-Outrider
Agnew—Defender of the right to judge?
By Garry Wills
Mr. Agnew spoke, concerning the
Ervin Committee, with his normal
logic. He said he was not attacking
committee investigations as such —
and then he raised all the old “liberal”
objections to them: lack of adequate
restriction, counsel, rebuttal, as
measured against trial procedure.
He called the hearings a “beauty
contest,” in which appearance will
count more than evidence, men will
succumb to the “Perry Masonish im
pact,” and television will become a
“vehicle for interjecting the people into
the process of judgment.”
Now, that is odd. Agnew has posed
as a defender of the people’s right to
judge. He did not want the President’s
appearances mediated to people by
instant commentators or liberal know
it-alls. Let the people judge for them
selves.
Nixon, too, has always preferred
direct TV coverage to the roundabout
transmission of his words through
reporters and commentators. He went
out of his way to say, in his “last press
conference,” that TV kept the
newspapers honest by showing the
candidate himself in action.
But now the people, who know better
than the Sevareids and Cronkites, have
become idiot types unable to judge for
themselves, sent ga-ga by a pretty face,
needing guidance from experts and
legal advisers.
“The indefatigable camera will paint
both heroes and villains in lurid and
indelible colors before the public’s very
eyes.” Once the commentators were at
fault. Now it is the camera itself — or
the public’s eyes. They distort
(“paint”) the facts — for Agnew is
claiming that truth cannot emerge
from this process. If not, then why does
it emerge from President Nixon’s
appearances, emerging there so
directly that analysis would just blur
the evidence of the camera and the
public’s eyes?
In his famous Des Moines attack on
the press, Agnew deplored the TV
stations’ right to withhold coverage of
events, preventing the people from
seeing him, not letting him take his
case directly to them. Now he is the one
who withholds, interposes himself, tells
the people he knows what is best for
them, that they can’t be trusted to
judge.
This entire reversal suggests only one
thing, that Agnew, like everyone else on
the White House team so far, wants to
hide and obstruct. He fears the
cameras will reveal, not distort; will
photograph, not “paint.”
This Watergate speech came out the
day after the Washington “Post”
printed a long Agnew interview with
David Broder. The same reversals and
lapses mark speech and interview. In
the past, he said no one has elected the
commentators, so the people don’t trust
them as they do their chosen
representatives. Now he claims the
commentators are too trusted,
“avuncular” regular presences in the
living room, while politicians are
automatically distrusted as “partisan”
spokesmen. So we can’t let the trusted
newsmen appear near politicians, or
they will undercut the trust in our
rulers that, anyway, does not exist!
First, the politicians are trustworthy,
so we should listen only to them. Then,
the commentators are trustworthy, so
we should not be allowed to listen to
them. The people elect those they
distrust; and so, in the name of
democracy, they must not listen to
those they trust.
In all these twisting, self-canceling
remarks, only one thing is consistent —
hatred of the press. He will hate it for
being A today; and for being Anti-A
tomorrow; and for being Non-A the
next day. Reasons will come and go,
and fight with each other, because they
never mattered in the first place. They
were all so much cover for a reasonless
hostility.
Copyright, 1973, Universal Press
Syndicate
Letters
Abdullah
I didn’t talk with the man — I didn’t have
to. I heard. Not so much the words
screaming staccatto ill- (and sometimes
satirical) logic, as the voice, the high,
vibrating wail which strained the vocal
cords to occasional breaks, betraying —
who knows what? — bits and pieces of
discord, abuse, hatred-love crystallized in
a vital and engaging tension.
I saw, too — the high, lean cheekbones,
the smooth cheeks, the eyes hiding behind
the shades (on a dark day), the turbaned
head thrown back slightly to tilt the fine
nose halfway to the sky, as if sniffing at
some secret place the mouth on a level
helplessly betrayed.
But mostly I heard — drawn to the
disembodied sounds riding the cool wind,
between the blowing leaves under a fall
cloud which threatened larger drops than
normal — a moment between the
moments.
And listened — to the specious
arguments to settle argument and create
come clear as a child’s. (“We don’t
agree.” And he, “What color is this leaf?”
Silence. “What color is this leaf?”
“Brown.” And he, “Yes, brown.”)
And once was green and on the tree and
now is fallen and on the ground. The
chords tremble again, touchstone to our
deadly calm — before the storm.
Robert E. Emmons, Jr.
Graduate, English
Never trust again
Now as we all know, (Now, if you
didn’t already read it in Harpers in the
Fall) Richard is as his minister told Kurt
Vonnegut after the Benediction at the
Republican un, that is — Realtors —
Convention (Realtors not, certainly, of
ficially — yet perhaps, yes, more ac
curately Um Hum, yes) in Miami, an
swerable to God and the People, only to
God first, thus, our Great Leader is also
the representative of the Living God on
this area of the Planet. You may have seen
Him on T.V. or the now Dead Life
Magazine, toasting the other represent
atives.
With this firmly in your already packed
and probably if you are an average
American — carefully programmed mind
— recall with me the Speech of Acceptance
of the Blame for Watergate — (... Or was
it the responsibility, I never did get that
straight?!!) Richard the Truth, The Light,
and the Way says of Watergate on T.V.
next to his pretty pieces of stickcloth and
Bust of Lincoln and picture of His cute
family behind Him: “Both of our Great
Parties have been equally guilty of this in
the past. ...” So you know? . . . WE’VE
GOT SOME GREAT PARTIES in this
Land — Don’t WE?
Or is it your Idea of a Great Party
where the guests or people involved are
subjected to having their purses, coats,
belongings thoughtlessly stolen, or
searched — even their doctor’s offices
broken into — All in the Name of Good
Order and the Security of the Whole
People’s Land and in its behalf — and
nearly everyone ends up getting bugged?
Well, it is true that as Walt Whitman
once wrote: “As evil too is Great.”
Lo, and Richard Said in His wonderous
Tongue: “Consider the Good People — the
Pure White Lilies of my Public Service
Fields — they knowingly cooperate with
evil doings — yet I find them blameless as
they are as Billy The Graham has said
unto you — of Good Pure Hearts — For
such as these have met my High Standards
of Public Service.”
Oh, All Power to Richard’s High Stan
dards of Public Service. . . . (and more
Trust? . . .)
All Praises to the Good Pure White Lilies
of Richard’s Public Service Field.
And He spake in His wonderous tongue
out of Both sides of His mouth of the Great
Elephant Head WHO Never Forgets —
with His arms outstretched in His original
sign of the two fingered dove signal and
with the graceful sweep of His arms
motioned the Wave of The Future:
to US: “Peace . . .” and to His aides:
BOMB ’EM.”
To US: “Free Worldom” and to His
aides: “Emprison ’em.”
May the possibly necessary craziness
(perhaps the burning out and cleansing up
mellowing up of the Psychotic con
sciousness of each of US) of the 60’s escape
you sooner or later
Forever.
And like the Average American, I too
can seriously still Love and Forgive Him
for He says He didn’t know what his most
trusted and worthy Servants were doing —
Love and forgive perhaps — even
positively — Yes — Never TRUST again
though.
As Mohandas K. Gandhi said once:
“Truth is God.”
Tell me there’s not the possibility of a
White House Chapter of Satan’s Legions.
Peace and Bombs, Fellow
Crea tureci tizens,
Frank M.
Ordinary Mammal
Stereotyped prejudices
(An open letter to John Mighell—
Political Science.)
Dear John:
I certainly hope the best for you in your
political future. With your blatantly
narrow-minded and spiteful point of view,
you are a natural for some high office—
just like the offices we’ve been hearing
about over national television the last few
mornings.
You may be justified in pointing out that
fraternities tend to consume more spirits
than the average group. But so what? Who
doesn’t enjoy a good time? The point of the
Sigma Nu—Bring “roofer” is to raise
money for the recycling center. And while
your “friend” is sitting on
the roof, his buddy is out canvassing
local businesses for contributions. My
frame of reference may be way off, but
your “friend’s” participation in the
“roofer” seems to be a more worthwhile
endeavor than dreaming up sardonic
letters to publicly justify one’s stereotyped
prejudices of another’s living
arrangements.
Let it be,
Peter Yoakum
Senior, Political Science
751E. 16th
Bubble gumit
After reading the childish letter to the
editor by Mr. Parrish and some other zero,
I .felt obliged to make a short comment.
The students are not interested in
participating in personal vendettas born
out of ignorance and your mental hang-ups
over losing to your apartment neighbor,
Mr. Leo, in the ASUO spring election. If
you had an ounce of intelligence in that
isolated little head of yours, you would see
what a fool you’re making out of yourself
by being self-appointed “Chairman of the
Committee to Recall Leo-Bamett.” I’m
sure if you look hard enough you will find a
place in this world yet.
In short, don’t bother students with your
garbage. Find another way of getting your
name in the Emerald. One suggestion
might be stacking a hundred pieces of
bubble gum on your nose and walking
down campus — I’m sure someone will
notice you.
Pat McMahon
Junior
Speech-Poli. Sci
HELP! I'M ABOUT TO BE RESCUED BY SIR SPIRO!'