OLLIE TAKES HIS TURN AT BAT

W ell!

It was, as Judy Woodruff noted on PBS, a “dynamite opening.” You would have needed a chain saw to cut through the tension Tuesday as Lt. Col Oliver L. North began his long-awaited testimony before the congressional committees probing the Iran- contra affair.

“I came here to tell the truth--the good and the bad and the ugly,” vowed North, a key figure in the diversion of Iranian arms-sales profits to rebels fighting the Nicaraguan government.

North and House Chief Counsel John Nields were good, and they were bad, and they were ugly in a morning session consumed largely by their personal duel. North, assisted by his attorney, Brendan Sullivan, exploited the imprecision of Nields’ early questions with caustic, condescending replies that in turn provoked bristling retorts from Nields. In fact, you found yourself rephrasing Nields’ questions in your mind and anticipating North’s evasive answers even before he gave them.

And you squirmed uneasily when North’s feeble attempts at humor were greeted by silence in the packed chamber.

Live TV (North’s testimony is being carried live by ABC, CBS, NBC, PBS and CNN) at once broadens the emotional experience and narrows the picture.

Nothing duplicates the excitement and total involvement of watching an epic event as it happens, unfiltered and unpredictable. Yet Tuesday’s unbroken coverage--especially when North and Nields were shown nose to nose on a split screen--also tended to shrink the focus. Suddenly the summer-long investigation came down to a confrontation between two men, their personal clash temporarily eclipsing larger issues, the outcome of the probe seemingly riding for the moment on which was more skilled at this one-on-one combat.

It was a less-strident, almost humble North who returned after a late-morning break, as if someone had advised him that he had been too abrasive.

Revelations came in glints and glimmers: Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese’s alleged presence during preparation of a false chronology of the Iran-contra matter and so on and so on. But there were no smoking guns a la TV dramas, no witness breaking down in the box, no Perry Mason to pull off a miracle finish.

Television can raise those expectations. “I was suddenly convinced John Nields was going to pull out one of those documents we haven’t seen before,” ABC’s Peter Jennings told viewers at the break, admitting that his sense of drama had gotten the better of him.

Even minus a smoking gun, there was verbal smoke, and you couldn’t help thinking how much better the nation would be served if presidential candidates were made to face this kind of public grilling instead of getting by with wimpy TV forums that are passed off as debates.

What did the President know and when did he know it? Dan Rather posed a different question on CBS before the start of North’s testimony. “What should he (Reagan) have known? And if he didn’t know, why didn’t he know it?”

Did Reagan even bother watching North on Tuesday? The White House said that he didn’t, CBS correspondent Bill Plante reported, adding: “This was the same President who was so anxious to know what happened.”

Those were the President’s clashing images of the moment. What of North? His truthfulness became an issue onto itself. “No one can be sure that this Marine is telling the truth,” Cokie Roberts said on PBS prior to North’s testimony. “When is he telling the truth and when is he not telling the truth?” NBC’s Tom Brokaw asked at the break.

It was a cinch call, as viewers of CNN’s “Sonya Live” learned after the morning session, when Sonya Friedman’s opening guest was speech therapist Morton Cooper.

“Did North’s voice reveal anything about his personality, and more importantly, tell us anything about the credibility of his testimony?” asked Friedman, gushing TV’s goofiest question of the year.

Of course, North’s cords ! If not the smoking gun, at least the smoking voice.

“I think Col. North is speaking and we here are feeling what we are hearing,” Cooper disclosed.

Cooper was just getting started, though: “We are hearing anxiety . . . the confusion in his mind, spoken openly.” All right !

“He’s letting his voice show his feelings,” Cooper continued. “It’s breaking. It’s going too far up. That’s not his normal voice. His voice goes in another direction. His voice is revealing the true self. His voice . . . is telling on him. The voice is saying he has a degree of credibility . . . but it’s not extensive.”

Oh nohhhhhh ! How humiliating for North--told on by a voice caught going in the wrong direction. The truth is out. No use continuing North’s testimony now, except that you had to also wonder about Cooper, whose own voice seemed to be going in the wrong direction.

What’s next for “Sonya Live”? A hairdresser analyzing North’s hair? A podiatrist assessing his feet? Mr. Blackwell rating Nields’ tie?

Better that viewers should judge the hearings for themselves, if only more of them had the opportunity. In a perfect world, North’s full testimony would also be available on either ABC, CBS, NBC or PBS at night. In a perfect world, however, there would be no Iran-contra affair to investigate.