SpiroTheodoreAgnewTelevisionNewsCoverage
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SpiroTheodoreAgnewTelevisionNewsCoverage
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
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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.
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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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