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(Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana) - pondering The Common Market)

Continuing our look at Sunday talk shows past, here is another long-forgotten program from ABC News, "From The Capitol" with correspondents Pete Clapper and John Edwards from ABC News. As I said in my previous talk-shows past post, interview programs were a source of in-depth information and very often the interviewers asked probing questions in search of meaningful answers. A big difference from todays spin fests and soft ball games.

This episode, from December 12, 1961 focuses on the effect the Common Market will have on the U.S. Economy and Foreign Relations with Representative Hale Boggs (D-Louisiana), Deputy Whip of the House and member of the House Ways and Means Committee.

John Edwards (ABC News): “The short term result of the lowering of tariff barriers on some American industries is going to be a hardship, isn’t it?

Hale Boggs: “Well let’s look at it first from the point of view of what happens to American industries if we’re not able to negotiate reductions with the Common Market. ( . . . ) Today we send machine tools to all of the countries in Europe practically, with the exception of Western Germany. Western Germany has a tariff against our machine tools. When the Treaty of Rome finally takes effect . . . .

Edwards: “ That’s the treaty that set up the Common Market . . .”

Boggs: “Exactly. There will be a tariff on machine tools which covers Germany, France, Italy, the United Kingdom, Belgium, Luxembourg, and any other members of the Common Market. This means that, whereas we formerly had one tariff to contend with, insofar as Germany was concerned, now we have a tariff to contend with, insofar as all of the other member nations of the Common Market are concerned. Now if we’re not able to negotiate with these members or with the Common Market, then we will, in effect, have lost the entire market we had in these other countries”

Granted, this is no inflammatory innuendo-laced gossip fest and could be misconstrued as dull-as-dirt by some who cherish politics-as-mayhem. But the bottom line is - programs like this and others like it provided a valuable understanding and knowledge of the events of the day, presenting points of view that were intelligent and articulate and did much to inform the public.

Being informed is a good thing, if you haven't noticed lately.

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(All for the sake of dignity and a sandwich)

Hard to imagine that only 48 years ago today, a group of people, black and white, got on buses and rode South, attempting to bring an end to segregation in bus station waiting rooms and lunch counters. In 1961 it was illegal to mix races in social settings in the south - there were separate bathrooms, restaurants, hotels, waiting rooms, beaches. If you grew up during the end of Apartheid in South Africa, and were witness to the sweeping change that took place in the 1990's there, realize that pretty much the same atmosphere prevailed in the South in America in the 1960's. It was a horrific struggle in Alabama and Mississippi in 1961, but it was the turning point in race relations in America. When the first Freedom Riders went into Alabama, they were not greeted as liberators. Rather as agitators, communist inspired - part of some evil plot as the KKK, White Citizens Council, American Nazi Party and countless other hate groups would like to say. Buses were stoned and burned - Freedom Riders were pulled from buses and clubbed, beaten or tossed in jail on a myriad of trumped-up charges.

In response, Attorney General Robert F. Kennedy sent Federal Marshals to enforce Civil Rights laws, ensuring safety of the protesters. It drew national attention and continued a struggle that began in the 1950's when the Supreme Court ruled Segregation of Public Schools was illegal. Slowly things began to change, but it was certainly not overnight. 1961 began a new era in the Civil Rights movement and it would be met with waves of violence from hate groups, bent on preserving a society where racism was the norm, a society run on fear and hate, a society doomed to implode on its own ignorance.

A segment of our society which sadly, still exists today.

Here is an NBC News Special recapping the events in Alabama in May 1961 called "Alabama USA" as well as some local (Montgomery Alabama) news reports, all as it was happening.

(Fear and Ignorance: Priceless)

(JFK meets DeGaulle, while Jackie charms Paris)

"President Kennedy began his first day in Paris by saying at Orly Airport 'I come not merely because of the past, but because of future associations in defense of the West'. He ended his day by telling an Elysee Palace dinner 'American forces will remain in Europe as long as they are required. Ready to meet any threat with whatever response is needed'. All this was aimed at the question uppermost in President DeGaulle's mind - resisting Soviet pressures on Berlin with the utmost Western strength. Privately, President Kennedy has given this assurance to DeGaulle. For this reason, he's very welcome here." - Sandor Vanocur, NBC News

As the first European visit of President Obama comes to an end, I was thinking of an earlier Presidential visit, during his first year in office. John F. Kennedy and Jacqueline Kennedy arrived in Paris on the first leg of a European visit which included several conferences and a much anticipated meeting with Nikita Khruschev in Vienna. Europe was intrigued by the new President and, then as now, was charmed by the new first Lady. The only difference was, Kennedy was about to face two of the biggest challenges of his Presidency: Cuba and Berlin, all direct results of the Cold War. Today the world is different. But the challenges are just as severe.

With all the talk these past few weeks about the Fairness Doctrine and the latest debate on Broadband use for rural areas, I was reminded back when the FCC actually meant something - an agency whose job it was to protect the interest of the American People and the airwaves from the lunatic fringe, the special interests and the misguided. Listening this morning to Morning Edition and an interview with former FCC economist Michael Katz, he managed to bring home in big bright letters the concept of what we have lost over these years of deregulation, incompetence and ignorant hubris, I thought back when Newton Minow spoke to a gathering of National Association of Broadcasters in May 9, 1961.

I'm wondering if it's too late . . . . .

Your industry possesses the most powerful voice in America. It has an inescapable duty to make that voice ring with intelligence and with leadership. In a few years, this exciting industry has grown from a novelty to an instrument of overwhelming impact on the American people. It should be making ready for the kind of leadership that newspapers and magazines assumed years ago, to make our people aware of their world.

Ours has been called the jet age, the atomic age, the space age. It is also, I submit, the television age. And just as history will decide whether the leaders of today's world employed the atom to destroy the world or rebuild it for mankind's benefit, so will history decide whether today's broadcasters employed their powerful voice to enrich the people or to debase them.

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