European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - July 14, 1985, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Page 10 the stars and stripes july 1985 columns Tom Wicker Beirut hijacking was no television pseudoevent7 Back in the someone coined the term pseudo event to describe happenings contrived solely to appear on in this would not have happened had there been no cameras available to film but 30 years its the other Way around events outside our private lives Lack a certain reality they become for most of us pseudo events if they do not appear on in the United television has become the National nervous system and satellites Are making it an International nervous system what most americans knew of last years presidential Campaign was what they saw of it on television and How much reality would famine in Ethiopia have in if it were not visible on the Home screen the ubiquity of television and the consequent dependence of viewers has been lost sight i in the clamor Over the role of television in the Beirut hostage has been the valid distinction Between television itself and television the like print has plenty of sins to answer owing mostly to the fact that its an intensely competitive perpetrated by fallible human beings for a demanding the Public has every right to demand improved journalistic perform whether in print or on the screen although Public tastes and pressures Are not the least of journal isms in the latest hostage for the Over abundance of filmed interviews with grieving hostage families and the mindless repetition of that awful television inquiry How does it feel to be a to be to be not to be and Infin Tum exemplified unintelligent on the other the audience Doest necessarily know what restraints television or May be imposing on Lou Cannon of the washing ton Post has pointed out that the press did not report that one hostage was a member of the National Security which would have endangered or that As some reporters were privately informed the Reagan administration did not expect to succeed in its demand for the release of seven hostages taken before the flight 847 the most serious charge is not really against television but against television some commentators and officials say television should have been barred from the Beirut Airport and other important that the hostages were Only taken so that their captors could Parade their cause in american living and that by allowing them to do aided that cause and interfered with George will Zupek Halfss scr was once Cousin of one of the a flout it us mow Are copin6 in talk crisis but Banning not just american but that of other would hardly be practical and that frustration speaking and in search of something to those amal spokesmen May Well have enjoyed their television exposure and taken advantage of but that was Only one aspect of this very real not pseudo event primarily designed to free prisoners being held in would the two fanatics who hijacked the Twa plane have left it alone had they thought there would be no television coverage those seven invisible hostages still held in Beirut would not be Likely to think would the flight 847 hostages have been released sooner had the cameras been absent its More Likely the presence of commanding worldwide at kept their captors talking and prevented More of the hostages from meeting the terrible Fate of Robert was television used by amal of just As it is used All the time by the Reagan administration for its own did shiite propaganda threaten american Security the Mere question insults the intelligence of the Ameri can the real reason that television not always television journalism was properly present in even at those bizarre news is just that television exists it has become a condition of it May on occasion be even harm Ful but if because of government censorship or network self censorship the hostage crisis had not been on american the outrage and outcry would have been a thousand times louder than whats now being and rightly so for we depend on television for perception As we depend on air for and that the Way it c new York times supreme courts religion rulings unfailingly foolish before the supreme court struck its tent and stole out of washing it dismantled Many established Reli which keep cropping up like crab grass around the United the court said Alabama had established religion by establishing a moment of silence in a moment of meditation or voluntary the court pounced on then turned to new eng Long a hotbed of theocratic Tenden the court said Connecticut had Vio lated the first amendments prohibition of establishment of religion by a Law requiring employers to give workers a right to take their Sabbath Day the court said the Law was too absolute in creating a duty to act in the name of any the opinion was just seven pages but Long enough for reiterating the three prong test a Law touching religion Vio lates the establishment clause unless it has a secular and its primary effect Nei ther advances nor inhibits and it does not Foster excessive entanglement of government with a Law imposing a More conditional obligation to accommodate workers religious duties might pass constitutional mus when not complaining about their the justices can decide All the cases their Connecticut ruling will Gener regarding Alabama the court implied that the 24 similar Laws in other states might be sufficiently dissimilar to be perhaps they Are constitutional if they do not mention or do not have a legislative history that re Veals the legislators Hopes that children would use the moment of silence for Pray a dozen More cases should enable the court to Fin tune this Issue to in As in Justice Oconnor detected an impermissible state endorsement of she wisely did not try to say what makes her think the authors of the establishment clause in tended to ban such regard ing Justice Rehnquist was the Lone herewith the full test of his dissent Justice Rehnquist he had shot his Bolt in his 22page Dis sent in the Alabama he served up an essay proving that the authors of the establishment clause intended to prevent partiality toward any particular not to require neutrality Between religion and but the court believes it should avoid excessive entanglement with facts that might inhibit its activities As a mini so it plunged ahead to discs Stablish religion in grand rapids and new York grand rapids i Well on the Way to resembling Vatican or even calvins with the clergy booted and spurred and in the Public school teachers were Given remedial instruction to needy children in religiously affiliated private in new York the Yoke of clericalism has been struck from the necks of needy for 19 the City has been spending some Federal funds ear marked for needy children to Send teach ers into parochial schools to enrich the teaching of secular the court has freed the children from this the grand rapids program advanced needy children by teaching them Spanish and but the court says it also advanced religion by establish ing a symbolic Union Between govern ment and in recent this court has found no such impermissible symbolism or Union in a municipal creche on Public or Public funding of legislative you figure it the court said new Yorks program would Advance religion and entangle it excessively with Dis detected a the court has said Public funds can be used for limited in certain in parochial but the use must be carefully supervised to avoid excessive in and sufficient supervision is excessively the court says new Yorks publicly paid teachers should meet the needy Chil Dren from parochial schools on a Neutral another dozen cases can Fin tune the neutrality evidently the court is afraid religion will be advanced by secular teachers teaching secular subjects in a what uns Ecular you figure it ten months the presidential Campaign was awash with solemn nonsense about political currents that supposedly threaten to Wash away the Wall of separation Between Church and but in four Endo session the court has redux that regarding relations Between government and it has the if unfailingly the Wall of separation metaphor comes not from the Constitution but from one of Jeffersons the justices would rather construe Jeffersons correspondence than the but per haps we should be thankful that they still feel some slight obligation to relate their whims to something in americas c Washington Post the opinions expressed in the columns and cartoons on his Page represent those of the authors and Are in no Way to be considered As representing those of the stars and stripes or the United states