Posted on 06/22/2002 7:55:45 PM PDT by TLBSHOW
Given that he plumbed the role of WJM-TV news director for laughs ("The Mary Tyler Moore Show") and the job of newspaper city editor for drama ("Lou Grant"), it's startling to hear actor Ed Asner's reason for not watching today's TV news.
"Because it has all become entertainment," said Asner, who captured five Emmy awards for the signature character of Lou Grant.
Asner, 71, is a serious dude even though he was part of one of television's greatest comic ensembles. What the "The Mary Tyler Moore Show" treated as topics of jest -- a news anchor nervous about getting fired, or a greedy station owner -- Asner now treats as conditions gnawing away at the country.
"Just having a job becomes the celebratory factor in America," he said in an interview. "Everybody is hanging on by their damned fingernails. It's a time of fear."
In Asner's view, the Bush administration has manipulated public fear -- "They love to identify people as 'the enemy'" -- to chip away at personal freedoms and civil rights. Attorney General John Ashcroft is, in Asner's view, "a madman."
"I hope somebody kick-starts an examination of things, being done in the name of national security and war, that are ravaging the American people," Asner said.
Hollywood leftist hyperbole? Perhaps. Yet, recent history shows those in front of a camera are sometimes first to feel the heat.
Just 20 years ago, Asner appeared in front of the State Department to announce formation of a committee called Medical Aid for El Salvador. It raised money for victims of a bloody Central American civil war as the Reagan administration was arming a main combatant.
Within days, two major sponsors -- Vidal Sassoon and Kimberly-Clark -- yanked their ads from "Lou Grant." Several weeks later, CBS canceled the weekly show.
When Asner was a young adult, the House Un-American Activities Committee rolled into Tinseltown to root out Reds from the film industry. Studio moguls fanned McCarthyism by putting suspect screenwriters on an employment blacklist.
It took two decades, Asner notes, before that era's climate of fear was corrected so that a movie ("M*A*S*H") again listed one of the writers' names in its screen credits.
As newsroom boss Lou Grant, Asner was on the inside looking out as his employees went on strike.
A classic "Mary Tyler Moore" moment came when Lou tried to take the place of anchorman Ted Baxter, but froze up as a boom microphone was lowered above his head. At the Los Angeles Tribune, he had to cross a picket line of friends -- until publisher Mrs. Pynchon ignored her hired-gun consultant and settled with the union.
But at the time CBS took away his screen role as a manager in 1982, Asner in real life was serving his first of two terms as president of the Screen Actors Guild.
Union leader has proven Asner's most enduring role. He came here this week with two laid-off Enron workers to press demands for meaningful employee pension protection from Congress and to mobilize opposition to President Bush's plan to partially privatize Social Security.
"We can't let our beloved politicians off the hook," he told a boisterous rally at the Seattle Labor Temple.
Backstage, Asner mused about what news he would be covering if he were back at the L.A. Tribune, and Lou Grant were making the assignments.
Star reporters Joe Rossi and Billie Newman would be traveling to Afghanistan to track civilian casualties of the war on terrorism.
When that was done, Grant would send them to probe the so-called Bermuda loophole, under which big companies (e.g., makers of Stanley tools) pretend they are based offshore to avoid paying American income taxes.
"I would then have them taking a look at Wall Street's efforts to get a law that would keep state investigators from probing the securities industry," Asner added.
Of course, the L.A. Tribune would still be independent. Asner has come to hate media monopolies, believing them obsessed with the bottom line.
During the five-year run of "Lou Grant" on CBS, Mrs. Pynchon repeatedly fought off efforts to buy her out. She outfoxed two shareholder nephews who wanted to take the money and run. She resisted the blandishments of a publishing mogul (modeled on Rupert Murdoch) known for transforming high-quality newspapers into trashy tabloids.
It's probable, however, that the Trib would have been gobbled up.
The three major TV networks have been absorbed (CBS by Westinghouse). Such publishing families as the Binghams of Louisville and Chandlers in Los Angeles have given way to conglomerates.
One company, CanWest Global Communications Corp., controls more than half of Canada's daily newspaper circulation. This week it fired the publisher of the Ottawa Citizen after an editorial called for the resignation of Prime Minister Jean Chretien, a pal of CanWest's owners.
In these times, Lou Grant might have trouble finding work, especially if Ed Asner were to speak his mind.
"The American people are becoming vegetables," he said, "conditioned to prefer manure to matter."
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Sure Ed, rub it in, from you Barbie Beach House in Malibue, you Bolshevic prick.
As proven by the fact that you had/continue to have a career, Ed. Kiss my bender.
Where were your criticisms when Clinton & Reno were out there actually killing people?
And this guy loves Castro!
Go Figure?
Says Ashcroft is a Madman And Americans Are VegetablesAt the risk of being called a statist 80 times in my self-search by the time I wake up in the morning, I will point out that Asner sounds like quite a lot of Freepers around here lately.
But I'm sure that Ed is against the proletariat having access to his stretch of beach.
Hmm, I'm not sure I like the thought of the adipose Ed Asner regarding us all as another available form of carbohydrates.
I read this in the headline and thought this was another Freeper calling the US citizenry sheeple. Turns out it was just another old tired lefty. He is getting close if he could only figure it out that collective governments and unions are the problem not the solution.
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