TV REVIEW : ‘JUSTICE’: OUT-OF-FOCUS DOCUMENTARY

Like the agency it is seeking to explain, “Justice for All,” a documentary about the U.S. Department of Justice airing on public television tonight, suffers from a dichotomy: It has two goals that keep bumping into one another.

For the Justice Department, the central dilemma--as laid out by reporter-writer Fred Graham and producer-director Philip Burton Jr.--is how, as the nation’s top law enforcement agency, it can carry out that role diligently and impartially while simultaneously, as an arm of the White House, trying to shape the law to reflect Administration ideology.

For “Justice for All,” the problem is whether to chronicle how the huge organization goes about its seemingly paradoxical business or to assess specifically its policies and practices under Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III.

The result (airing at 8 p.m. on Channels 24 and 50, 9 p.m. on Channels 28 and 15) is a sprawling, unfocused program that, like an indecisive river roamer, keeps finding interesting tributaries but fails to explore any of them fully.

A section on civil rights policies under Assistant Atty. Gen. William Bradford Reynolds, for example, bogs down in coverage of his Senate confirmation hearings, pointing up only that he’s controversial and not whether his opposition to affirmative action programs is based on solid legal ground.

Questions about whether former Solicitor General Rex Lee was more interested in legal principle than Reagan Administration ideology, meanwhile, are left hanging as we watch him advise his designated successor, Charles Fried, on what tie to wear for an appearance before the Supreme Court.

Criticism is voiced of the way Meese has sought to mold the Justice Department to what he calls “the viewpoints of the American people as portrayed in the election of this President,” but much of it comes from members of previous Administrations, which Graham repeatedly notes also tried to impose their own agenda on the agency.

The key question, unanswered here, is whether Meese and President Reagan have gone beyond the bounds of Justice, both literally and figuratively, to achieve their goals.

“Justice for All” is the pilot for a proposed eight-part series examining the workings of the federal government’s executive branch. The evidence here suggests that a more cohesive point of view is needed to justify further productions.