HOWARD ROSENBERG : ABC BOWS TO THE REIGN OF ‘DYNASTY’

Conservative Richard Viguerie can’t shake the notion that the media are dominated by liberal louts who live each day just to slap around Republicans. “The media are trying their darnedest” to maul Reagan, he charged on “Donahue” Wednesday.

Well, so much for the left-wing media.

ABC took care of that goofy theory Wednesday night when--in contrast to CBS, NBC and CNN--it declined to follow the President’s State of the Union message with the Democratic Party’s official response.

Instead of seeing the Democrats, most of the nation watching ABC got a “Dynasty” episode (“I never take no for an answer,” Alexis warned Blake). And KABC-TV in Los Angeles--which was denied permission by ABC to present the Democratic response Wednesday night--instead aired the network’s “World News Tonight” at 7.

ABC said it would carry the Democratic response Thursday night.

“The Democrats don’t like this,” Peter Jennings said Wednesday on “World News Tonight” about ABC’s decision to delay the opposition message. He quoted a network statement: “It has become tradition to offer the Democrats time to respond to the President . . .and this we have done.”

Oh sure.

ABC’s decision would have been defensible had it also not carried Reagan’s State of the Union message Wednesday night. After all, the speech was already being offered live by CBS, NBC, CNN, C-SPAN and “The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour” on PBS (which airs on a half-hour delay on KCET). One less network would not have been missed.

Joan Collins, left, John Forsythe and Linda Evans of ‘Dynasty’ were network’s reason for delaying the broadcast of the Democratic response to State of the Union address.

But to give exposure to Reagan and not the Democrats was a low blow, for the opposition party will get far less exposure on ABC tonight--competing against popular entertainment programs--than it would have Wednesday night when CBS and NBC had preempted their regular programs.

ABC can pontificate all it wants, but its strategy is self-serving and transparent. The Jennings manifesto on “World News Tonight” was, in effect, ABC’s State of the Nielsens message, a vow to disarm the opposition and improve its own economy.

Now starting to gain momentum and rebound from its ratings debacle in prime time this season, ABC was not about to pick Democrats over “Dynasty,” the nation’s most popular show on ABC’s most successful night. Trapped by their own integrity in airing the Democratic response, the other networks were surely blown away in the ratings by “Dynasty” and ABC, which chose not to sacrifice Nielsens for fairness.

Perhaps ABC would have reconsidered had the Democratic message been delivered by Joan Collins.

ABC could have argued that the Democratic response was a packaged, calculated, pre-taped program lacking the spontaneity of a live performance. But Reagan’s appearance was just as orchestrated.

It was no coincidence that TV cameras found West Point cadet Jean Nguyen and Harlem social worker Clara Hale in the audience at the moment Reagan identified them as American heroines. And finally came the carefully planned spontaneity of Reagan’s “Happy Birthday” serenade.

As it was, even the President had well-endowed competition. As Reagan was making his entrance, there was steaming Stanley Siegel introducing several bikinied lovelies on his new show on Lifetime cable. “I know the President has a good speech,” Siegel said. “But you Democrats may want to turn over to this. All right, now we’re gonna find out what people think about mud wrestling.”

Or media wrestling.

Whether Reagan’s rosy oratory will yield legislative fruits remains to be seen. But Wednesday night was evidence anew of how Presidents can command TV. And how Reagan, love him or loathe him, can exploit TV so extraordinarily. Not that he is another Martin Luther King Jr., whose huge crowds soared along with King’s rhetoric. Reagan is a quieter, conversational one-on-one speaker, whose skills are in perfect sync with an intimate medium that communicates with individuals, not masses.

In covering the State of the Union, NBC struck the best balance, soliciting the opinions of political, business, religious and educational leaders to go along with its own analysis. More meaningful, though, was the creative Populism of C-SPAN, which followed Reagan’s speech with calls from those remarkable Americans who were able to fathom the President’s remarks without illumination from ponderous pundits.

Remarkable, my eye. Ironic, isn’t it? The media continually rush to interpret the words of a President who may be the best TV communicator of our time and one whom the public seems to clearly understand.

As Rock Hudson was wooing Linda Evans on “Dynasty,” meanwhile, the Democrats were attempting to court America and counter Reagan in a $100,000 program that showed party leaders and alleged grass-roots Democrats in supposed intimate settings, discussing the state of the nation.

It reeked of Madison Avenue slickness, the choreographed cinema verite, the carefully rehearsed off-the-cuff remark, the tight shot of the politician seeming not to notice the camera under his nose.

No matter what the Democrats had to say, however, no matter the scripted sincerity or the production skills, none of it was a match for Ronald Reagan speaking, misty-eyed and celebrating his 74th birthday in prime time.

The master prevails. “He’s good,” said David Brinkley on ABC. “He’s really good.”