Evening star., 1952-11-12

object to and there should be
no advertising Interruptions.
"Most people, I believe, would
favor philosophical talk rather
than a political one. With his
inimitable prose style, his grace
full phrasing and his ability to
talk sense to the American peo-
pie, listeners and viewers would
eagerly look forward to his pro-
gram. During the campaign some
OF my Republican friends told
me that they loved to listen to
him. In fact, several of them
gave me contributions when II
was working on the Beardsley
Ruml drive to raise funds for his
broadcasts.
Nov the point is, who is going
to follow through on your sugges-I
tion? Some of his friends should
seize upon it and follow it upl
and begin to make plans now toI
see what can be done. He will
be very busy from now until JAM
uary l closing up his adminlstra-I
ton in Illinois, but in the interim,
with his consent, some one should
explore the possibilities of gettingl
him on the air. What a relief al
program of that kind would be
from some of the shows now
perpetrated upon us ."
X X X Y
Other comment:
Thank you for the column
about Gov. Stevenson as a video
commentator. You are expressing
the thoughts and hopes of more
persons than you realize. I have
heard many say these past few
days they would contribute regu-
larly to fund to keep Stevenson
and his talking sense on the air.
(Signed Mary M. Pyles."
"It'S a marvellous idea. What
can we do to make the proposal a
reality? (Signed) Mrs. James Nc
Cracken."
II am in hearty accord with
the proposal (for) a regular spon-
sored television and radio pro-
gram for Gov. Stevenson. Such
a program would be a truly in
spring public service! What can
individual viewers and listeners do
to make your proposal reality?
(Signed) Mrs. S. Charles Bleich.
-
There is not much individual
listeners and viewers can do right
now. A movement is reported
under way to raise fund to buy
time for regular broadcasts and
telecaStS by Gov. Stevenson. 1t
can't make much progress, though,
without that decision from him.
It is interesting to note, Incl
Identally, that none of these COM
menting readers see Gov. Steven
son as a political heckler, pitching
verbal rocks at the Eisenhower
administration. They see him as
a man of wit and wisdom and
felicitous phrase. from whom they
would like to hear regularly.
If the Governor were to become
less active politically, he might be
in a position to weld far more in
f1uence as a radio-TV commenta-
tor than in any other role. OF
course, even man whose sense
of humor extends even to himself
would rather be President than be |
a television actor.
Still, if he did abandon political
activity it would make the prob
lem of getting him on the air SIM
pier in one way. He could retain
all his political beliefs and still
not run into the equal-time-and-
| facilities rule. Commentators have
more leeway than politicians in
broadcasting. The networks have
to let other politicians answer the
politicians, whereas commentators
are allowed to see what they want
to see.
| Comparisons are odious, as the
man said (some more than 9TH
ers), but it has been a long time,
probably, since Fulton Lewis, jr.,
was accused of being unbiased.
When ABC was charged with al
lowing Walter Winchell to make
political speeches, it replied that
it had commentators of many
views and had no intent to indulge
in thought-control. Any network
ought to be free to WOO Gov. Ste
venson on these terms.