A Parade of TV Praise for Gulf Warriors, War

This sharpshooting patriot single-handedly killed more than 20 of the enemy and forced 132 others to surrender in a breathtaking act of courage and daring described by one military leader as “the greatest thing accomplished by any private soldier of all the armies. . . .”

For nearly 73 years now, he’s been a legend, an epic hero, an inspiration to all Americans, someone whose name has come to symbolize bravery and humility. The man was a giant.

Isn’t it time we welcomed home Sergeant York?

That’s something Johnny Grant should ponder, for we can use another parade. Giddily welcoming home troops has become America’s feelgood hypodermic, as if creaming overmatched Iraq and ejecting Saddam Hussein’s forces from Kuwait were the equivalent of ejecting age-old chaos and turbulence from the Middle East.

Grant, of course, was the bouncy promoter and KTLA Channel 5 vice president behind Sunday’s pistol-packin’ mama of all cavalcades--otherwise known as “Hollywood’s Welcome Home Desert Storm” parade--that KTLA telecast live and KNBC Channel 4 gave virtually as much time to by making it almost an entire two-hour newscast.

“This is just the most magnificent display of patriotism I’ve seen in a long time!” gushed Cathy Lee Crosby, co-host of Channel 5’s one-hour pre-parade telecast. And that was before warplanes zoomed overhead, heavy tanks rumbled down Sunset Boulevard, Marines marched with a 47x82-foot American flag, and Martha Raye waved to the crowd with her dentures from a convertible.

A less militaristic salute to the military arrives at 9 a.m. Friday (and reruns at noon Monday) when C-SPAN revisits members of the 211th North Carolina National Guard that it spent time with last fall when they were being sent to the Gulf.

The five-hour program will interweave live segments with taped interviews of such soldiers as 20-year-old Sgt. Russell Ball. Asked what he took away from the war, Ball’s soft response is striking for its simple truth in contrast with the parade’s gaudy extravagance: “Live life to the fullest. Love your family and friends. Don’t forget ‘em for nothing.”

All but drowned out by Sunday’s intense fervor, the anti-war crowd gets a rare national forum in the May 28 edition of “The ‘90s,” a bold, unconventional PBS series that weaves the work of independent filmmakers into a video narrative. It airs on KCET Channel 28 at 10 p.m. Tuesdays.

“The ‘90’s” next week gives you voices seldom heard on mainstream TV. Among other things, it runs excerpts of Maryanne DeLeo’s and Jon Alpert’s footage from inside Iraq during the Gulf War, showing civilian casualties from allied bombing and widespread destruction of alleged non-military targets.

This marks the first national exposure for the film. It was reportedly personally rejected by Michael Gartner, president of the NBC News division, whose “Nightly News” and “Today” programs have been buying news reports from free-lancer Alpert for more than a decade.

The footage dramatically shows some of the gruesome consequences of war. What “The ‘90s” inexcusably fails to disclose, though, is that Alpert’s objectivity may be compromised in that he was allowed into Iraq only because he was in the company of peace activist Ramsey Clark, whom he shadowed everywhere.

“The ‘90s” also includes Robbie Leppzer’s stirring segment comparing the reality of combat with the unreality of commercials. He declares: “Too many of America’s young people learn about war only from Hollywood, politicians and recruiters.”

And now, also from parades.

The TV tone for Sunday’s was set by the cheerleading of Channel 5 news anchor Jann Carl on the pre-parade telecast: “I just want to take a moment to say thank you to all the troops and their families because of what they did for us. . . .” Since when is the role of a news anchor to throw bouquets on behalf of America?

Moreover, when pre-parade telecast co-host Robb Weller raved about the “terrific outpouring of American patriotism,” he was resonating the message of the day: that only through supporting the war could one be patriotic.

During the parade, Channel 4 anchors John Beard and Colleen Williams and weathercaster Christopher Nance stood at their posts along the parade route wearing shirts emblazoned with American flags, making their flagless colleague David Garcia look like some kind of unpatriotic rebel.

On Channel 4, the most prominent of the welcome-home commercials were for Channel 4 itself. These included self-serving promos for news anchors sharing their personal feelings about the Gulf War and the troops. The music. The emotion. You wanted to cry.

Whatever that indulgence, at least Channel 4 put the day in context by reporting on the relatively minor anti-war protests that occurred on the fringes of the parade. On Channel 5, the protests were omitted from the spewing parade prattle of co-hosts Bob Eubanks and Leeza Gibbons, who gave this event the kind of Disneyesque tone worthy of the Rose Parade, as if Mickey Mouse and an M-1 tank were identical twins.

Leeza’s lips never stopped, and a calculator was needed to count the times she said: “Welcome, each and every one of you!” Especially the man most responsible for Gibbons and Eubanks getting this gig. “He’s just a proud American,” Gibbons raved about Johnny Grant. “One nice guy,” Eubanks echoed.

An even greater welcome awaited retired Army Gen. William C. Westmoreland, who commanded U.S. troops during the Vietnam War and led a contingent of those veterans in the parade.

“There’s a true American,” Gibbons said. “So distinguished,” Eubanks said. “Yes, he is,” Gibbons said. “A lot of grateful Americans, saying we thank you,” Eubanks said.

The adoration went far beyond well-deserved praise for the long-ignored soldiers who fought in Vietnam. It was, instead, an endorsement of one of the most controversial leaders of a war that bitterly split the nation.

From his stationary anchoring position, it was Channel 4’s Bill Lagattuta who gave context to Westmoreland’s parade appearance: “A number of Vietnam veterans chose not to participate because Gen. Westmoreland was heading the contingent. He did not emerge as popular from that war as Gen. (Norman) Schwarzkopf did from this one.”

That “this one” was--and still is--a hot TV ticket is affirmed almost daily. Only last week, KCAL Channel 9 welcomed back the troops--again!--by originating its newscast at a different Southern California military installation for an hour each night. At the Long Beach Naval Station, anchor Pat Harvey mirrored the reverential tone of Channel 9’s coverage, all but enlisting by spending the entire hour in a naval officer’s uniform.

Meanwhile, a spate of Gulf War and Schwarzkopf videos are on the market and ABC is planning a two-hour movie called “The Heroes of Desert Storm” after having vetoed a peace-mongering script for one of its Saturday-morning children’s shows, “Ghostbusters.”

Written by Gordon Bressack, the rejected “Ghostbusters” story told of the “spirit of war” haunting Washington, only to be foiled by the Ghostbusting team. Although submitted before the Gulf War had ended, it was not specifically about that conflict, its statement being merely that in war, “nobody wins.”

“The message was that if we bounce war off the planet, that would be neat,” said Bressack.

Story editor Chuck Menville said that Columbia Pictures Television, which produces the series, and ABC executives loved the script but that the network’s standards and practices department found it “inappropriate.”

Menville said that he was baffled that a story emphasizing intellect over force would be rejected. “It seemed like such a basic premise.”

“My guess is that if this had been submitted last summer, it would have gone through,” Bressack said. But that was before the Gulf War made military parades fashionable and preaching peace to children controversial.

RATINGS

KTLA Channel 5 had about three times as many viewers Sunday afternoon as usual. The reason: complete live coverage of “Hollywood’s Welcome Home Desert Storm Parade.” KTLA’s 4-6 p.m. coverage drew a 9.7 rating and 24 audience share in overnight Nielsen ratings (about 487,551 homes). KNBC Channel 4, which had some live coverage, picked up a 3.1 rating and 8 share (about 155,815 homes).