Evening star., 1936-07-01

opportunity TO peer penlnd Lne AFFAIRS
Of all sorts Of institutions. The people
are permitted to see the seams Of plas-
ter on the reverse side Of the veneer.
This, in some cases, makes for disillu-
sion; 1t leads to O breakdown Of SYM
bolism. And in the management Of
all institutions symbols are impor-
tant. Mans reliance upon symbols is
one Of the things that keeps the Or
ganized world going concern.
Since the radio and the motion pic
ture are the principal mechanisms
through which man gets his new peek
behind the altars, those who operate
the mechanisms ought to be careful
not to give material for disillusion and
cynicism. They ought not to describe
as dramatic that which In fact Is not
dramatic, nor otherwise give justifica-
tion for Mrs. Longworth's complaint
that "the radio audience gets a fan
tastically distorted presentation"
Symbols Inevitable.
America has solemn business before
it-more solemn than many yet know.
We must carry 1t on through men and
institutions. Both the men and the
institutions must become symbols
that is inevitable. And there should
be no difference between the man and
the symbol, between what the man Is
and what the country symbolizes him
as. 1t is imperative that we have men
as to whom there is no difference be-
tween actuality and seeming, between
the actual man and the picture the
public gets of him. So far as we have
such men, we must preserve them, and
we must find new ones. And 1t Is de-
sirable that the lens through which
the man is Seen-the motion picture
and the radio-should not create dis
tortion. They should not distort him
either unfavorably or favorably. 1t Is
no kindness to a man, or an institu-
ton. to create an impression of him
to which he cannot live up. That way
lies ultimate humiliation for the man
and disillusion for the public. Failure
to live up to expectations, whether
created by oneself or by ones too gen.
erous friends, is a frequent cause Of
tragedy among public men.
The blame is put by Mrs. Long
worth on the radio commentators"
A more discriminating terminology
might say there are two classes of
professional radio men. The word
commentator" would be properly ap-
piled to those who give Interpretation
OF the news, regularly or occasionally.
To these, as a class, doubt if Mrs.
Longworth'S criticism applies. Some
Of them seem 10 me good; Others less
SO.
Radio Reporters Guilty.
The class which Mrs. LongWorth
really has in mind, think. are the
radio reporters. They are the young
men-at least they sound as if they
were very young-Who give descrip-
tions of events minute by minute as
they happen. Some Of these are
good. But as to some others, their
main concern seems to be to make the
public think the event they are de-
scribing is dramatic, breath-taking,
world-beating, history-making, the
most momentous that ever occurred
on land or sea or either.
They were much the same at the
Republican convention; they are so
at all sorts of events. Their artificial
exaltations. their faxed breathlessness.
their simulated excitement must seem |
as ''phony" to the mass OF radio lis |
teners as they do to the one who is
here writing. I suspect most of them
must have begun as cheer leaders at
college and passed from that to Holly |
wood.
One imagines their first radio ex-
perience must have been reporting a
heavyweight prize fight, from which |
they acquired technique that would |
now give the same round by-round !
of right-punch left-punch /
to a political convention or a church |
synod. One Of these days they will |
have real drama to describe and they !
will find themselves with only lot
Of used adjectives on hand.
(Copyright, 1850