Commenting on TV Commentating

Conservatives can take heart if Republican Bruce Herschensohn is defeated by Democratic Rep. Barbara Boxer in his latest bid for the U.S. Senate. At least he’ll be available to resume his job as commentator for KABC-TV Channel 7, where he was succeeded by longtime antiabortion activist Susan Carpenter McMillan as the station’s right-wing voice.

Liberal Bill Press was not rehired by Channel 7 after his unsuccessful campaign for state insurance commissioner (he ultimately moved on to KCOP-TV Channel 13), so it remains to be seen whether the station would take back Herschensohn as it did after his last losing run for political office.

The prediction is that it would. And it should.

Herschensohn’s writing was sometimes convoluted, but compared to McMillan--who is especially inept in her weekly appearances--he was William Safire and George Will rolled into one. Whereas Herschensohn’s commentaries appeared to be the product of research and thought, the stumbling, gratingly shrill McMillan launches herself like a Scud missile, wildly hurtling through the air toward a target that she inevitably misses.

A case in point was her Monday commentary on the Clarence Thomas-Anita Hill hearings of a year ago, in which she accused three Democratic members of the Senate Judiciary Committee--Joseph R. Biden Jr. of Delaware, Howard M. Metzenbaum of Ohio and Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts--of “attacking (Thomas) like political Klansmen.”

Come again?

Good people can disagree about whether Thomas or Hill was treated the most unfairly. But the Democrats hard-hitters? C’mon. Although all three of these guys voted against Thomas’ confirmation to the Supreme Court, Biden was oily and unctuous throughout the hearings, Metzenbaum was weak and ineffectual and Kennedy--encumbered by his own checkered past--became the biggest disappearing act since Jimmy Hoffa.

As someone who is a dispenser of low blows herself, McMillan should be able to recognize the absence of one. But fat chance.

So snide and infantile is McMillan on Channel 7 that she manages to make a heroine of her liberal counterpart at the station, high-profile attorney Gloria Allred, who is only marginally less predictable and no great shakes herself as a commentator.

Regardless of their shortcomings as commentators, what McMillan and Allred give Channel 7 is a feminine perspective that’s unquestionably needed. Just as the Judiciary Committee projects a repugnant all-maleness, so, too, does television have far too few female authority figures.

So other stations would do well to follow Channel 7’s gender example.

Meanwhile, Channel 13’s Press remains the best TV commentator in town, not because the vast majority of his views are from the left, but because he is such a good writer and his opinions are so incisive and well-delivered.

In his new role as a commentator for KNBC-TV Channel 4, Jess Marlow is not at all predictable. Nor, unfortunately, is he very forceful.

The newest commentator in town--Wayne Satz--is a familiar face.

“Cutting Through the Bull” is the title of the tough media/campaign rhetoric commentaries that former Channel 7 reporter Satz has been delivering during the 10 p.m. Friday editions of the KTTV-TV Channel 11 news.

Using clips unconventionally, Satz has tackled topics ranging from Larry King’s soft questions to Bill Clinton’s evasiveness (“What’s fascinating is to watch him dance away from the liberal label five different ways in just one answer”) to a choice sound bite from Gov. Pete Wilson (“Blame is not a relevant concept”).

Satz’s targets are lies, spin and propaganda, offensive sound bites that cross political lines. “It’s a matter,” he says, “of being frustrated as a viewer by things that are untrue or misleading being rushed by unstopped in the incessant flow of television.”

McMillan’s commentaries immediately come to mind.

Surprise, Surprise: With the election just around the corner, what a coincidence that NBC’s “Today” program and co-host Katie Couric should get a White House tour Tuesday, “courtesy of First Lady Barbara Bush.”

What better way to reinforce George Bush’s presidential image than with the First Lady as tour guide before her sit-down chat with Couric in the Blue Room? They paused in front of a portrait of Teddy Roosevelt. “This is George Bush’s favorite President,” Barbara Bush said.

And what a coincidence that the First Lady’s favorite President should drop by later. “Look who wandered in,” said Couric as Bush entered the Blue Room. “Can you stay with us?” Did Teddy Roosevelt have a mustache?

What followed after a commercial break was another of those amazing TV moments in the current political campaign, with the Bushes standing beside Couric in the Blue Room as the President--despite Couric’s valiant attempts to stick in an occasional tough question--steam-rolled right over her and delivered what amounted to a political speech against Democrat Bill Clinton.

When he had finished, a seemingly satisfied Bush complemented Couric (“You’re what I call a very fair interviewer”), reminding you of someone lighting a cigarette after terrific sex.

The President’s campaign strategists were probably all lighting cigarettes.