TV AND THE GULF WAR : Special War Coverage Turns Kid Time Into Prime Time

The handsome man in the tie and blue blazer sat cross-legged on the floor, facing 65 youngsters from ages 5 to 14. “Wars do end,” he assured them, “and most people who go to war come home from war.”

What’s this, ABC’s urbane anchorman, Peter Jennings, playing Mister Rogers? Exactly.

It’s taken war to whip Saturday morning television into shape. On two networks, anyway.

While a satanic villain prepared to use his robot army to terrorize society on CBS’ “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles,” NBC News spent an hour and ABC News 90 minutes Saturday answering questions from kids about Persian Gulf hostilities and the essence of war.

This wasn’t the first time that those on TV had demonstrated a concern for young viewers of the all-consuming Persian Gulf coverage. The real Mister Rogers has taped messages reassuring children about the war, various programs have brought on psychologists to counsel parents on discussing war with their kids and ABC on a previous Saturday aired a brief video contrasting cartoon battles with the real items in the gulf.

But Saturday marked the first true effort by networks to explain the war and put it in context on a day and at a time when especially large numbers of children could be expected to be in front of the set.

On NBC, this meant targeting children during a Saturday morning version of “Sunday Today” with Garrick Utley and Mary Alice Williams in their New York studio relaying kids’ phoned-in questions to NBC correspondents at their various posts.

The familiar face and crisp English accent: Could it be? Yes it was. From its Tel Aviv bureau, this time minus wailing sirens, NBC gave America’s kids Martin Fletcher.

“Well, Misty, 20 Scuds have been fired on Israel. . . .”

And from Saudi Arabia, in response to a question from Joey in Las Vegas, came the equally familiar face and voice of Arthur Kent, who for once was faintly smiling, his face free of tension as he explained, “Saddam Hussein really didn’t understand everyone would be so mad at him.”

ABC also took calls and went live to a number of its correspondents, while joining Jennings in the studio were science correspondent Michael Guillen and Adm. William J. Crowe, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

When he wasn’t sitting, Jennings tramped across the floor of ABC’s multi-dimensional Middle East map, managing to do what the United States has been trying to for 11 days: Walk all over Iraq.

At both ABC and NBC, kids touched on such fundamental issues as: “Are we trying to fight Saddam Hussein or trying to fight the country of Iraq?”

“That’s a really good question,” Jennings said, passing it to Crowe.

There were also questions touching on complex Gulf War politics: “Why isn’t Israel attacking back?” a kid caller asked NBC. Cut to Fletcher in Tel Aviv: “The United States is putting heavy pressure on Israel not to attack. . . .”

There were questions from children that also resonated the fears of many adults: “Do we have to worry about terrorists planting bombs in our schools?” Plus there were questions to kids from Jennings that evoked responses at once simple and profound. A young girl: “God made us brothers and sisters, and we shouldn’t be fighting each other.”

It was an Israeli boy in a taped piece on ABC, however, who probably spoke for many Americans when he said about Iraq President Saddam Hussein: “I would take his head and pull out every hair.”

Neither NBC nor ABC (which did check in with Saturday’s massive anti-war rally at the capital) spent enough time stressing that it can be just as patriotic to oppose the Gulf War as to support it. Nonetheless, this was one of those rare Saturdays when TV made kid time prime time.

“Maybe, they’ll let us do this again,” Jennings said. Maybe they just should, not only during war but regularly--monthly Saturday morning programs using the resources of network news divisions to relate current affairs to children.

Meanwhile, only three hours after answering questions from America’s kids, a now-grim Kent was on the screen again reporting a Scud alert in Saudi Arabia, an emphatic reminder of school being out, war back in.