SpiroTheodoreAgnewTelevisionNewsCoverage

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Spiro Theodore Agnew: Television News Coverage

I think it's obvious from the cameras here that I

didn't come to discuss the ban on cyclamates or DDT. I

have a subject which I think if of great importance to

the American people. Tonight I want to discuss the

importance of the television news medium to the American

people. No nation depends more on the intelligent

judgment of its citizens. No medium has a more profound

influence over public opinion. Nowhere in our system are

there fewer checks on vast power. So, nowhere should

there be more conscientious responsibility exercised than

by the news media. The question is, "Are we demanding

enough of our television news presentations?" "And are

the men of this medium demanding enough of themselves?"

Monday night a week ago, President Nixon delivered

the most important address of his Administration, one of

the most important of our decade. His subject was

Vietnam. My hope, as his at that time, was to rally the

American people to see the conflict through to a lasting

and just peace in the Pacific. For 32 minutes, he

reasoned with a nation that has suffered almost a third

of a million casualties in the longest war in its

history.

When the President completed his address -- an

address, incidentally, that he spent weeks in the

preparation of -- his words and policies were subjected

to instant analysis and querulous criticism. The audience

of 70 million Americans gathered to hear the President of

the United States was inherited by a small band of

network commentators and self-appointed analysts, the

majority of whom expressed in one way or another their

hostility to what he had to say.

It was obvious that their minds were made up in

advance. Those who recall the fumbling and groping that

followed President Johnson’s dramatic disclosure of his

intention not to seek another term have seen these men in

a genuine state of nonpreparedness. This was not it.

One commentator twice contradicted the President’s

statement about the exchange of correspondence with Ho

Chi Minh. Another challenged the President’s abilities

as a politician. A third asserted that the President was

following a Pentagon line. Others, by the expressions on

their faces, the tone of their questions, and the sarcasm

of their responses, made clear their sharp disapproval.

To guarantee in advance that the President’s plea

for national unity would be challenged, one network

trotted out Averell Harriman for the occasion. Throughout

the President's address, he waited in the wings. When the

President concluded, Mr. Harriman recited perfectly. He

attacked the Thieu Government as unrepresentative; he

criticized the President’s speech for various

deficiencies; he twice issued a call to the Senate

Foreign Relations Committee to debate Vietnam once again;

he stated his belief that the Vietcong or North

Vietnamese did not really want military take-over of

South Vietnam; and he told a little anecdote about a

“very, very responsible” fellow he had met in the North

Vietnamese delegation.

All in all, Mr. Harrison offered a broad range of

gratuitous advice challenging and contradicting the

policies outlined by the President of the United States.

Where the President had issued a call for unity, Mr.

Harriman was encouraging the country not to listen to

him.

A word about Mr. Harriman. For 10 months he was

America’s chief negotiator at the Paris peace talks -- a

period in which the United States swapped some of the

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SpiroTheodoreAgnewTelevisionNewsCoverageSpiroTheodoreAgnew:TelevisionNewsCoverageIthinkit'sobviousfromthecamerasherethatIdidn'tcometodiscussthebanoncyclamatesorDDT.IhaveasubjectwhichIthinkifofgreatimportancetotheAmericanpeople.TonightIwanttodiscusstheimportanceofthetelevisionnewsmediumtotheAmericanp...

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