CAPSULE REVIEW : ‘Jesse Jackson’ Giving Voice to the Voiceless

The Rev. Jesse Jackson is better at using the camera than talking to it.

Yet his new weekly series airing at 5 p.m. Sundays on KCAL Channel 9--and named, of all things, “Jesse Jackson”--ranks among the most important additions to television in years.

Not because Jackson has sharpened his enunciation. On the contrary, for someone known for swaying crowds with fiery oratory, he often slurs his words so badly that it takes all your concentration just to understand what he’s saying.

Not because he’s skilled at interviewing and leading panel discussions. He isn’t, evidenced by Sunday’s taped premiere, which focused almost entirely on the status of Native Americans.

Not because his syndicated series is silky smooth. It has kinks galore, including an eclectic audience that did not participate in Sunday’s show or even make a sound. It was nothing more than a multiracial backdrop, a prop.

Not because he totally sheds his self-serving, personal-puffery cloak. He said Sunday that those Mohawks protesting plans for building a golf course on their ancient burial grounds in Oka, Quebec, “invited us there to hear their story.” So . . .

Cut to Jackson being refused entry to the area by Canadian troops. Cut to Jackson holding an impromptu press conference there. Cut to Jackson visiting a Mohawk “survivor school.” Cut to Jackson receiving a sweat shirt from the Mohawks. Cut to Jackson making a speech to them. Cut to Jackson with Canada’s Indian minister, who tells Jackson that he warned the local mayor “not to go ahead with the golf course.” Was the story the Mohawks’ protest . . . or Jackson’s?

What gives “Jesse Jackson” so much promise is obviously none of the above. What you love about it are its fresh eyes.

It’s Jackson the reformer, not Jackson the performer, who stars here. Thanks to him, this show swims against the TV mainstream by giving voice to the voiceless in a medium known for its narrow range of opinion in news and public affairs programs.

Just think about it. Rarely do Native Americans get more than sound bites. But on Sunday, they got almost the entire hour, including a 15-minute package in which American Indian activist Russell Means (who led the Wounded Knee uprising in South Dakota in 1973) visited three reservations where Native Americans in the United States were said to be facing problems similar to those in Oka.

Hearing the Earth described by Native Americans as “our mother” puts many of their conflicts with whites in context, and these visual essays with Means were an eloquent expression of the Native American outlook.

Next came Jackson leading a panel discussion participated in by a treaties attorney, Means and two other Native American leaders. The Bureau of Indian Affairs declined to participate, he said.

In light of this, and the discussion’s strong tilt, Jackson should have been a better devil’s advocate. Yet “Jesse Jackson” is intended to have a point of view, and the Native American views expressed here--charges ranging from whites trampling on Indian rights to institutionalized stereotyping--are valid ones generally excluded from TV.

Even with its flaws, “Jesse Jackson” promises to be strikingly distinctive and valuable, affirming this time that there’s more than one civil rights struggle in the U.S.