Sounding Brass

Printed journalism discovered long ago that one of its chief functions was to present concise as well as comprehensive coverage of a story, to spare the reader the nonessentials. Electronic journalism, however, has had a hard time learning. Nothing beats the way TV can cover a presidential inauguration, for example, or the final minutes of a space-launch countdown. But what about continuous live coverage of less dramatic events?

Such is the touchiness of the Viet Nam debate that the question of live coverage, of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearings precipitated a crisis last week that can only be called a tempest in a TV-pot. Fred Friendly, the big, burly, able president of CBS News, quit his job, and from the clatter it made, television's esthetes would have thought that Art had caved in before the know-nothings.

"Drawing Back." Friendly quit after a hassle with his group vice president, John Schneider. CBS had already broadcast General James Gavin's testimony live from gavel to gavel. Schneider decided to forgo televising the next day's hearings, featuring ex-Diplomat George Kennan, in favor of a taped condensation to be run later. What burned Friendly even more was that NBC covered the proceedings while CBS was showing stale reruns from I Love Lucy. All this made Friendly most unfriendly, especially toward Schneider.

In fact, it was as much Schneider's authority as Schneider's decision that rankled Friendly. Only two weeks ago, Board Chairman William Paley, 64, had announced that he and President Frank Stanton, 57, would "draw back a bit." In turn, Stanton brought in Schneider, 39, who last year had become president of CBS-TV to replace discredited Jim Aubrey. Where once Friendly reported to the top brass, he now found himself dealing with Schneider. Friendly has plenty of brass himself and apparently decided to test his own, mettle.

Outlandish Politics. In a broadside letter of resignation, he called Schneider's decision 1) a "mockery of the Paley-Stanton crusade for broadest access to congressional debate," and 2) a "business, not a news judgment." Moreover, he added, the revised chain of command was an "emasculation" of his authority, a surrender to a man, he contemptuously noted, whose "news credentials were limited in the past to local station operations, with little experience in national or international affairs." In short, it was a stand for principle, and the emotional Friendly included in his letter references to his longtime colleague Edward R. Murrow ("Ed would have understood") and even quotes from Profiles in Courage.

Since Friendly had made such a big case out of a disagreeable administrative decision, Paley and Stanton had to stick with their group V.P., all of which only underscored the absurdity of TV's outlandish office politics. For devotees of television's best work, it was too bad. Fred Friendly, for all his hair-triggery, brought much high-quality programming to television, won many prizes for his documentary work (See It Now, CBS Reports), and helped to make Ed Murrow an event on TV.

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