommy Friedman's Plan to "Win" the War in Iraq:
Reinstate the Draft
Ahmad Faruqui
Star Wars or Earth Wars?
Manuel García, Jr.
De-Eichmannizing America
Roger Howard
Leave Iranian Politics to Iranians
Ron Jacobs
Eros and the Grateful Dead
Ben Tripp
Situation Desperate: Why Am I Not Pleased?
Poets' Basement
Louise, Albert and Engel
Website of
the Weekend
Christ's Entry into Washington
June 17, 2005
Ricardo Alarcón
Who
Helped Posada Enter the US?
Clay Conrad
Medical
Marijuana: Is Jury Nullification the Next Step?
Marc Estrin
Open-Ended Closure: the Death Penalty and the Culture of Victimhood
Colin Brown
Firebombing Fallujah: Pentagon Lied About Use of Napalm in Iraq
Christopher
Brauchli
Pennies for Africa: Bush's Phony Money
Joshua Frank
Blue State Warriors: How Democrats Derailed the Peace Movement
Norman Solomon
The Killing Street Memo
Mary Rizzo
Who's Afraid of Gilad Atzmon?
Bond / Brutus
/ Setshedi
How
Bono and Trojan Horse NGOs Sabotage the Struggle Against Neoliberalism
June 16, 2005
John Walsh
The
Iraq War Polls: Dems' Stance Even Less Popular Than Bush's
Dave Lindorff
Work 'Till You Die: the Bush Retirement Plan
Adrian Lomax
Torture
in U.S. Prisons: Common, Lethal, Unreported
Tom Crumpacker
The CIA, Posada and the Bombing of Cubana Flight 455
Jeffrey Kolakowski
The Kinsley Paradigm: Downsizing the Downing St. Memo
Julene Bair
Turning Off the Ogallala Spigot: Toward a New Way to Farm on
the Great Plains
Michael Dickinson
As We Forgive Our Debtors: the Madness of Money
Francois Houtart / Isabel Parra,
et al.
Against Terrorism; In Defense of Humanity: an Appeal
Tom Barry
Meet
Bolton's Replacement: Robert "First Strike" Joseph
June 15, 2005
Stan Goff
An
Open Letter to US Troops on Loyalty
Daniel Wolff
The
Palace at 4 A.M.
Tim Wise
Discover the Nutwork: David Horowitz
and the Politics of Ad Hominem Distortion
Ricardo Alarcón
The New CIA Revelations About Posada
Joshua Frank
House Republicans vs. Bush: "This is Not a Conservative
War"
John Hilary
Bloodsuckers' Summit: Why the Left Should Rendezvous at the G8
Norman Solomon
Iran's Reformers: a Threat to Theocrats and Neocons
Alexander Cockburn
/ Jeffrey St. Clair
Juries
and Lynch Mobs
Website of the Day
What It Feels Like to be Tasered (Turn Up the Volume)
June 14, 2005
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
Forrest Hylton
Stalemate
in Bolivia
Richard Gott
The Crisis in Bolivia
Fred Gardner
The
Raich Decision: All Power to the Feds
Steve Breyman
Doing
the Right Thing is Also Politically Expedient
Dave Zirin
Sacred Hoops: Basketball in the Barrio
Robert Kent
Outsourcing Torture and the Stop-Loss Program
Paul Craig
Roberts
Enabling Evil: Bush's Willing Executioners
June 13, 2005
Gary Leupp
Another
Damning Document
Dave Lindorff
The Inca and Us
John Stauber
Mad
Cow USA: the Cover-Up Begins to Unravel
Fred Gardner
Supreme Indignity: Medical Pot Doctors Respond to Justice Stevens
Evelyn J. Pringle
TeenScreen: the Lawsuits Begin
Norman Solomon
Letter From Tehran
Winslow T.
Wheeler
Neo-Con Unfurls the Big Picture
June
10 / 12, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
Thomas Friedman's Imaginary World
Sharon
Smith
Torturers and Liars: Masters of Deception
Brian
Cloughley
"Support Our Torturers!"
Chris
Kromm
Home Cookin': Pentagon's Base Relignment Plan Would Increase
South's Share
Heather
Gray
A Day in Mississippi: Some Things Have Changed; Some Remain the
Same
Kevin
Zeese
What the Left Must Learn from 2004: an Interview with Josh Frank
Mickey
Z.
The Pentagon Papers, 34 Years Later
Gary
Leupp
A Review of Sison's "At Home in the World"
Eli
Stephens
The Asshole in El Paso: Why Posada Carriles Matters
Nick
Dearden
A Scottish Band in the Occupied Territories
Oscar
Olivera
Recovering Bolivia's Oil and Gas
Robert
Fisk
Screening "Kingdom of Heaven" in Beirut
Michael
Dickinson
Oh My God!: Gunning for Blasphemers
Poets'
Basement
Engel, Albert, Louise, Ford
Website
of the Weekend
Gravity's Rainbow, Illustrated
June 9, 2005
Len
Colodny
Felt Was Asked Under Oath in 1975
If He Was "Deep Throat"
Christopher
Brauchli
From Baseballs to Hand Grenades
Ron
Jacobs
Light a Candle; Curse the Darkness
Dave
Lindorff
US Media Shamed by Brit Journalist
Katrina
Yeaw / Alex Schmaus
Repression 101: Anti-War Students Sanctioned at SFSU
Alan
Farago
Spin Machine Busts a Gasket in the Everglades: Fed Judge Whacks
Jeb
Saul
Landau
The Charmed Life of a Mass Murderer
June
8, 2005
Jim
Hougan
Strange Bedfellows
Deep Throat, Bob Woodward and the CIA
Alan
Maass
Is Bolivia on the Edge of Revolution? an Interview with Tom Lewis
Jason
Leopold
Enron Lives!: Former Army Sec. White
Wants Govt. Money for New Energy Scam
Niranjan
Ramakrishnan
Exit Right, Advani: Unpardonable Acts of Statesmanship
Dave
Zirin
The Rotting Soul of the 49ers
Derrick
O'Keefe
Bush's Terrorist: the Case of Posada Carriles
Diana
Johnstone
Non, Neen, Angelene!
Why Defenders of the "Oui" are Wrong
Website
of the Day
The Meatrix
June
7, 2005
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia's Agony of the Stalement Continues
Greg
Moses / Susan van Haitsma
Pushing Back the Violence
Lenni
Brenner
What Madison Would Think About the Air Force Academy's Offical
Fanatics
Col.
Dan Smith
Liberation vs. Survival in Iraq
Joshua
Frank
Dean at the DNC: the Establishment vs. the Elites
Dave
Lindorff
Fair-Weather Allies: US Denies French Fighters Emergency Landing
Rights
Margot
Veranes / Adrian Navarro
Xenophobia in the Desert: Racist Fever Becomes Law in Arizona
Michael
Neumann
Sharing Music: Property Gone Wild
June
6, 2005
Stew
Albert
Everybody Must Get Busted: Supremes
Rule Against the Sick
Paul
Craig Roberts
Federal Bureau of Entrapment
Nicole
Colson
Inside Walter Reed Hospital
Ali
Khan
Friendly Renditions to Muslim Torture
Chambers
Jason
Leopold
When Will Rumsfeld Be Indicted?
Charles
Walker Poff
Rumsfeld, China and Hypocrisy
Ramzy
Baroud
My Grandpa's Right of Return
Rep.
John Conyers
Did Bush Deliberately Deceive America About Iraq?
Evelyn
Pringle
TeenScreen's Top Pusher
Gary
Corseri
25 Reasons to Impeach Bush
Website
of the Day
Save This 200 Year Old Burr Oak from Bible Thumpers with Chainsaws
June
4 / 5, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
France's Magnificent Non!
James
Petras
The Centrality of Peasant Movements
in Latin America
Robert
Fisk
Who Killed Samir?
Patrick
Cockburn
My Father, Claud Cockburn, the MI5 Suspect
Rev.
William Alberts
When Pride in Power Corrupts: the Story of a Methodist President,
His Bishops and an "Incompatible" Lesbian Minister
Saul
Landau
40 Interns and a Mule: Will the Dems Ever Take Advantage of the
Republicans' Blunders?
Mario
Lamo Jimenez
Dante with a Brush: Botero Immortalizes Bush
Dave
Lindorff
What is the Media Running From?
Lance
Selfa
Why Bush is Getting Away with Murder
Tom
Crumpacker
On the Use of State Terrorism: the Posada Precedent
Joshua
Frank
How Beltway Dems Sank Dean for America
Fred
Gardner
Don't Bogart That Taxable Commodity
Michael
Dickinson
Roll Out the Barrel: Blood, Oil and Baku
Roger
Martin
We Can See, But Not Far Enough
Reza
Fiyouzat
Welcome to the Third World
Ben
Tripp
Romance: Advice from a Pro
Graeme
Greenback
Pardon Me, While I Piss on this Bible
Poets'
Basement
Smith-Ferri, Albert, Engel, Smith
June
3, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
Welcome to a Has-Been Country
Joseph
Massad
Witch Hunt at Columbia
Jeff
Halper
The Process of Transfer Continues
Tom
Barry
The Immigration Debate: Whose Side Are You On?
Bruce
K. Gagnon
Bush Seeks Military Control of Space: "It's Our Destiny"
Joshua
Frank
Bombing Iran: Facts Don't Matter
Mickey
Z.
Deep Throat as Sideshow
Gary
Leupp
"Peddling Lies About How They
Were Mistreated"
Website
of the Day
Tattoo on My
Heart: Warriors of Wounded Knee, 1973
June
2, 2005
Paul
Craig Roberts
The Slave Traders of the Gitmo Gulag
Forrest
Hylton
Bolivia: the Agony of Stalemate
Mike
Whitney
Post-Mortem on the 4th Amendment: Warrants without Judges
Brian
Cloughley
Anarchy in Afghanistan; Ignorance in America
Mazin
Qumsiyeh
A Two-State Solution is No Solution
Russell
D. Hoffman
High Tension at San Onofre
Norman
Madarasz
"Le Jolie Mois de Mai": the Meaning of the French "Non"
Norman
Solomon
War Made Easy: from Vietnam to Iraq
David
Price
The Shallowness of Deep Throat
Website
of the Day
Fallujah on Film
June
1, 2005
James
Petras
Beyond Hypocrisy: the Deeper Meaning
of Posada
Justin
Delacour
Framing Venezuela: US Media Bias
Against Chavez
Edward
Jay Epstein
Was "Deep Throat" a Fictoid?
Omar
Barghouti / Lisa Taraki
The AUT Boycott: Freedom vs. "Academic"
Freedom
Dave
Lindorff
When War Goes Off the Script
Kevin
Zeese
Reality Check: Who to Believe on Iraq War and Gitmo?
Jason
Leopold
When Presidents Lie
William
S. Lind
Wreck It and Run
May
31, 2005
Sen.
Mike Gravel
Thank You, Mark Felt: We Need a New
Deep Throat
David
Krieger
US Nuclear Hypocrisy
Tad
Daley
The Nuclear Me-Too Club
Joshua
Frank
Pelosi at AIPAC: Israel Comes First
Richard
Gott
Chavez Leads the Way
Norman
Solomon
Time to Get Serious About Impeachment
Tom
Segev
Our Man in the Territories
Walter
Brasch
Killing Americans with Secrecy
Diana
Johnstone
The French "Non"
May
28 / 30, 2005
Alexander
Cockburn
There's Their Way or the Galloway
Richard
Lichtman
We Wuz Framed! the Consolations
of George Lakoff
Sharon
Smith
The Road to Abu Ghraib
Paul
Craig Roberts
Bush Opts for Civil War in Iraq
Dave
Lindorff
Whigged Out: the Dems Have Become
Merely a Vestigial Opposition Party
Ramzy
Baroud
Muslims Were Desecrated, Not Just
Their Holy Book
Brian
Cloughley
Why Are Nukes OK for You, But Not for Us?
Fred
Gardner
Advice from a Lawyer About Medical Pot
Lee
Sustar
Chavez Gets Proactive
Joshua
Frank
Isikoff Comes Clean: "Nobody in the US Said a Word, Until
the Riots"
Justin
E.H. Smith
What About the People? a Report from Romania
Jackie
Corr
A Montana History Lesson on Assfulness
Michael
Kimaid
Bush as Ahab
Toufic
Haddad
Lessons from the Reversal of the AUC Boycott
Justin
Taylor
The Fear of Paul Virilio
Amir
Butler
Searching for a Saladin
Ben
Tripp
Insomnia and Sarcasm
Poets'
Basement
Albert, Engel, Davies and Louise
May
27, 2005
Gary
Leupp
It Really is a Crusade!
Daniel
Estulin
Infiltrating Bilderberg 2005
Kevin
Zeese
Iraq Withdrawal Vote: If Walter "Freedom
Fries" Jones Can See the Light, Why Can't Nancy Pelosi?
Robert
Fisk
Mubarak's Goon Squads
Dave
Zirin
Why Pat Tillman's Parents Are No Longer
Silent
Website
of the Day
Stuckists
Hot Stories
Alexander Cockburn
Behold,
the Head of a Neo-Con!
Subcomandante
Marcos
The
Death Train of the WTO
Norman Finkelstein
Hitchens
as Model Apostate
Steve Niva
Israel's
Assassination Policy: the Trigger for Suicide Bombings?
Dardagan,
Slobodo and Williams
CounterPunch Exclusive:
20,000 Wounded Iraqi Civilians
Steve
J.B.
Prison Bitch
Sheldon
Rampton and John Stauber
True Lies: the Use of Propaganda
in the Iraq War
Wendell
Berry
Small Destructions Add Up
CounterPunch
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Corrie
A Mother's Day Talk: the Daughter
I Can't Hear From
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The
Erosion of the American Dream
Francis Boyle
Impeach
Bush: A Draft Resolution
Click
Here for More Stories.
|
June 30, 2005
When Tedium is Totalizing
The Political
Function of PBS
By
ALEXANDER COCKBURN
Years ago, when the nightly program
was mandatory viewing in every liberal home from Montauk to Santa
Monica, I wrote a parody of the McNeil-Lehrer Show, as it was
then called before McNeil hailed down his colors and moved on.
The piece ran in Harpers, and though it was prompted a good deal
of laughter, there were a surprising number of letters from outraged
PBS viewers, wailing about my lack of respect. It was as though
I had publicly kicked a respected greybeard.
The other night, glancing Lehrer's
News Hour I shook my head yet again at the precision of my gibes.
This particular show was about the efforts of Ken Tomlinson,
formerly of Readers' Digest and Voice of America, to purge PBS
of all liberal taint. From the right there was a nutcase from
The American Spectator called George Neumayr and from the left
but of course there was no one from the left. There never is.
There was a "moderate" from the center right called
Bill Reed.
JEFFREY BROWN (moderator):
Welcome to both of you. Mr. Neumayr Do you see a liberal bias
in public broadcasting?
GEORGE NEUMAYR: I do. I see
a pervasive bias. I applaud Ken Tomlinson for making an attempt
to correct it
JEFFREY BROWN: Mr. Reed, do
you see a liberal bias?
BILL REED: I think this is
really nonsense. You know, for over 30 years, William F. Buckley
was on public television, and I carried him proudly in the stations
that I`ve managed in my career. He`s a fine journalist, and so
is Bill Moyers.
JEFFREY BROWN: So Mr. Reed,
what do you believe is causing Mr. Tomlinson to raise these questions?
BILL REED: You know, I don`t
know. I don`t know.
Feel yourself dozing off?
Now, there were important historical
reasons for the rise of this narcotic show. So, without further
ado, I give my parody, as it appeared nearly 25 years ago, in
august 1982, under the title
The Tedium Twins
ROBERT MACNEIL (voice over):
A Galilean preacher claims he is the Redeemer and says the poor
are blessed. Should he be crucified?
(Titles)
MACNEIL: Good evening. The
Roman procurator in Jerusalem is trying to decide whether a man
regarded by many as a saint should be put to death. Pontius Pilate
is being urged by civil libertarians to intervene in what is
seen here in Rome as being basically a local dispute. Tonight,
the crucifixion debate. Jim?
JIM LEHRER: Robin, the provinces
of Judaea and Galilee have always been trouble spots, and this
year is no exception. The problem is part religious, part political,
and in many ways a mixture of both. The Jews believe in one god.
Discontent in the province has been growing, with many local
businessmen complaining about the tax burden. Terrorism, particularly
in Galilee, has been on the increase. In recent months, a carpenter's
son from the town of Nazareth has been attracting a large following
with novel doctrines and faith healing. He recently entered Jerusalem
amid popular acclaim, but influential Jewish leaders fear his
power. Here in Alexandria the situation is seen as dangerous.
Robin?
MACNEIL: Recently in Jerusalem
on a fact-finding mission for the Emperor's Emergency Task Force
on Provincial Disorders was Quintilius Maximus. Mr. Maximus,
how do you see the situation?
MAXIMUS: Robin, I had occasion
to hear one of this preacher's sermons a few months ago and talk
with his aides. There is no doubt in my mind that he is a threat
to peace and should be crucified.
MACNEIL: Pontius Pilate should
wash his hands of the problem?
MAXIMUS: Absolutely.
MACNEIL: I see. Thank you.
Jim?
LEHRER: Now for a view from
Mr. Simon, otherwise known as Peter. He is a supporter of Christ
and has been standing by in a Jerusalem studio. Robin?
MACNEIL: Mr. Simon Peter, why
do you support Christ?
SIMON PETER: He is the Son
of God and presages the Second Coming. If I may, I would like
to read some relevant passages from the prophet Isaiah.
MACNEIL: Thank you, but I'm
afraid we'll have to break in there. We've run out of time. Goodnight,
Jim.
LEHRER: Good night, Robin.
MACNEIL: Sleep well, Jim.
LEHRER: I hope you sleep well,
too, Robin.
MACNEIL: I think I will. Well,
good night again, Jim.
LEHRER: Goodnight, Robin.
MACNEIL: We'll be back again tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil
Good night.
Admirers of the 'MacNeil/Lehrer
Report' - and there are many of them - often talk about it in
terms normally reserved for unpalatable but nutritious breakfast
foods: unalluring, perhaps, to the frivolous news consumer, but
packed full of fiber. It is commended as the sort of news analysis
a serious citizen, duly weighing the pros and cons of world history,
would wish to masticate before a thoughtful browse through the
Federalist Papers, a chat with spouse about civic duties incumbent
on them on the morrow, and final blameless repose.
The promotional material for the 'Report' has a tone of reverence
of the sort usually employed by people reading guidebooks to
each other in a French cathedral: 'The week-nightly newscast's
unique mix of information, expert opinion, and debate has foreshadowed
an industry trend toward longer and more detailed coverage, while
at the same time helping to reveal a growing public appetite
for informational television. Nearly 4.5 million viewers watch
the "MacNeil/ Lehrer Report" each night during the
prime viewing season. ...'
'A program with meat on its
bones,' said the Association for Continuing Higher Education,
in presenting its 1981 Leadership Award. 'The "MacNeil/
Lehrer Report" goes beyond the commercial networks' rushed
recital of news to bring us in-depth coverage of single issues.
... There is a concern for ideas rather than video images and
they accord us the unusual media compliment of not telling us
what to think, but allowing us to draw our own conclusions after
we weigh conflicting views.' And the handout concludes in triumph
with some findings from a 1980 Roper poll: 'Three quarters of
those polled said they had discovered pros and cons on issues
on which they had not had opinions beforehand.'
ROBERT MACNEIL (voice over):
Should one man own another?
(Titles)
MACNEIL: Good evening. The
problem is as old as man himself. Do property rights extend to
the absolute ownership of one man by another? Tonight, the slavery
problem. Jim?
LEHRER: Robin, advocates of the continuing system of slavery
argue that the practice has brought unparalleled benefits to
the economy. They fear that new regulations being urged by reformers
would undercut America's economic effectiveness abroad. Reformers,
on the other hand, call for legally binding standards and even
for a phased reduction in the slave force to something like 75
percent of its present size. Charlayne Hunter- Gault is in Charleston.
Charlayne?
HUNTER-GAULT: Robin and Jim, I have here in Charleston, Mr. Ginn,
head of the Cottongrowers Association. Robin?
MACNEIL: Mr. Ginn, what are the arguments for unregulated slavery?
GINN: Robin, our economic data show that attempts at regulation
of working hours, slave quarters, and so forth would reduce productivity
and indeed would be widely resented by the slaves themselves.
MACNEIL: You mean, the slaves would not like new regulations?
They would resent them?
GINN: Exactly. Any curbing of the slave trade would offer the
Tsar dangerous political opportunities in western Africa, and
menace the strategic slave-ship routes.
LEHRER: Thank you, Mr. Ginn.
Robin?
MACNEIL: Thank you, Mr. Ginn and Jim. The secretary of the Committee
for Regulatory Reform in Slavery is Eric Halfmeasure. Mr. Halfmeasure,
give us the other side of the story.
HALFMEASURE: Robin, I would like to make one thing perfectly
clear. We are wholeheartedly in favor of slavery. We just see
abuses that diminish productivity and reduce incentives for free
men and women to compete in the marketplace. Lynching, tarring
and feathering, rape, lack of holidays, and that sort of thing.
One recent study suggests that regulation could raise productivity
by 15 percent.
MACNEIL: I see. Thank you,
Mr. Halfmeasure. Mr. Ginn?
GINN: Our studies show the opposite.
MACNEIL: Jim?
LEHRER: Charlayne?
HUNTER-GAULT: A few critics of slavery argue that it should be
abolished outright. One of them is Mr. Garrison. Mr. Garrison,
why abolish slavery?
GARRISON: It is immoral for one man ...
MACNEIL: Mr. Garrison, we're running out of time, I'm afraid.
Let me very quickly get some other points of view. Mr. Ginn,
you think slavery is good?
GINN: Yes.
MACNEIL: And you, Mr. Halfmeasure, think it should be regulated.
HALFMEASURE: Yes.
MACNEIL: Well, I've got you to disagree, haven't I? (Laughter)
That's all we've got time for tonight. Goodnight, Jim.
LEHRER: Good night, Robin.
MACNEIL: Did you sleep well last night?
LEHRER: I did, thank you.
MACNEIL: That's good. So did
I. We'll be back again tomorrow night. I'm Robert MacNeil Good
night.
The 'MacNeil/Lehrer Report'
started in October 1975, in the aftermath of Watergate. It was
a show dedicated to the proposition that there are two sides
to every question, a valuable corrective in a period when the
American people had finally decided that there were absolutely
and definitely not two sides to every question. Nixon was a crook
who had rightly been driven from office; corporations were often
headed by crooks who carried hot money around in suitcases; federal
officials were crooks who broke the law on the say-so of the
president.
It was a dangerous moment,
for a citizenry suddenly imbued with the notion that there is
not only a thesis and antithesis, but also a synthesis, is a
citizenry, capable of all manner of harm to the harmonious motions
of the status quo.
Thus came the 'MacNeil/ Lehrer Report,' sponsored by public-television
funds and by the most powerful corporate forces in America, in
the form of Exxon, 'AT&T and the Bell System,' and other
upstanding bodies. Back to Sunday school went the excited viewers,
to be instructed that reality, as conveyed to them by television,
is not an exciting affair of crooked businessmen and lying politicians
but a serious continuum in which parties may disagree but in
which all involved are struggling manfully and disinterestedly
for the public weal.
The narcotizing, humorless properties of the 'MacNeil/Lehrer
Report,' familiar to anyone who has felt fatigue creep over him
at 7:40 Eastern time, are crucial to the show. Tedium is of the
essence, since the all-but- conscious design of the program is
to project vacuous dithering ('And now, for another view of Hitler
...') into the mind of the viewers, until they are properly convinced
that there is not one answer to 'the problem,' but two or even
three, and that since two answers are no better than none, they
might as well not bother with the problem at all.
The techniques employed by the show enhance this distancing and
anesthetizing. The recipe is unvarying. MacNeil and Lehrer exchange
modest gobbets of information with each other about the topic
under discussion. Then, with MacNeil crouching - rather like
Kermit the Frog in old age - down to the left and peering up,
a huge face appears on the screen and discussion is under way.
The slightest discommoding exchange, some intemperate observation
on the part of the interviewee, causes MacNeil to bat the ball
hastily down to Washington, where Lehrer sedately sits with his
interviewee.
By fits and starts, with Jim
batting back to Robin and Robin batting across to Charlayne,
the program lurches along. The antagonists are rarely permitted
to joust with one another and ideally are sequestered on their
large screens. Sometimes, near the end of the show, the camera
will reveal that these supposed antagonists are in fact sitting
chummily, shoulder to shoulder, around the same table as Lehrer
thus indicating to the viewer that, while opinions may
differ, all are united in general decency of purpose. Toward
the very end, MacNeil's true role becomes increasingly exposed
as he desperately tries to suppress debate and substantive argument,
with volley after volley of 'We're nearly out of time,' 'Congressman,
in ten seconds could you' and the final, relieved, 'That's all
for tonight.'
It's even important that MacNeil
and Lehrer say good night to each other so politely every evening.
In that final, sedate nocturnal exchange everything is finally
resolved, even though nothing has been resolved. We can all go
to bed now.
And so to bed we go. The pretense
is that viewers, duly presented with both sides of the case,
will spend the next segment of the evening weighing the pro against
the con and coming up with the answer. It is, in fact, enormously
difficult to recall anything that anyone has ever said on a 'MacNeil/Lehrer
Report,' because the point has been to demonstrate that since
everything can be contradicted, nothing is worth remembering.
The show praised above all others for content derives its attention
entirely from form: the unvarying illustration that if one man
can be found to argue that cannibalism is bad, another can be
found to argue that it is not.
Actually, this is an overstatement.
'MacNeil/ Lehrer' hates such violent extremes, and, by careful
selection of the show's participants, the show tries to make
sure that the viewer will not be perturbed by any views overly
critical of the political and business establishment.
ROBERT MACNEIL (voice over):
Should one man eat another?
(Titles)
MACNEIL: Good evening. Reports from the Donner Pass indicate
that survivors fed upon their companions. Tonight, should cannibalism
be regulated? Jim?
LEHRER: Robin, the debate pits
two diametrically opposed sides against each other: the Human
Meat-eaters Association, who favor a free market in human flesh,
and their regulatory opponents in Congress and the consumer movement.
Robin?
MACNEIL: Mr. Tooth, why eat human flesh?
TOOTH: Robin, it is full of protein and delicious too. Without
human meat, our pioneers would be unable to explore the West
properly. This would present an inviting opportunity to the French,
who menace our pioneer routes from the north.
MACNEIL: Thank you. Jim?
LEHRER: Now for another view of cannibalism. Bertram Brussell-Sprout
is leading the fight to control the eating of animal fats and
meats. Mr. Sprout, would you include human flesh in this proposed
regulation?
SPROUT: Most certainly, Jim.
Our studies show that some human flesh available for sale to
the public is maggot-ridden, improperly cut, and often incorrectly
graded. We think the public should be protected from such abuses.
MACNEIL: Some say it is wrong to eat human flesh at all. Mr.
Prodnose, give us this point of view.
PRODNOSE: Robin, eating people is wrong. We say ...
MACNEIL: I'm afraid we're out
of time. Good night, Jim, etc., etc.
Trudging back through the 'MacNeil/
Lehrer' scripts, the hardy reader will soon observe how extraordinarily
narrow is the range of opinion canvassed by a show dedicated
to dispassionate examination of the issues of the day. The favored
blend is usually a couple of congressmen or senators, barking
at each other from either side of the fence, corporate chieftains,
government executives, ranking lobbyists, and the odd foreign
statesman. The mix is ludicrously respectable, almost always
heavily establishment in tone. Official spokesmen of trade and
interest groups are preferred over people who only have something
interesting to say.
This constriction of viewpoint
is particularly conspicuous in the case of energy, an issue dear
to the 'MacNeil/Lehrer Report.' 'Economics of Nuclear Power,'
for example, was screened on November 25, 1980, and purported
to examine why a large number of nuclear utilities were teetering
on the edge of bankruptcy. Mustered to ponder the issue we had
the following rich and varied banquet: the president of the Virginia
Electric and Power Company; the vice president (for nuclear operations)
of Commonwealth Edison of Chicago; a vice president (responsible
for scrutinizing utility investments) at Paine Webber; and the
president of the Atomic Industrial Forum. The viewers of 'MacNeil/
Lehrer' did not, you may correctly surmise, hear much critical
opinion about nuclear power on that particular evening.
On May 1, 1981, the 'Report' examined 'the problems and prospects
of getting even more oil out of our ground.' Participants in
the discussion about oil glut included some independent oil drillers,
and 'experts' from Merrill Lynch, Phillips Petroleum Company,
and the Rand Corporation.
At least on May 1 the viewers had more than one person saying
the same thing ('regulation is bad'). On March 27 they were invited
to consider the plans of the Reagan administration for a rebuilt
navy. The inquiring citizen was offered a trip around the battleship
Iowa in the company of MacNeil, and an extremely meek interview,
conducted by both MacNeil and Lehrer, of the Secretary of the
Navy, John Lehman. No dissenting views were allowed to intrude,
beyond the deferential inquiries of MacNeil and Lehrer, both
of whom, it should be said, are very bad interviewers, usually
ignorant and always timid. By contrast, Ted Koppel of ABC's 'Nightline'
is a veritable tiger in interrogatory technique.
The spectrum of opinion thus offered is one that ranges from
the corporate right to cautious center-liberal. One should not
be misled, by the theatrical diversity of views deployed on the
program,into thinking that a genuinely wide spectrum of opinion
is permitted. Moldering piles of 'MacNeil/ Lehrer' transcripts
before me on my desk attest to the fact.
The show would be nothing without Robert ('Robin') MacNeil. Canadian,
with a layer of high seriousness so thick it sticks to the screen,
MacNeil anchors the show to tedium and yanks at the hawser everytime
the craft shows any sign of floating off into uncharted waters.
He seems to have learned - on the evidence of his recent memoir,
The Right Place at the Right Time - the elements of his deadly
craft in London, watching the BBC and writing for Reuters.
MacNeil is a man so self-righteously
boring that he apparently had no qualms in setting down the truth
about his disgraceful conduct in Dallas on November 22, 1963.
MacNeil was there covering Kennedy's visit for NBC. The shots
rang out and he sprinted to the nearest telephone he could find.
It so happens that he dashed, without knowing its significance,
into the Texas Book Depository: 'As I ran up the steps and through
the door, a young man in shirt sleeves was coming out. In great
agitation I asked him where there was a phone. He pointed inside
to an open space where another man was talking on a phone situated
next to a pillar and said, "Better ask him." I ran
inside. ...'
Later, MacNeil writes, 'I heard on television that a young man
called Oswald, arrested for the shooting, worked at the Texas
Book Depository and had left by the front door immediately afterward.
Isn't that strange, I told myself. He must have been leaving
just about the time I was running in...'
Later still, William Manchester demonstrated that there was a
95 percent certainty that MacNeil had met Oswald. Any reporter,
any human, with anything other than treacle in his veins, would
naturally make much of the coincidence and divert children, acquaintances,
and indeed a wider public, with interesting accounts of Oswald's
demeanor at this significant moment. Not MacNeil. With Pecksniffian
virtuousness, he insists that the encounter was merely 'possible,'
and that 'it is titillating, but it doesn't matter very much.'
Such is the aversion to storytelling, the sodden addiction to
the mundane, that produced 'MacNeil/ Lehrer.' Like an Exocet
missile, MacNeil can spot a cliche, a patch of ennui, and home
in on it with dreadful speed. Witness his proclamation of political
belief:
Instinctively, I find it more
satisfying to belong with those people in all countries who put
their trust in Man's best quality, his rational intellect and
its ability to recognize and solve problems. It is distressing
that the recent course of American politics has caused that trust
to be ridiculed or dismissed as some sort of soft-headedness,
inappropriate to a virile nation confronting the dangerous world.
It will be unfortunate if being a 'liberal' remains an embarrassment,
if young Americans should begin to believe that conservatives
are the only realists.
Each has its absurd extreme: liberalism tending to inspire foolish
altruism and unwarranted optimism; conservatism leading to unbridled
selfishness and paranoia. Taken in moderation, I prefer the liberal
impulse: it is the impulse behind the great forces that have
advanced mankind, like Christianity. I find it hard to believe
that Jesus Christ was a political conservative, whatever views
are espoused in his name today.
For all my instinctive liberalism, my experience of politics
in many countries has not left me wedded to any particular political
parties. Rather, I have found myself politically dining a la
carte, on particular issues.
This is the mind-set behind
'MacNeil/ Lehrer.' 'I have my own instinctive aversion to being
snowed,' he writes at another point. 'The more I hear everyone
telling me that some public person is wonderful, the more I ask
myself, Can he really be all that wonderful? Conversely [for
MacNeil there is always a 'conversely' poking its head round
the door], I never believe anyone can be quite as consistently
terrible as his reputation.'
Hitler? Attila the Hun? Pol Pot? Nixon? John D. Rockefeller?
I'm afraid that's all we have time for tonight. We've run out
of time. Good night.
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