Revolution Televised.pdf

32 Was the Revolution Televised?
He’s got to care about the truth; he’s got to care about the truth
much more than he cares about the art. More about the truth than
what looks pretty. He must be willing to ruin films, ruin stories, not
rearrange them or throw them out, because he cares so much about
truth. He must be willing to have things a little duller than he’d like
them to be because that’s the way they are. The trick, of course, is
not to have things dull and yet still be right and still make it honest
journalism. And that’s not always easy. 18
This rhetoric adds to the mythology of the era and the nostalgic
recuperation of the moment. However, what often slips in the
embrace of the notion of objectivity is the role of interpretation,
something that journalists acknowledge is an active component in
their capacity as professionals. As journalists, documentary producers
know that analysis is a critical part of their work, yet in the
Golden Age there was a belief that analysis could work in concert
with objectivity. This is often not the case, because ideology is reflected
within the analysis. In dealing with black subject matter,
more often than not reporters did not have regular contacts within
the black community and thus lacked an understanding of black
perspectives. And the analysis provided within these documentaries
reflects this. 19
When documentaries dealt with blackness, what did they say?
This was the moment of the emergence of a black voice on mainstream
television, but were black people able to find a place within
the documentary constructions of the Golden Age? I have chosen
“Watts: Riots or Revolt?” from CBS Reports for analysis because
it was produced during the Golden Age and because the subject
matter is also of particular interest. The Watts rebellion symbolized
for many the changing tides of politics from civil rights to black
power. It was one of the first in a series of revolts in which African
Americans expressed open discontent with the U.S. system and
indicated that they were no longer willing to follow through with
peaceful protests. A look at one of the documentaries of the period,
especially one confronting the issue of urban revolt, will allow for
a close examination of how network television handled the shift
away from the more accepted strategy of passive resistance.
Riots or Revolution?
In December 1965, CBS Reports aired “Watts: Riots or Revolt?” As
the documentary declared in its opening moments, the text sought