NET Journal; The Conservative Mr. Buckley

National Educational Television and Radio Center · November 3, 1969

This program was originally broadcast November 3, 1969. It was scheduled to be rebroadcast July 6, 1970, but was preempted. NET Journal "The Conservative Mr. Buckley": The personal vision of William F. Buckley, Jr., is seen through a series of film statements encompassing crime, the ghetto, capital punishment, patriotism, communism, and the arts. A renaissance man of American conservatism, William F. Buckley, Jr., is editor of the National Review, syndicated columnist ("On the Right"), host of his own television program ("Firing Line"), and political gadfly (he ran for mayor of New York in 1965). This program is a series of film statements reflecting Buckley's concerns and perceptions about life in America today. The areas include crime and violence, communism, capital punishment, patriotism, the arts, the ghetto and its evolving leadership, and the beauty of unspoiled America. His remarks whether from a podium at Rice University or in a private discussion with Whitney young of the Urban League are urbane, analytical, often biting. Representative quotes follow: After a tour of the ghettos arranged by Young, Buckley notes that the leaders in Watts (Los Angeles) are "bright, a little cynical, with a dawning consciousness of the political way up the ladder." Commenting on the black masses, Buckley says: "Some choose the neo-nonsense of Ron Karenga; many engage in efforts that distinguished the white man at his best in Los Angeles 100 years ago." Of Karenga, director of a self-help group titled "Us," Buckley says, "He affects the manners of an Oriental Satrap." He describes Karenga's rhetoric as "an agglutination of social clich/(c)s." On a visit to death row in Trenton, N.J., Buckley says "Capital punishment is a dead letter. Not even the John Birch Society would fault the Court's reasoning" if the Supreme Court were to abolish the death penalty. Buckley is himself involved in the case of Edgar smith, who has been on death row in Trenton for 12 years since he was convicted of homicide. During a televised debate with author Norman Mailer, Buckley deprecates Castro-style communism, nothing that under the Batista government (which he opposed) "at the worst you could found an opposition newspaper, found a union, go to church, go in and out of the country." He calls Mailer's interpretation of Cuba today "Mailer melodrama, you 're a wonderful writer, but a terrible witness." Buckley reacts with venom to the remark made by a Los Angeles high school student that Johann, Sebastian Bach "that old dead punk" should not be taught. "That is the champion effrontery," says Buckley. "Music has done more to elevate mankind that all the black student unions." He derides "the rhetorical escalation, which is totally out of hand." A case in point: with a group of Tulane University students, Buckley cuts short a discussion on violence in the ghetto, saying "you use the word violence with such slovenliness to render yourself unintelligible." In another scene, Buckley visits his family home in Sharon, Conn., and comments on the satisfactions it afforded him. "it was hewn out of a single pleasant dream," he says. NET Journal "The Conservative Mr. Buckley" is an NET production. This aired as NET Journal episode 253 on November 3, 1969, as NET Journal episode 280 on July 6, 1970, and as NET Journal episode 286 on August 24, 1970. It runs an hour and was shot in color. (Description adapted from documents in the NET Microfiche)