THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 24, 1994 TAG: 9410220057
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: Larry Bonko
LENGTH: Medium: 72 lines
HOW LONG have they been at it now? Ten years? Twelve? It was 13 years ago when ABC first signed on with ``This Week With David Brinkley.''
The chitchat at the Sunday-morning roundtable hasn't stopped since.
The talking heads include Brinkley, who came to ABC when he was let go in a moment of corporate lunacy at NBC; Sam Donaldson; George Will; Cokie Roberts; and their guests, usually a head of state or two.
They often squabble as families squabble.
``Within certain well-understood limitations, we are a family,'' Brinkley said when he met with TV writers in Los Angeles not long ago. ``We see each other once a week. Many families do not see each other that often. We spend an hour in each other's company once a week.
``And once a week, we talk about whatever is on our minds. Many families don't do that. They probably should.''
Brinkley will be at Norfolk State University on Wednesday for the school's 10th annual Communications Conference. He'll speak at a 12:30 p.m. luncheon in the Scott-Dozier East Campus cafeteria.
I'm pleased as punch to see that Brinkley, 74, has not yet done what he has been threatening to do for some time now - retire. Heaven knows, TV needs his smart, sophisticated commentary more than ever now that fellow North Carolinian Charles Kuralt has up and left CBS for the leisurely life of an author.
With Kuralt recently gone to pasture, and NBC's John Chancellor deep into his retirement, who else is there except Brinkley and maybe Charles Osgood to elevate the words we hear on TV news programs above newspeak?
Brinkley is the last of TV's great writers, a man who enhances the pictures you see on the screen.
Brinkley says there is nothing mystical about what he does on TV.
``I write the way I talk,'' he says.
For years, Brinkley was the network co-anchor, the impartial reporter. Now, he has evolved into TV's foremost commentator. No doubt about where Brinkley stands on any subject. Go ahead and ask. He'll tell you what he thinks.
Does TV have too many talk shows?
``There's always something going on that should be talked about,'' he said. ``The kind of program we do on ABC Sunday mornings brings to the public something it cannot find anywhere else on broadcast TV - the editorial opinions you find in great quantities in newspapers and magazines. We offer that service.
``People watching television deserve more than what they get in a half hour of news each night at 6:30.''
When Congress was dead set on doing something desperate about violent images seen occasionally on network programming - something desperate such as pushing for a rating system - Brinkley had this to say: ``Violence on television is something that the politicians can appear to be doing something about.
``What can they do about the deficit? Unwed mothers? What can they do about the million people in New York City living on welfare? They really can't do anything. They can talk about it, but they can't do anything about the problems.
``I don't expect a whole lot to come of the talk in Congress about limiting violence on television. But it won't do any harm, which is a pretty high recommendation for Washington.''
That's what he thinks. Even reading his words, you can hear the rhythm, the cadence that has been coming out of our radios and TV sets for five decades.
So, what is he? Liberal? Conservative? When The Washington Post put that question to him, Brinkley said, ``I have spent my entire life avoiding being a liberal or a conservative.''
So, let's just call him a North Carolinian - he's a native of Wilmington - and let it go at that. by CNB