THREATENED SENATOR ADDRESSES BROADCASTERS

Sen. Robert Packwood (R-Ore.), the target of an alleged assassination plot less than a week ago, made his first public appearance here Monday at the California Broadcasters Assn. winter conference.

Here to debate the 50-year-old fairness doctrine, Packwood told The Times before the conference that he had been advised by the FBI over the New Year’s holiday that the white supremacist Aryan Nations organization planned to murder him.

Packwood said that he believed that he had been targeted by the group because of his pro-Israel and anti-racist stands in Congress.

“My hunch is they (the FBI) may have infiltrated (the militant organization), because they had very specific information about where and when the assassination attempt would take place,” Packwood told The Times before the conference.

According to the FBI, the terrorist group is believed to have been responsible for the assassination last June of Denver talk-show host Alan Berg outside his condominium.

Packwood said that he was under surveillance and high security most of last week but that the danger had apparently now passed. About 20 to 30 individuals compose the Aryan Nations group, Packwood estimated.

In recent years, the organization has been headquartered in Idaho where it reportedly has gone on outdoor maneuvers in much the way an army might and, two months ago, was involved in a shootout in Metaline Falls, Wash., in which an Aryan Nations member was killed by the FBI. It was in the wake of that shootout that the FBI reportedly discovered the automatic weapon that allegedly was used to murder Berg.

Berg, like Packwood, had been an outspoken critic of supremacist and racist organizations.

Packwood has also been an outspoken critic of the fairness doctrine, which forces radio and television station owners to cover all sides of important public issues.

“You’re not going to get any kick from Congress (about the fairness doctrine),” said Packwood during an hourlong debate before 200 broadcasters with doctrine proponent Charles D. Ferris, former chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.

“The incumbents always get coverage,” Packwood argued. “I don’t think we’re going to make any changes.”

Two years ago, Packwood tried to phase the fairness doctrine out of existence for a five-year period as an experiment but couldn’t get enough votes on his own committee--the Senate Commerce Committee--to move his proposal to the full Senate.

Both Packwood and Ferris agreed on one point: that most legislators fear television.

Following their debate on the opening day of the California Broadcasters Assn.’s two-day winter convention, a mock vote clearly and predictably showed that California broadcasters agreed totally with Packwood that the fairness doctrine has outlived its usefulness. Ferris cast the only vote for the rule in an informal poll.

Summing up the overriding fears of the majority of Packwood’s Capitol Hill colleagues, Ferris told the broadcasters that the feeling in Washington is that broadcasting--specifically network television broadcasting--creates a “road map of the national consciousness.” That potential for massive national influence continues to require a fairness doctrine to ensure non-partisan and unbiased presentation of news and opinion, Ferris argued.

Drawing a parallel to a lesson he learned his first year in law school, Ferris said: “If you let me write the facts, I’ll tell you what any judge will decide.”

Broadcasters should not yet have the right to “write the facts” without presenting opposing points of view, he said.

TV INTO RADIO: If the mere sight of TV cook Julia Child’s handiwork induces Pavlovian dribble, then the mere sound of “The Audible Feast” (Wednesdays at 1 p.m.) should do the same for KCRW-FM (89.9) listeners. The weekly 15-minute program zeroes in on Chinese cookery this week. . . .

Another radio version of a TV program began airing this past week over the CBS Network. “Entertainment Coast to Coast,” a weekly hourlong news and interview show patterned after TV’s “Entertainment Tonight,” began airing Friday over 100 U.S. stations. A spokesman for KKHR-FM (93.1) said that the CBS affiliate, a Top 40 station, would not carry the program, which ironically is produced in Hollywood. A spokeswoman for CBS Radio in New York said that the network is “talking to a number of stations in the L.A. area” about carrying the show. . . .

And still another new program that complements KABC-TV Channel 7’s Sunday evening series of Hollywood historical documentary specials is “Archie Rothman’s Show-Biz Time Machine.” Rothman began his Monday evening series this week at 8 over KPCC-FM (89.1) with a two-hour history of motion pictures.