European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - September 16, 1977, Darmstadt, Hesse Page 12 the stars and stripes William f. Buckley Friday september 16, 1977 behind closed ooor6 Why does t Congress help cambodians i am quite serious Why does t con Gress authorize the Money to finance an International military Force to overrun cambodia0 that Force should comprise primarily asians thais notably but also malaysians filipinos taiwanese japanese. Detachments from North Viet Nam and China should be permitted an Token representatives from voluntary units of other countries that Are signatories to the genocide convention and to the Vari Ous protocols on human rights. Our inactivity in respect of Cambodia is a sin As heinous As our inactivity to save the jews from the holocaust. Worse Actu ally because we did mobilize eventually to destroy Hitler we Are doing nothing to save the cambodians. What is happening in Cambodia mocks every speech made by every politician in the United nations and elsewhere about our common Devotion to human rights. The idea in Cambodia in t logo there and set up a democratic state. It is to go there and take Power away from one two. Three perhaps As Many As a half dozen a madmen who have brought on their country the worst suffering the worst conditions brought on any country in this bloody Century father Francois Ponchaud who lived in Cambodia from 1%5 to 1975. Estimates that 800,000 cambodians have died since Khmer Rouge took Over two years ago. And he is thought to be inaccurate on the Low Side. Richard Holbrooke assistant Secretary of state for asian affairs puts the figure As High As 1.2 million. Hundreds of thousands of these were executions. The balance was worse death mostly by starvation. We finally mustered the judicial Energy to execute Gary Gil More last january we could not have found one american Short possibly of the son of Sam who would have voted to starve him to death. Others die of malaria and other diseases. The Khmer Rouge Dis Dains to accept medical Aid from the West or food As for the death figures what do they mean to those for whom human life Means nothing Stephane Groueff a French journalist went to within a dozen Miles of Cambodia recently talking to hundreds of refugees. It is the deepest mystery what actually is the Constitution of that evil leadership As no correspondent has been there in two years and the eight diplomatic Lega tons seven communist plus Egypt Are House bound and denied permission to speak to any cambodians. There is speculation that the ener gumen running the show is a 46-year-old French educated Khieu Samphan. The head of the presidium. When you ask the refugee s who is the authority behind the Khmer Rouge they will Tell you presumably in whispers angkor what is Khieu Samphan to angkor what is the role of the prime min ister pol pot or of Long Sari the Hanoi intellectual whose real name is Nguyen Sao in cry or the communist parly Secretary general. Salloh Sar or. Groueff report that there is Only one known interview with Samphan. It was Given to an italian journalist at last summer s Colombo Confer ence. In five years of War Khieu Samphan told him. More than a million cambodians died. The present population of the country is five million before the War it was seven million what happened to the other million the journalist asked. Samphan was an s incredible he said the Way you westerners worry about War two out of seven cambodians already dead that is the equivalent of 57 million americans killed. Even Stalin might have shrunk from genocide on such a scale. And what Are we doing about i waiting for Ralph Hochhuth to write a play is there no practical idealism left in this world Only that endless talk which desecrated the language and trophies the , t la Jon sir i Nodi itt George f. Will viewers talking Back to Boob tube soap is a television show that Abc is pleased to Call adult presumably be cause the show is obsessed with sex. Having seen two instalments i can defend Abc against the charge that soap is dramatically More offensive than All other shows. It is merely another step and certainly not a final step in the direction of what advanced thinkers Call it concerns two families related by mar rage. In one the father populates with everyone except his wife she populates with her Tennis instructor he populates with her daughter. The other family includes an impotent Stepfather and two sons one a homosexual the other a mafia Hood. The first family has a militant Black Butler who insults everybody and is insulted by a deranged Grandfather. In the other family the Stepfather jokes that fruit loops is the appropriate breakfast Cereal for the homosexual son. So goes the in an attempt to Dampen criticism. Abc reportedly made trivial changes in Early episodes. Mother is no longer seen in bed with the Tennis instructor exclaiming of my god i m instead she is next to the bed. Partially clothed. The daughter who enters As Mother leaves no longer tells the instructor get your clothes Grandfather no longer Calls the Butler chocolate various Church and other groups urge boycotting products advertised on soap and scores of companies have reportedly instructed their advertising agencies not to buy time on but an age that is As pompous As it is vulgar will rationalize almost any tasteless Ness As and groups opposing soap Are being called threats to intellectual Freedom. The Washington Post finds it disturb ing that soap is opposed by fervent groups with a special focus and a particular a to Post editorialists who presumably recoil from a grinding say attacks on soap Are a form of Richard Pinkham an advertising executive warns. If television Knuckles under to these minority pressures it will sink deeper and deeper into the quagmire of right. Madison Avenue which can t abide mediocrity must protect soap from the enemies of excellence no Industry is More devoted than is Tele vision to detecting society s lowest common denominator and Kuckling under to it. The overriding purpose of television entertainment is to attract a mass Audi ence of potential buyers of Beer and soap and denture adhesives. So networks and advertising agencies live with their ears to the ground a posture More profitable than dignified. Those who choose to be slaves to Nielsen ratings should not pretend to cherish their Independence. And even in an age when the first amendment is regularly invoked for Low commercial purposes it is a bit much for networks and and agencies to shout censorship when viewers make the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on this Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing the views of the stirs and stripes or the United states government. Themselves heard. That most of the groups opposing soap began opposing it before the first show is immaterial. They did so on the basis of published reports that were part us the networks preseason publicity. That persons opposing soap Are a minority is not remarkable. Intense minorities always Are disproportionately influential in poli tics and elsewhere in society of course the networks find intense minorities tiresome. Those who schedule entertainment programs think in terms of Nielsen ratings and Are impatient with persons who have More complicated Crite Ria for judging the suitable Ness of popular entertainment. Some persons fear that pressure from concerned minorities will make television Bland and but television enter columns comments Tain ment has characteristics on which blandness would be an improvement and soap is not an act of moral bravery. It is a corporation s carefully calculated ploy for expanding profits by expanding its audience it is just the latest network tactic for titillating an increasingly desensitized Public. Some conscientious parents advertising agencies for example j Walter Thomp Sonand sponsors have successfully insisted on less violence on television. Like gratuitous violence the adult comedy of soap a an affront to the sensibilities of Many americans. That is Why the most agreeable fact about the new television season is this Many americans who Are not comatose in front of their television sets Are talking Back to the tube. C Washington list
