Voices of God
So many great meanings behind last night’s title. Certainly there were explicit grown-up voices: Mona putting her maternal foot down with Margaret; Roger echoing her tone with Jane, his child bride; Don and Betty’s widely differing approaches to acting grown-up for their kids; Duck being grown-up and thinking of his kids (even in his post-coital glow).
The one that caught me, however, in another brilliant MM move, was the constant newscasts that ran throughout the episode. In real life, of course, the television was on everywhere from the moment the news of the assassination hit, so it really was telling the story of what was happening.
But take a look at the faces of the real-life newscasters. Most of them were WW2 & Korea veterans – they didn’t have to “establish their cred” with viewers. They weren’t today’s puffed-up pretty-boy news readers. In fact, most had faces made for radio.
They’re what today’s television executives call “the voice of God” newscasters (Cronkite, Brinkley, etc.), so-called because not only were they traditional behind-the-desk anchormen, but also because their credibility as journalists was beyond reproach. If they said it, it was true … there were no blogs out there to break Cronkite’s balls – partially because the news was that reliable. That, and, um … no Internet – but you get my point.
In the context of this particular depiction of the JFK assassination, the gist of the story is that everything is falling apart, the parental comfort the public had from its institutions (government, work, family) is slipping. And these older grey men are reporting it live. They’re the grown-ups too.
They’re not saying, as Don says “everything’s going to be okay,” but their presence, I’m sure, was reassuring in a non-verbal way.
While PPL, our government, law enforcement, and everything else seemed to be cracking, these grown-ups were keeping their end of the bargain. They told the story – didn’t sensationalize. Just the facts, Ma’am. That’s really is the way it was.
Basket of Kisses: The unofficial blog of AMC's Mad Men. Where all the cool kids meet & greet to talk about Don Draper, Janie Bryant, Christina Hendricks, Jon Hamm, Matthew Weiner, & subtexty things.
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November 2nd, 2009 at 5:53 pm
I've read that, the powers that be knew they'd lost the Vietnam war, when they lost Cronkite's approval.
New coverage then, had well, more actual news. Including the horrific: burning monks, black children set upon by German Shepherds, the President's putative assasin murdered live.
None of the fluffy infotainment and pretty face newsreaders (unless you count the (actual) chimp on the 1950s version of the Today show.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:32 pm
"The day the news died" was when networks decided that the news dept had to stop being a loss leader and start showing a profit like other departments did.
News stopped being informational and started being entertainment. Anchors started being pretty boys instead of journalists and it was no longer the public being informed (a two way street for sure) but the masses being infotained.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:47 pm
"Child bride"? Give me a break. Jane is at least 21, possibly 22. It's like you're trying to paint Sterling as a pedophile.
And the fact that there were so few TV channels back in 1963 has everything to do with why these anchormen had the reputation they had. That, and the lack of counter-cultural forms of media.
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:50 pm
Lordy, don't get me started on this subject! My husband has been in the radio news biz for 30 years now (local and national reporting and anchoring), and constantly bemoans the decline and fall of news coverage. He often remarks on how there aren't any hard news people running the big networks now, and he's right. Most of the managers and VPs in radio now started out working for talk shows. Ugh.
On an earlier post I brought up how this was the first breaking news event to be televised. My mother was pregnant with me at the time. I was due on 11/23 but wasn't born until 11/27 because my mother proclaimed she "didn't want to miss anything". She and my father remark on how everyone was glued to their sets. It certainly set a standard, and these guys were spot on.
Great post, B. Cooper!
November 2nd, 2009 at 6:53 pm
And it wasn't just the newscasters who were different then.
Look at some of the newsfilm of witnesses to the event or the "man-on-the-street" reaction interviews that were done that afternoon. None of the "civilians" were behaving as is common these days – looking for their "15 minutes of fame".
(of course, Andy Warhol didn't tell us until 1968: "In the future, everyone will be world-famous for 15 minutes" – but you get the idea)
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
Red Medicine – you're clearly more evolved than I. Pass the pork rinds, Maury's comin' out of commercial …
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:04 pm
It's pretty impressive when you consider how much real information these men and their networks were pumping out with such cumbersome cameras and sound equipment and no satellite hookups or instant internet access on the anchor desk.
And even though I only knew David Brinkley from his Sunday news show, I always felt that somehow, he was genetically incapable of lying or selling out. If he said something happened, it did and just the way he said it did, too.
Another detail I loved in this episode was the way not everybody watched the same channel or watched any one channel over the course of the weekend. They'd watch one channel for a little while, then change the channel, watch that channel for a while and keep flipping around. (and in 1963 that meant getting up off the couch, too.) That's exactly how people tend to watch disaster coverage. You just need to know if some other network has some new breaking news the channel you're watching doesn't have yet.
November 2nd, 2009 at 7:16 pm
@#3 Red Medicine–
Really? You would belie Walter Cronkite, simply because there were only 3 networks back then? Come on! These guys had experience. Not only as vets, as B. Cooper noted, but because they had "street cred", in that they were on the beat for years. They were tested, they knew how to report. Cronkite flew with Air Force bombers over Germany during WW II. He covered the Nuremberg Trials. I won't even go into the other reporters' experience.
Ask anyone in journalism, and they'll tell you, these reporters set the bar, and set it high. Perhaps you should watch more of their footage. I have, and I can vouch for their expertise.
One of the problems with journalism now is too many channels with round the clock coverage, and "Get it first" has replaced "get it right".
November 2nd, 2009 at 9:13 pm
I agree with the post, and the moment of decline was captured in "Network." It's scary how accurate many of the film's predictions are. For a lighter version of the downfall of network news, it's hard to beat Ted Baxter from "Mary Tyler Moore." He had the face, the voice, and no brain.
I'll never forget the way I felt when I heard that Cronkite had died. I was stunned; I knew he was old, but a world without Cronkite seemed unfathomable. It was the end of an era.
@ 9 francesk-People don't change channels just during a disaster. One year my roommate and I hosted a small election night party, and were changing channels every now and then, to see what different networks were saying.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:55 pm
#3 Red Medicine – many children are older than 21; many adults are younger than 21. Jane is the former. Roger’s not a pedophile – I don’t think that was even hinted.
To your second point – that’s true, but it goes hand-in-hand with dancewosleeping’s comment. The news was a public service, as recently as the mid-90′s. Most of the anchors in the 50′s/60′s came from radio, because that was considered enough broadcast experience to deliver the news in front of a camera.
Television has changed (number of channels being one yardstick), as has journalism. The 90′s in particular began a steep slide downward for both institutions. If only more channels meant better reporting.
November 2nd, 2009 at 10:59 pm
I only get my news from NPR and BBC, so maybe that’s why I’m not seeing this decline in journalism that you’re talking about. Outside of those news sources and Mad Men, HBO/Showtime boxing specials, and European cinema, I don’t watch any TV at all.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:10 pm
#9 francesk – I share your love of Brinkley, however he did indeed sell out … http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=2578
He was a corporate spokesperson for ADM, the agribusiness conglomerate.
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:21 pm
@ #2 dancewosleeping: So true. Whatever happened to:
“You’re right, I did lose a million dollars last year. I expect to lose a million dollars this year. I expect to lose a million dollars *next* year. You know, Mr. Thatcher, at the rate of a million dollars a year, I’ll have to close this place in… 60 years. ” ?
–Charles Foster Kane
November 2nd, 2009 at 11:24 pm
LOL @ #8! Yee haw!
Great analysis, B. Coop.
November 3rd, 2009 at 12:32 am
The term “child-bride” has not always been used as a term for pedophilia; but also a metaphorical reference to young teen brides. Childish young women, or women in their early teens (Gandhi was 14 and his child bride 15 when they were married by their families, for instance. Which would have made Ghandi, the child groom in comparison.)
Jane was only 20 when Roger married her: remember Burt Cooper’s sister intoning, “Roger will finally get his wish to die in the arms of a 20-year-old,” and Jane herself drunkenly bemoaning the fact that she was too young to vote for Kennedy in the election, “Now I’ll never get a chance to vote for him!” — or something to that effect.
Jane was acting nearly as childish, or as teen bratty, as Roger’s daughter in this episode. Small wonder Roger called the womanly Joan, and toasted his ex, also a smart, womanly grownup.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:20 am
Ted Baxter was on 35 years ago — far closer in time to Cronkite than today. If that's a decline, it's sure taking a long time.
The decline of TV news is a complicated subject. For one thing, most TV news wasn't Cronkite; it was local, and local news has ALWAYS been a brain-deadening sinkhole. For another, Cronkite, Brinkley, etc. were IT back then; you didn't have 500 others competing for your time — and they were only on an hour a day.
There is far worse available today — but also far better. You won't find it on the big three networks' nightly program, though; nobody watches that anymore. But really, the glory days of TV news are overrated.
November 3rd, 2009 at 1:22 am
PS – "Network", too, was made 13 years after the assassination, and 33 years before today.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:06 am
Cronkite started in print, for newspapers and United Press, even before he went to radio and then TV. It still happens (John King worked for AP, Jake Tapper for Slate) but most TV newscasters now began in broadcasting. It is a craft onto itself.
I understand the child bride reference. In her suit with the leopard trim, Jane looked like she was playing grown up. The same with Betty and her brocade coat. Funny that Joan was shown in very casual attire but she and Roger, in a morning suit, seemed on a equal plane.
Henry is never anything less than authoritative. So count him among the grown ups, too.
November 3rd, 2009 at 3:30 am
I'd like to take you to the movies. What is your favorite movie.
SINGING IN THE RAIN.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:23 am
That truly is the way it was… and how I miss those days.
I love how Weiner and crew nailed the crack in the American psyche that was the Kennedy assassination, and how well they wove that into the characters featured in this episode as well as the story line.
November 3rd, 2009 at 5:35 am
I was eleven when this happened and in the 7th grade (just a little older than Sally). As the senior grade in elementary school we had TVs in our rooms. The teacher got a call and told us that something had happened to the President. She turned on the TV so we could see Walter Cronkite.
We never doubted that what he (or any newscast) was saying was true or not. News was just that way back then. We had no reason to question him. But I guess if you were born later when people did have questions about the government, you could not imagine anything but that.
I thought this episode dealt with this subject just as I remembered it. We were sent home early and I remember my mom being stunned just like Betty. Not really knowing what to say to us, or even what to think.
This episode is my favorite of the season so far, so realistic.
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:22 am
#12 Hell Belle: Of course, don't forget Charlie Kane's other famous quote:
You supply the pictures, and I'll supply the war
November 3rd, 2009 at 6:51 am
#24 Miss P
I'm glad you were schooled in a time when a teacher had the autonomy in her own classroom to show the news coverage to her students.
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:34 am
Another thing that the assassination coverage inaugurated was the fear that would always arise in me (and I'm sure many others) every time regular network programming would be interrupted by a "special bulletin." For decades, whenever that "special bulletin" showed up on the screen, I'd get an instant of petrifying fear and think "Oh no, what horrible thing has happened now."
November 3rd, 2009 at 7:55 am
Great post, interesting comments. I did really enjoy seeing the actual news footage in the background. This all happened 10 years before my birth but at a young age I latched on to Kennedy and the assasination so it was good to see the MM perspective on it, especially after the watching the excellent History Channel Doc recently that did the 24 hours after (and a little bit before) JFK was assasinated. What a different era. It is also interesting that Walter Cronkite shared many of the sentiments expressed here about how bad the network news has become and it is scary that Jon Stewart was recently rated as o ne of the most honest "newspeople" around and he is a COMEDIAN. Thank God for NPR and the BBC.
November 3rd, 2009 at 8:36 am
@ 28 Dark Peggy-Jon Stewart finds it scary as well. He's said, and I'm paraphrasing, that what he does is comedy. He admits his show is satire. I've heard him say, unless you read the news, you're not going to get half the jokes. Jon Stewart reminds me of a class clown who somehow became class president. He didn't want the job, he didn't campaign for the job, but somehow he got it.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:00 am
Something funny's going on in the comments here. The comments above by "aion gold" and "red war gold" are just copies of other comments by other commenters. Are these real commenters, or are they testing their spam program or something?
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:03 am
Both Aion and Red War are popular online games, with thriving secondary markets in gold-trading. These comments are failed spam attempts.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:26 am
@8 B.Cooper- LOL! Save me a seat! Up next is Springer!
@ 29 RetoGirl- Totally agree! Love JS, btw. It amazes me the people that discount his satirical look at our political system, yet swear by the "gems" Beck, Rush, and Hannity put out there and claim it as the "truth."
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:38 am
Fnarf, thanks. They looked like spam but they also looked like real comments, so I left them but removed the links. I'll kill 'em.
November 3rd, 2009 at 9:58 am
If only you could kill them. The undead, spammers are.
November 3rd, 2009 at 4:44 pm
While I'm no good-old-days person by a longshot, I do remember — and miss — when (male) newscasters were chosen for their abilities as newsmen, rather than for looks first and we'll dub in the talent later. (Women — on rare occasions we got to see them do news — were always chosen for looks first, although the standards for "good looks" have tightened drastically since the 1960s.) Great analysis.
November 5th, 2009 at 11:21 am
" Journalism is alive and well on Comedy Central."
The Jon Stewart reference reminded me of this comment I read on a blog about the overwheling amount of fake news.
If it weren't for John Stewart, I wouldn't know what is true and what isn't. How sad.
November 17th, 2009 at 8:48 am
[...] B. Cooper points out in “Voices of God,” The Grown-ups makes extensive use of archival news footage. Cumulatively, this footage [...]