Brown Bottles, White Lights and Purple Pancake

The transformation of American politics occurred on the afternoon of June 20, 1948. Everything changed with the flip of a switch.

H.L. Mencken, that cantankerous old commentator, described the instant in a dispatch 52 years ago:

"Television will take its first real bite at the statesmen of America tomorrow, and this afternoon there was a sort of experimental gumming or rehearsal in Convention Hall.

"It passed off well enough, all things considered, and no one was actually fried to death."

Mencken was sitting in the press gallery when the first 10,000-watt TV lamp was tested at a political gathering. It was a pleasant feeling at first. Like being on the beach in warm sunshine. Then nine more of the mighty bulbs came alive. And 10 5,000-watters. He imagined it like the ignition of an atomic bomb.

He clamped down on his stubby cigar and retreated.

"I began to wilt and go blind, so the rest of my observations had to be made from a distance and through a brown beer bottle."

*

Mencken was not a sympathetic man by nature. But in this case, he allowed himself to fear for the safety of America's leaders at their presidential nominating convention. He joked that the national committee had an indemnity policy for the widow of any speaker who burst into flames. He reported that people were racing all over the city trying to find out what kind of makeup to wear on TV. Rumor: purple greasepaint.

Mencken need not have worried.

No, this is not a rant against watching television. Way too late for that. According to the Census Bureau, the percentage of American households without a television set is exactly the same as those lacking indoor plumbing, 1.6%. The average family has more TVs than children.

But TV is pouting this time around. Conventions have become the perfection of television--that is, scripted commercials. And the networks are accustomed to being paid for commercials. So we interrupt this convention.

The summer of 2000 will be recorded as the time when America's political leadership rose up to strut its stuff and TV networks called it staged. By contrast, placing small groups of obscure exhibitionists into isolation to compete for notoriety like prom queens, well, that was reality.

Objection. Aren't we mixing matters of news and entertainment? My, yes, we are. And guess where we got our cue? TV. Objection overruled.