The Courier-News from Bridgewater, New Jersey • Page 27

Should the press 'watchdog' broadcasting? That is his privilege. But surely tie would not deny to Halberstam and to other critics the right that he exercises so often on the CBS Evening News. SEVAREID COMPLAINED in his speech that working as a network commentator is quite different from working for newspapers, magazines and wire services. "It is the difference between riding inside the hot and bumpy stagecoach and riding shotgun, exposed to all the hailstones and all the pointed and poisoned arrows," he said. That is the kind of excessive sensitivity we have come to expect from Henry Kissinger, who usually talks about a dagger in the back rather than "poisoned arrows." It is not the kind of talk that some of us, who cherished "Not So Wild a Dream," had come to expect from the man who wrote it.

In that personal memoir of his early life, Sevareid raised an example to which aspiring Journalists could repair. It is a pity that he is coming to the end of his career attacking the motivations of people who, in their own minds, are only doing what Sevareid has done for more than 40 years: reporting and commenting on events as they see them. individuals who run it, men and women whose names are hardly household words. One of those individuals is William S. Paley, the chairman of CBS Inc.

SEVAREID TALKED ABOUT Paley in his speech, charging that writers were creating the idea that an "ogre sits at the remote top of CBS Incorporated, discouraging idealistic talents down the line, keeping the news people nervous if not cowardly." He singled out author David Halberstam for operating, at least where CBS and Paley are concerned, on the basis of "flawed premises." Possibly the "flawed premises" that Sevareid spoke of are nothing more than the fact that Halberstam now is writing a book about power in, America. Segments of that book, which concern Paley and CBS, appeared in the Atlantic Monthly. Halberstam chose CBS Inc. as his focus in the field of broadcasting. The reason was obvious.

It is the most successful network, and it is headed by Paley, the last of the early founders of broadcasting. Is Sevareid saying that CBS and Paley are immune from scrutiny? Or is he saying that he doesn't like what Halberstam and others have been saying about CBS and Paley? ERIC SEVAREID The Courier-News 'wass' nxgrntasP 1 3 1 By SANDER VANOCUR Eric Savareid, normally the most soft-spoken man in broadcasting, now is engaged in some public breast beating. The veteran CBS News commentator, coming to the end of his career, recently got a few things off his chest about people who criticize broadcasting. He spoke to the Washington Journalism Center's Conference on the First Amendment. Sevareid admitted that he was violating a precept of his old colleague, the late Edward Murrow, "that one never, but never, replies to critics." Then he asked why there was "this intense preoccupation of the print press with the broadcast press and its personae?" He offered at least three reasons: Saturday, June 12.

1976 D-5 tit "The Jacksons" are the popular group known as the Jackson 5, but because of a tie-up with a record company, they aren't allowed to use that familiar billing. Kogen said that the Jacksons are more apt at comedy than one might have thought. The show, like others recently seen, is only a half-hour in length, so it zips by fast. Film clips and comedy bits are reminiscent of "Laugh-In." Why the half-hour vogue? "People don't want to sit back to watch an hour of variety any more," said Kogen. "Broadcasting, inescapably, is the most personal form of journalism, ever, so there is a premium on personalities.

"The networks are the only true national news organs we have. "And, third, competition between them and between local stations is intense, as real as it used to be between newspapers." I BELIEVE THAT THERE is a simpler, more obvious explanation. It is akin in spirit to the answer given by Mallory when he was asked why he wanted to climb Mount Everest: "Because it is there." The broadcasting industry is "there," it is everywhere. It is possibly as great an influence on all our lives as any other institution in our society. We wake with it, we eat with it, we end our day with it.

It is omnipresent. What is surprising about the broadcasting industry is not that it is covered so much, but that it is covered so little. A distinction is in order. Sevareid is correct when he talks about the extensive press coverage of personalities in broadcasting. He is wide of the mark if he assumes that we devote enough coverage to the people with real power in broadcasting: The Positive side of marriage to be shown By PAUL HENNIGER HOLLYWOOD Chuck Braverman, whose business is animation, graphics and TV commercials, was watching one of ABC's Monday Night Specials, the one about divorces.

It received mixed reactions. Braverman, a newlywed, thought, why not do an up, positive show about marriages? He wrote up a two-page outline, submitted it to ABC. His "Getting Married" special, last of the series, airs Monday (June 14, 11:30 p.m.). "Originally, the show was going to follow two couples, one wealthy, Monday Special the other middle class," Braverman recalled. "But in our research we dug up a piece about Doug Kershaw, the country Cajun musician, who was going to get married in the Houston Astrodome before a ball game.

We filmed it." On his way back to Hollywood, Braverman stopped off in Las Vegas to survey the big business in chapels and wedding mills there. On another assignment in Hawaii, he did a Hawaiian wedding. In New York, he interviewed people at Modern Bride magazine. An upstate New York Jewish wedding became a "warm experience." The funniest experience for Braverman was visiting a Honeymoon Hotel to see how couples spend their wonderous post-wedding days. "We interviewed one couple seated naked in heart-shaped sunken tubs.

There were enough bubble-bath suds to make the scene permissible for TV." Braverman got Cloris Leachman to narrate the show because he knew her through working on the titles of her "Phyllis" show. iff n. Mi 1 i wJli t' I "I 1 1 -J A "The Jacksons," musical-variety summer series starring members of the popular singingdancing artists who started out as The Jackson 5 then grew, will be broadcast for four consecutive weeks, starting Wednesday, June 16, 8 p.m., CBS-TV. Left to right, front row, are Maureen, Randy and La-Toya; and (second row) Michel, Jackie, Marlon and Tito; and (background) Janet. 'The Jacksons mini series, will combine comedy, music Katharine Hepburn anf Sir Laurence Olivier both won Em-mys for their first co-starring appearances as former lovers in "Love Among the Ruins," a comedy which will have an encore presentation on Sunday, June 13, 9 p.m., ABC-TV.

Starsky and Hutch' win race for week's top-rated viewing By PAUL HKNNIGEK HOLLYWOOD "We have a very visual, exciting look to the show," said Arnie Kogen, one of the trio of producers of "The Jacksons," the four-week mini-series debuting Wednesday (June 16, 8 p.m.)on CBS-TV. "We establish each member of the family, his own separate identity, personality and characteristics. A lot of people think of them only as rock artists, but we show another side of them." NEW YORK (AP) A "Starsky and Hutch" repeat last week soared to the top of the A.C. Nielsen ratings. But a Jacques Cousteau underwater special on the same network sank to the bottom.

According to the Nielsen audience estimates, made public Tuesday, "Starsky and Hutch" was seen in more than 19.2 million homes last week. The Nielsen estimates, for the week ending June 6, showed that the week's 20 most popular shows were "Starsky and Hutch" (ABC) "M-A-S-H" (CBS); "Happy Days" and "Baretta" (both ABC); "All in the Family" (CBS); "Laverne and Shirley" (ABC); "One Day at a Time" and "Maude" (both CBS) "Police Story" (NBC); "Bionic Woman" and "Sunday Movie" (both ABC); "Medical Center" (CBS); "Rockford Files" (NBC); "Switch," "Mary Tyler Moore," "Phyllis" and "Bob Newhart" (all CBS); "Jigsaw John" (NBC); "Six Million Dollar Man" (ABC), and "Kojak" (CBS)..