Submitted by: Frank Clynes 1/10/2008 There is a lost page in the WTEV-6 history book that nobody talks about very much. For one brief and shining moment, the Channel 6 news department had within its grasp, an opportunity which might've shortened the Vietnam War or expedited its inevitable end. In 1968, Richard Nixon was running for president against Hubert Humphrey. The Vietnam conflict was entering its third year and antiwar sentiment was at a fever pitch across the nation. The public pressure had convinced Linden B. Johnson not to run for a second term. Nixon's daughter Julie was on the trail to bolster her fathers campaign, when she showed up at a Newport fund raiser. The local news media were given one-on-one access to her. Representing WTEV-6 was anchorman Truman Taylor, along with photographer Ira Marcuson. Because of her youth and obvious lack of political experience, members of the media had been throwing softball questions at her. When it came Truman's turn, his first question to her was, "If your father does get elected president, what is the first thing you'd like to see him do?" She replied, "I'm glad somebody has finally asked me a serious question. The first thing I want my father to do, is to end that terrible war in Vietnam and bring the boys home." She revealed her feelings about the conflict, which she felt was morally wrong. This had been the position of Bobby Kennedy before he was assassinated in California. Truman was stunned. Her statement was completely unrehearsed and unexpected. When it hit the national news, it would dramatically affect the direction of the 1968 presidential campaign, and might compel her father to rethink his official position on the war. It could even lock him into a commitment to immediately end hostilities. Was Julie's opinion a topic of heated discussion being privately debated around the Nixon dinner table? Or was this perhaps a new direction that tricky Dick was floating as a trial balloon? Whatever the case, Truman knew that he had just struck the mother lode. The little station that couldn't, was about to break the big story. I first learned of it when I walked into the news room. Truman, who was generally a low-key kind of guy, could barely conceal his excitement. He was already making arrangements to get copies of this film transferred to videotape to send out to the networks. Ira Marcuson the photographer, was a happy-go-lucky fellow whose reputation was not built on his photographic skills. He couldn't hold a camera steady and was not the most dependable on the job. But he was about to gain a measure of fame that would be on a par with Joe Rosenthal. I went down to the photo lab where the film was being processed, to offer Ira my congratulations. It was then I noticed that the cover on the dark box portion of the processor, was off. The first three chemical tanks have to be light tight, before the film emerges into the next tanks for the final fixing baths. Ira went into a panic. In his excitement, he had failed to cover the developer and stop bath tanks before he started the machine. He quickly closed the cover. The film from all the other day's assignments were loaded in the magazine, and perhaps the Julie Nixon story hadn't yet emerged. It might yet be saved. But it wasn't meant to be. It turned out to be the only film strip lost in the process, and the story never made the air. There were some who later argued we should've gone with the story anyway. The magnetic stripe on the edge of the film was not compromised in the developing process. We still had the recording of her voice. I don't know who made the final decision not to air the story. Would Richard Nixon's Campaign Committee have denied the report? I believed then and continue to believe to this day, that we should have at least tried. The Vietnam War did not end that year. It continued to drag on for another seven years until April 30, 1975, with the eventual loss of nearly 58,000 American lives. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward. Into the valley of death rode the 600. Ours was not to reason why. Ours but to do and die. Someone had blundered. Frank Clynes |
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