David Halberstam

Billy Ray Bates obviously could play basketball, but could he play in the NBA ?

The once unthinkable came to pass in March in a country to the north of the Union of South Africa. The white minority, after decades of suppressive rule, gave over to the black majority and Rhodesia became Zimbabwe. What does it portend for South Africa, where the white 17 percent of the population wields seemingly unassailable power and vows never to give equality to the 19 million blacks? Very little for the foreseeable future, believes an experienced reporter who spent several weeks studying the South African scene. But, as evidenced by last year’s trial of the Soweto Eleven, a new generation of blacks—angry, rebellious, and determined—is rising, and with it, the prospect of growing terrorism and violence.

They control the prosperous Los Angeles Times as well as a host of subsidiaries, but the Chandlers are more than publishers. For three generations they have stood at the center of California life, making and breaking political careers, directing the economic progress of Los Angeles, and profiting, always profiting.

The advent of the half hour news program made television the major source of news for many Americans and the only source for a dismayingly large number of them. This vested in broadcasters awesome responsibilities and a sense that they had ventured into a political minefield. In the first installment of his two part examination of the growth of broadcasting, television journalism, and the CBS network in particular, David Halberstam showed how the medium became both a shaper and a creature of politics, both a maker and a prisoner of public tastes. In this installment he tells how three Presidents influenced and were influenced by TV, how TV made Vietnam into an electronic war, and how, reluctantly, it dealt with the Watergate tragedy.

The advent of the half-hour news program made television the major source of news for many Americans and the only source for a dismayingly large number of them. This vested in broadcasters awesome responsibilities, and a sense that they had ventured into a political minefield. In the first installment of his two-part examination of the growth of broadcasting, television journalism, and the CBS network in particular, David Halberstam showed how the medium became both a shaper and a creature of politics, both a maker and a prisoner of public tastes. In this installment he tells how three Presidents influenced and were influenced by TV‚ how TV made Vietnam into an electronic war, and how, reluctantly, it dealt with the Watergate tragedy.

However the Toynbee or the Gibbon of the future adjudges what happened to American society, he will need to reckon large with the impact of radio and television.

When the bill came due for the Vietnam War, someone had to pay it, and keep paying.