Memoir: A Crack In Free Speech

My right to free speech first cracked in 1969. That was the year The Smothers Brothers Comedy Hour was cancelled by CBS. It was under pressure from the Nixon Administration for its anti-Vietnam War and pro-Civil Rights satire.

…from my Gone Astray Podcast, wherever you find your podcasts.

Nixon also threatened the licenses of Washington Post owned TV stations for not towing its propaganda line.

The Smothers Brothers was replaced by Hee Haw.

I was just out of college working as a rookie announcer at WCCO-TV in Minneapolis, a major CBS station. I started doing satirical bits on The Bedtime Nooz, a long- running, tongue-in-cheek Saturday night newscast hosted by the late Dave Moore, a legend in Midwest broadcasting. Hubert Humphrey was said to be a fan and Walter Cronkite was quoted as calling it “The dumbest newscast I have ever seen, and that’s the way it is.”

Dave gave me almost free-rein to do Saturday Night Live-style sketches (before Saturday Night Live existed). I did a takeoff on the old Columbia School of Broadcasting commercials, in which I promoting a trade school for politicians. A stage crew brought out a fog machine and put me behind a podium in a smoke-filled room with an echo chamber, where I  delivered a bullshit speech, pitching the audience: “”You could do this too!””How would you like to be a politician just like me. Well, you can’t do it the way I did it. You have to go to Politician’s School,” or so it went.

I had a bit called “Looking Back in Retrospect.”

For this I got a weekly, union-scale talent fee of $15.

I had a title slide, above, which was used in my absence, when I obviously had nothing to say. All of this was metaphorically shattered two weeks into my feature: “The Spiro Agnew Quote of the Week.” I merely made a big deal of quoting the yet-to-be-indicted Vice President’s slogans like “nattering nabobs of negativism,” with a graphic of earlier ones projected in back of me as I delivered…just one line.

A note followed: a summons to the boss’s office, where I was explained their fear that one well-positioned letter could threaten the station’s license. I could understand that, but I also got the impression that management was not exactly in my camp, politically. Hey, I came from an activist generation. Dave was reprimanded for some non-political bit and I was taken off the show.

I didn’t lose my job. It was actually a great place to work and I am still in touch with some old colleagues, including a couple who went to CBS.

Thankfully, Nixon was cancelled too.

Today, under the runaway Trump Administration, licenses are again being threatened, with little oversight.

Tonight Steven Colbert leaves the air. Clang! Rings a bell for me.

CBS-TV News is withering.

Tomorrow CBS Radio News signs off.

I have fond memories of visiting CBS on my first trip to New York in 1969 and how gracious everyone was to me. I met Cronkite and Douglas Edwards, a couple of my heroes. As I left, the CBS New producer who was my host said, ” When you feel you’re ready, come back and talk to us.” I had goosebumps, but never went back, instead taking job in California the next year. I have occasionally thought, “what if?” But I certainly can’t complain about the rich life I have led.

So RIP Steven Colbert and The Late Show. Never met you but I love ya, and CBS.

RIP Free Speech. I am hoping for a repair for the giant cracks in our democracy. The only way now is to vote the bastards out.