Television: The Peace-loving Audience

The telephones rang incessantly; Cleveland television station WEWS had never had so many complaints in a single day. When the umpteenth belligerent caller demanded, “How long are you going to keep the U.N. session on the air?”, General Manager James C. Hanrahan finally blew a fuse. “How long will the marines stay in Lebanon?” he shouted, and banged the receiver down in disgust.

Across the nation, network TV stations had shrugged off the summer doldrums to come alive in the Middle East crisis. They had sacrificed fat revenues from sponsored shows to cover the U.N. debates, speaker by speaker. Such popular programs as CBS’s The Verdict Is Yours, NBC’s Dragnet and ABC’s Andy Williams Show were cut off or canceled outright. Expensive evening hours were given over to news analysis.

Professional critics were quick with praise. Said the New York Herald Tribune’s John Crosby: “The Near East crisis gave TV a chance to hold its head up for a change and act like a responsible medium of expression. If Nasser has nothing else to his credit, he can, on the day of judgment, say he got three giveaways [For Love or Money, Play Your Hunch, Dotto] off the air.”

But, as happens all too frequently, those who approved did not phone. With the field left to themselves, the complainants gave network program directors a discouraging view of the audience they strive to please. “We just plain don’t care to hear or read about the mess,” wrote a Texan to NBC. Added a CBS fan: “What good does it do to make so many of us give up the only pleasures we have—our daily TV programs? Besides, it creates unrest and worry to thousands.”

Here and there a local station was tempted to cave in and go back to its quiz show or record library. But the networks stuck to their guns and stayed zeroed in on the U.N., holding high the banner of public service whether the public wanted it or not.