EYE ON THE CANDIDATES WHITE HOUSE DREAMS ARE MADE ON CATHODE TUBES

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31661, 23 April 1968, Page 14

EYE ON THE CANDIDATES WHITE HOUSE DREAMS ARE MADE ON CATHODE TUBES

(Reprinted from “Newsweek” by arrangement)

Bobby Kennedy’s jumpers may jump and his squealers may squeal. Eugene McCarthy’s youthful crusaders may stage jubilant Richard Nixon’s Republican stalwarts may clamour to shake their hero’s hand. But the main battles of the 1968 campaign are not being waged in tumult and in shouting—they are unfolding in 56 million living rooms before that sedentary American audience, the television viewer.

In each successive Presidential year since 1948, the nation's election drama has been scripted more and more for television and this year's campaign promises to play to the cameras with more single-mindedness—and sophistication—than ever before. So far, each of 1968 s startling political surprises— George Romney’s withdrawal and then Nelson Rockefeller’s disavowal of active candidacy, McCarthy’s boom in New Hampshire and Kennedy’s sudden announcement, and finally Lyndon Johnson’s astounding decision not to run —has been sprung, live and in colour, directly on the television screen. Reprise Of 1960 And the most recent of these shocks, the Presidential exit, has cleared the way for a reprise of what many consider television's finest hours of political programming: the 1960 debates between Presidential candidates John F. Kennedy and Richard M. Nixon. In 1964, two factors prevented any renewed debates: (1) an incumbent President was a candidate with much more to lose than to gain by dignifying his challenger in a joint appearance; and (2) Lyndon Johnson was acutely aware, as he admitted just two weeks ago during an address to the National Association of Broadcasters, of his “own shortcomings as a communicator” on television. Bowing to Mr Johnson’s distaste for the debates, the Democratic-controlled Congress took no action in 1964 to suspend Section 315 of the Communications Act, which discourages the networks from clearing free air time for debates between the two main candidates because they would be bound to offer equal time to the whole spectrum of minor candidates as well—usually a dozen in all. But this year, with the President out of the running, the hopes of broadcasters have risen. Appeals To Congress Already, each network has appealed to Congress, for a suspension of Section 315; so has Vincent Wasilewski, president of the National Association of Broadcasters. Senator John Pastore, the Rhode Island Democrat who heads the communications subcommittee of the Senate Commerce Committee, is enthusiastic about the proposal, and it seems certain to pass the Senate. There are some rumblings of opposition in the House of Representatives, where Congressmen have been annoyed by political editorialising by local broadcasters and do not want to encourage more politicking over the air-waves, but most observers expect the suspension to be enacted

without a great deal of trouble.

David Schoumacher has scored some impressive beats over the far more elaborate N.B.C. operation.

Most important of all, each of the major candidates has declared his willingness to debate if he is nominated by his party. Richard Nixon, in spite of his dismal experience with the 1960 debates, was clearly in no position to refuse this year lest he seem to lack self-confidence.

All three networks have budgeted hefty amounts for their election-year coverage SU.S.I2 million by N.B C roughly SU.S.U.S million by C.B.S. and SU.S.7 million by A.B.C.—only a fraction of which they will recover through advertising. “All of us will be lucky,” says A.B.C. news director William Sheehan, “if we recover 25 per cent of the cost.”

And Bobby Kennedy cannot afford to repudiate the precedent set by his brother, even though his nervous and sometimes tongue-tied speaking style makes him less than an ideal debater. He would consent to a debate, said a staff aide, because “it is in the family tradition.” Eugene McCarthy, too, said that he would “be willing to take part”—but only if he were asked. He will not initiate a challenge because that, he thinks, would imply a weakness on his part. Nevertheless, he feels that a debate between himself and Kennedy would be a useful exercise during the primary campaigns—more useful, probably, than a debate between Republican and Democratic nominees after the conventions.

N.8.C., for the last decade, has been the leader in convention and election-night audiences, and, predictably, its 1968 formula calls for more of the same. For election night, it has refined its early-prediction and analytical apparatus now called the “N.B.C. news projection” instead of 1966 s more pretentious “Electronic Voter Analysis”—with the help of the former Census Bureau director, Richard Scammon. And the commentators Huntley and Brinkley will be back at their usual stands. Regional Reports C. 8.5., however, is making a mighty effort this year to catch up. For one thing, it has assigned reporters to geographical areas as well as to candidates: Mike Wallace to the East, Roger Mudd to the South, Joseph Benti to the Midwest and Bill Stout to the West. “There are always two sides to a campaign: the candidate and the region he campaigns in,” explains Sam Zelman, who heads primary and election coverage for C.B.S. “Each of our men is expected to know the area’s history, power sources and issues in order to accurately measure the impact of a candidate. A man who only follows a candidate can’t do that.” At the conventions, Walter Cronkite will again act as anchor man, Mudd and Eric Sevareid set off in a special “analysis studio” to stand back from the action on the floor and provide commentary and background. To enrich the analysis, Theodore White will contribute occasional recipe hints about Presidents -in - themaking, and Art Buchwald will explain what is actually happening. Different Approach A.B.C. is the one network to try a fundamentally different approach this year. While it will break into normal programming with major news breaks during the conventions, the network’s main effort will be confined to wrapping up the highlights in a 90-minute show each night. Even though the move was motivated almost entirely by economy, it could open the way to more inventive convention reportage than seen in the past. “While we're doing it for the wrong reason,” says one A.B.C. official, “it’s high time somebody took a chance on being more creative than just turning the cameras on every ho-hum thing that goes on.” This much is clear: however candidates Nixon. Kennedy and McCarthy (and non-candidates Humphrey, Rockefeller and Reagan) choose to spend their time between now and November, they will never be far from a television camera.

Advantage Of Debate In the November election, McCarthy contends, the issues between the two parties can be effectively aired without a face-to-face confrontation. Debates, he says, serve mainly to illuminate differences of personality, which are particularly crucial in a primary where the two contenders agree on most issues. Actually, McCarthy may be overlooking one of the major advantages of television deba**’: it gives the candidate a crack at an audience that would normally be attracted only by his opponent. That was one reason John F. Kennedy gave after his election for his willingness to debate even as the incumbent President.

Whatever the case, one shrewd television producer suspects that McCarthy’s only chance of stopping Kennedy is to lure him into televised debates during the primaries. For one revelation of the 1968 campaign has been Gene McCarthy’s quietly compelling television style. The same cool and conversational delivery that frustrates thrill-seeking crowds at his political rallies is extraordinarily effective with home viewers, and McCarthy comes across with a naturalness, sincerity, and air of calm reason that few politicians can match. Exploiting A Talent Sensing this talent, McCarthy and his advisers are planning to devote a mounting share of their campaign treasury to television. (Just last month, they hired the Carl Ally Agency of New York to handle this area of the campaign.) The night before the Wisconsin primary, McCarthy shelled out close to $lOO,OOO for a half-hour on national television. Speaking entirely off-the-cuff, half-sitting on a lectern in a small studio surrounded by a folksy-look-ing assortment of Wisconsinites, he gave an account of his candidacy and qualifications which repaid some stretches of tedium with an intimate view of a Presidential candidate thinking on his feet.

Bobby Kennedy seems far happier in front of a crowd than a camera. His own emotional pitch is clearly much higher than McCarthy’s (or John F. Kennedy’s), and he occasionally appears stiff and somewhat inarticulate when he has no mass audience before which to vent his feelings.

Doubtless they will like it —cathode tubes have become the stuff the White House dreams are made on. But they will be obliged to submit to one of the most relentless mechanisms for exposure devised by man—and that can work for the vuter as well as the politician.

Evidently judging that Kennedy’s charismatic appeal and energetic style are by far his greatest assets, his managers have so far not planned any elaborate television campaign. Instead they are concentrating on his tumultuous personal appearances and jet-speed journeyings across the country. Nixon’s Commercials

Richard Nixon has so far made full use of commercials. For the New Hampshire and Wisconsin primaries, the New York advertising firm Feeley and Wheeler put together a highly effective series of short television spots, some countering the notion that Nixon could not be elected (prominent and successful local politicians were shown endorsing him), some debunking the old “Tricky Dick” image (Nixon chatting affably with local citizens and answering unrehearsed questions), and some stressing his familiarity with the international scene (Nixon on world tours talking with prominent statesmen). Feeley and Wheeler are also using a half-hour film of Nixon on the campaign trial which—in a fast-paced succession of smiles, quips and articulate candour fleshes out a human side of Nixon that many of his critics have never admitted to exist

Networks Compete Of course, most of any candidate's television appearances do not cost him any money, for a Presidential contender is news and he can expect juicy gobbets of free time on the network news shows. Gene McCarthy, for example, has profited mightily from a fierce little competition for exclusive interviews between C.B.S. and N.8.C., in which C.B.S.’s