| Show THAT OLD CLUCK 1 I IBy By Jenkin Lloyd Jones Jone Editor dl of the Wis Wisconsin State Jo Journal r al u I l have been admiring that naked picture e of nf actress actress J June ne fonda londa on the front f ont coyer cover of of the e N Nova v i 13 Ne Newsweek s It t Moaned Ne Newsweek sY e tr of f the stands in my home home town and I presume fr 1 the re results u ts were equally sat satisfactory s act ry else ise- ise where F The Th picture was was used to illustrate e ai a ar ar- ar article entitled ilAi Goe Goes which discus sed sed the alleged collapse of older moral stan stan- standards dards in America The article alternately de- de deplored de this raw morality and guess guessed that ita it 01 a w was s irreversible Here l I Here was a good example If of what might C be described esc n ed as s smack cluck journalism o als a You cluck in dismay ove over human misbehavIOr allure 1 I in all its smacking lip lurid allure This Is a ell subtle approach to the business of piling on circulation It technically aligns align's aligns Y you l with the thet t angels while it cozies you right up next to toi i Playboy Its It's not a new new d device vice The old Police Gazette was good at it We have re recently seen s en a growing tendency rJ toward c cluck uck in our once highly moral popular magazines The rationale is t that drugs promis promiscuity and vio- vio violence t lence are part of life and that the editors are exhibiting rare co courage rage and honesty in break break- breaking log ing the Victorian taboos 11 Y Al Alt this ls is indeed part of life liCe just as the city dump and the jail drunk tank are part of oil every town But you dont don't put them on post postcards postcards t cards In the e old days wh when n sensational news news- newspapers newspapers papers buried Ul the announcement m nt of the new r ciVic cen center r unde underneath neath a breathless account of thE raid on the local this was wasI I described l las as yellow journalism And beau beau- beautifully written journalism published on the ther r slickest paper can still be yellow The The concern is that enough journalism can Jj pr produce yellow behavior eh vior When you parade the e doings of kooKs psychedelics riot a ac o t ss cates deviates and lechers long enough the lit tremendous r rm m p pw power w r of the press lends itself to nr a low lowering g of the general public impression of what ac acceptable behavior is s r Thus instead of merely mirroring life life- lifer life r this kind d of Jo journalism prod pr dyc ces s an inferior It social order Man a alays operates well below his ideals All that is necessary to brutalize hind bi is to play Doin It E EWe ii We have now reached ed the point where we can no longer distinguish b philosophers E ald and those who simply refuse to bathe or wear ear shoes Any exhibitionist with a long M enough beard and a dirty enough toga can candraY draY draw a gaggle of journalistic geese to his press conference The poet who strings obscenities together t gether ls searching for portentous meaning And the man who blows his mind it with LSD SD and inadvertently perhaps splits his chromosomes at no extra charge is described as being not merely high but a Lama The tremendous competition among the network TV newsmen has been adroitly used by thos those who would make It appear that Amer ica seethes with revolt You can have a patri otic parade in which thousands participate and tens of thousands look on with appreciation But let word come down that demon l lave have ave tried tried to block the march and andey to every ey ry network rushes to zoom in on that at hundred The resulting impression is that the parade is disrupted by irate ap palled by our atrocities In Vietnam This is not sophisticated journalism This is singularly unsophisticated journalism It is isa isa a suckers sucker's game in which the media permit themselves to be manipulated in contrived dramas carefully staged by a small minority But the effect effect is tremendous tr mendo Ls The called so-called new sexuality is pretty old One would have to cut a lot of history to classes to Imagine that the human animal had never gone through periods in which he sought rel release ase or even even revelation in pure licentious licentious- licentiousness licentiousness ness Weve We've been there many times Hugh Hefner hasn't thought of anything that hadn't been thought of 3 years ago by the priest priest- priestesses esses of If this had worked worked-if it had brought ful- ful and happiness we would never have messed around with the Ten Commandments But always i it produced social confusion and disgust and always after man had vomited away his hangover he sought cleaner nobler gods We are way below the angels but we Just arent aren't happy in the barnyard This country is still full of people young and old ho who have haye high principles and strong dedications and that capacity for self pline without which no civilization flowers or even survives But they haven't been getting the press coverage Th The kooks have had too much coverage the dont don't knock until It-until youre you're tried it philosophers pliers are paraded In too many magazines The Theburn burn burn bum boys are on camera Maybe its it's time time to pay more attention to decent Americans Americans They are all over the place and they're doing interesting things too America is going to need them |
