ANOTHER TAKE ON MIKE WALLACE & BIRDS ON A LINE

  MIKE WALLACE AND THE HOMOSEXUALS

     I heard from readers after my Monday post on Mike Wallace. Some of you took me to task for my praise of his
contribution to American broadcast journalism.  Here's a 
portion of an email-

"You forgot to mention how he set back gay rights with his 1967 special The Homosexuals.  By the time he was done with the special which featured a doctor who stated the homosexuality was a choice and that they could never be happy....a number of parents stopped supporting their gay children, threw many of their own kids out and many gay adults lost their jobs.  At the time Mike Wallace associated socially with gay people including long time partners.  This was a news man who used sensationalism at the time to gain viewers.

He never countered that original show.  Later he said that he had made a bad judgment call.  That was it."

   And another:

"The old toughie is probably laughing

that he's getting a pass on some of his

outrageous sensationalism.  Look at 

how he bashed gays.  Think you could

broadcast that kind of stuff today?"

     I either forgot about the broadcast, or never saw it.  The piece, which aired in 1967, has a legacy and even has

a significant Wikipedia link and other commentary.

     One source has edited portions of the broadcast and

posted a short YouTube video.

        A virtue of this means of communication is the quickness of response, the depth of research accessible with only key strokes and the value of conversation.  So I amend my thought's on Wallace by expanding it to include this post.

I hope this now broadens the view and achieves more balance.

       It will be interesting to see how CBS handles it on their

60 Minutes broadcast on Sunday.

DAY BOOK

RIDING OUT THE STORM
The birds have created an interesting profile.

See you down the trail.

MIKE WALLACE, GOLDEN & AN S CAR GO

WHAT MIKE WALLACE DID TO 60 MINUTES

     I was lucky to work in the same area as Mike Wallace, when he was still one of the CBS Convention team correspondents.  I was covering the campaign for a radio group, but it put me in the same press room and general neighborhood.  Back then I thought it odd to see Wallace in that kind of role, because I thought he was best as an interviewer or interrogator and that is the point of this.

     Mike Wallace had the ability and skill to talk to anybody about anything.  He rarely, if ever, pulled punches.  He could get into places and talk to people in a way that amazed us all.  If Wallace was scheduled to do an interview, the 60 Minutes audience was sure to be even larger.  

    The original 60 Minutes team was superb, but Wallace and his pointed, rapier technique was indeed the point of the spear that took that show into the heart of America. 

      Wallace was a performer on a news magazine, an experimental approach to journalism, that took broadcast journalism into the Top 10 most watched shows. It created a new heft for broadcast journalism, proved to network executives that news was not only good for people, it could be good for business. 

     Wallace's style and punch also put people on notice.  There was an old joke "You know you are going to have a bad day if, when you show up at the office, Mike Wallace is waiting for you."  He helped "out" a lot of villains, confronted power, made it entertaining and he worked hard.  He stayed much longer than most and television and broadcast journalism were bigger and better because of it.

THESE HELP MAKE THE GOLDEN STATE

GOLDEN

With help from Sweet Talk Radio

here's a few seconds of "breath it in" time.

   DAY BOOK

NOVEL RIDE 

See you down the trail.

AN IDEA, ARCHIVE AYN RAND & KISSING THE BEACH

PERPETUITY OF IDEA

A WORLD WHERE IDEAS MATTER

Back in University someone said trying to speak

philosophy to the masses was akin to standing

at the shore and trying to stop the waves.

Maybe it is only nostalgia, but it seems there 

was a time when people would debate, discuss

and explore ideas and politics with an open mind

and with respect.

Today it seems everyone has their mind made up,

convinced in the rightness of their view and the

absolute absurdity of those who disagree.

And, there was a time when the media seemed to

see its role as a place to prod, examine, discuss and 

consider even deep philosophic constructs.

Can you imagine a news anchor today

interviewing Jean Paul Sartre on 

on Existentialism?  Well, Charlie Rose perhaps.

A GREAT FIND FROM THE ARCHIVE

Indeed there was a time. Consider this-

Mike Wallace with Objectivist author Ayn Rand

Here, in part 2 they discuss

Rand's belief in limiting the right and power of voters

Incidentally there is more than an historic example in these clips, since many of the Tea Party and conservative

members of congress are followers of Rand's thinking.

Do you think a future blogger will someday

pull a clip of Kim Kardashian, or an interview with

Stephen King to demonstrate how popular media

explored something deep?

DAYBOOK

CARESSED BY WAVES

From tumble to foam

The shore is constantly in change.

Without pressing my point too far, each wave, not unlike an

idea, tumbling, turning grains of sand

into perpetuity. What if we could track

the evolution of our thinking that way?

See you down the trail.