The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

Intro

JIM LEHRER: Good evening. The lead stories this Friday are these. President Reagan said no to a negotiation appeal from kidnapped Americans in Lebanon. Soviet officials rejected a subpoena for the ship-jumping sailor to testify before Congress. Treasury Secretary Baker said the government may go into default next week. And the death toll in the Colombia shootout rose to 90. We'll have the details in our news summary in a moment. Robin?

ROBERT MacNEIL: Here's your guide to tonight's NewsHour focus sections. We hear from a relative of a Beirut hostage about today's appeal to President Reagan. Elizabeth Brackett reports from the flood-devastated town of Albright, West Virginia. The TV series Cagney and Lacey is embroiled in a controversy over abortion. We have a debate. And finally a report on how Britain's royal family manage their public relations image.News Summary

LEHRER: Four of the six American hostages in Lebanon today asked President Reagan to negotiate for their release, but Mr. Reagan said no. The hostage message was contained in an open letter to Mr. Reagan, one of several in a packet of letters dropped at the Associated Press office in Beirut. The hostages wrote the President they were "appealing to you for action. Our captors are growing impatient." One of the four hostages who signed the letters was Terry Anderson, an AP correspondent. The others were the Reverend Lawrence Jenco, David Jacobsen and Thomas Sutherland. Their letters said they had been told William Buckley, a State Department official, was dead. There was no mention of the sixth hostage, Peter Kilburn. State Department spokesman Bernard Kalb gave the official U.S. response.

BERNARD KALB, State Department spokesman: We remind the kidnappers that we hold them fully responsible for the well-being of their captives, including Mr. Buckley and Mr. Kilburn, and again call upon the kidnappers to release the American and all of the hostages in Lebanon forthwith. I think it has been made clear on more than one occasion that the United States does not get involved in negotiations, but is ready, of course, to talk about the release of the hostages and how to get the hostages released as quickly as possible.

LEHRER: Peggy Say, the sister of hostage Terry Anderson, urged the President to talk with the kidnappers.

Mrs. PEGGY SAY, hostage's sister: I think to keep these men in captivity or to see them executed to keep 17 terrorists in Kuwait prison is inhumane. We have not allowed it to be done in other cases where hostages have been held, and I certainly don't think that we should allow it to be done now.

REPORTER: What's your reaction to the fact that your brother signed the letter?

Mrs. SAY: I'm very pleased about it. It does show that he is alive, which yesterday we weren't too sure about that. And it was delivered at six a.m. our time this morning. And in an open letter to the media the hostages said that they understand that a claim had been made that they were executed, that it was certainly not true.

MacNEIL: A subpoena was served this evening ordering a Soviet sailor who tried to jump ship to appear next Tuesday before the Senate Agriculture Committee in Washington. Members of that committee's staff handed it to Soviet officials aboard Miroslav Medved's ship at a pier near New Orleans. The Soviet side then declared that the subpoena would not be honored, on the ground that American laws do not apply aboard their ship. A lawyer for the Senate committee then informed them that the U.S. Customs Service will not permit the ship to sail, which it was preparing to do tomorrow, unless Medved is permitted to testify. And there the matter rests, at a standoff. In Washington meanwhile, the political argument continued over whether to let Medved go or force him to attend another hearing. After a White House visit, Republican congressional leaders gave President Reagan's feelings. Two who spoke to reporters were William Broomfield of Michigan and Senate Majority Leader Robert Dole.

Rep. WILLIAM BROOMFIELD, (R) Illinois: I got the feeling he is deeply concerned about this whole matter. In other words, it's my personal feeling, I think the way this thing has been handled smells to high heaven.

Sen. ROBERT DOLE, Senate Majority Leader: I know he resented the characterization, well, maybe we just threw this guy to the wolves because --

Rep. BROOMFIELD: That's right.

Sen. DOLE: -- we're getting ready for Geneva. He did mention that specifically that that was not the case, and no doubt in my mind, knowing the President, he wants to make certain that this man is given every opportunity.

MacNEIL: In New York, a lawyer who filed suit on behalf of Medved said today he suspects that another man is now being used to impersonate the Ukrainian sailor. Henry Holzer, a Brooklyn Law School dean, was hired by Ukrainian organizations. He cited major differences between the Medved first interviewed by immigration officials and the one seen later by the State Department.

LEHRER: The worst was over today in the heavy floods that hit the mid-Atlantic states. The Potomac River in Washington was backed down enough that the major monuments and other tourist attractions were open again. In Richmond, Virginia, 100 miles south, the cleanup effort began in earnest. Eric Allan of Richmond station WTVR reports from there.

ERIC ALLAN [voice-over]: As the James River began its slow trek back to its original borders, area merchants and property owners brought out a myriad of hoses and pumps, hoping to speed up the process and clean out the mud.

KEN FERINO, property owner: It'll take a lot of hard work, but we're prepared to do it. It's worth it.

ALLAN [voice-over]: One of Richmond's most popular economic institutions, the farmers' market, was but a shell of its former self. Yet merchants were optimistic.

MERCHANT: Well, if they get it cleaned up the farmers will be back in here Monday.

ALLAN [voice-over]: At the 1708 East Main art gallery, the owners were trying to figure out just how to recover from more than seven feet of water inside their building.

JAMES MILLER, art gallery owner: As far as I can tell, there's a broken pipe downstairs, and the basement's about three-quarters full of water, and we don't have any electricity, and we can't clean up until we get some water. So I guess we're going to have to wait until the water level goes down, that we can get in there and fix the pipe.

ALLAN [voice-over]: All the people here vowed they will get this area back together, hopefully in time for the opening of the new Main Street Station Marketplace and the rejuvenation process that began here long before this great flood of 1985.

MacNEIL: The Reagan administration stepped up pressure on Congress today to reach agreement on the balanced budget bill. Treasury Secretary James Baker said that unless the companion bill to raise the debt ceiling was passed by next Thursday night, the government would run out of money or default.

JAMES BAKER, Secretary of Treasury: I have to tell you that I think it would be an absolute disgrace, quite frankly, if the United States defaulted for the first time in its over 200-year history. But that's very possibly what we're looking at, and it certainly is what we're looking at in the absence of congressional action. So the administration has been saying for quite some time that we hope the Congress will act and act promptly to raise the debt limit. Any default will have swift and severe repercussions, both domestically and internationally, and it's our view that it would probably raise general interest rates, as a matter of fact, costing the United States a significant amount of money in the absence, as I say, of congressional action.

MacNEIL: Former middleweight boxer Rubin "Hurricane" Carter was freed from prison in New Jersey today, the day after a federal judge said he had been convicted of a triple murder through mistakes and racial stereotypes. The prosecution contended that Carter is still a violent and dangerous man, and said they would appeal the judge's ruling to a higher court. When they do, the judge is expected to release Carter on bail.

LEHRER: More bodies were found in the Palace of Justice in Bogota, Colombia, this morning, and the death count in the bloody two-day fight with leftist guerrillas was raised to 90. Twelve of the dead were judges, including, as reported yesterday, the chief justice of the Colombian supreme court. The guerrillas seized control of the building Wednesday and demanded the president of Colombia come and negotiate with them. The president refused the demand, and army and police forces stormed the palace yesterday afternoon.

MacNEIL: The editor of South Africa's oldest daily newspaper, the Cape Times, was arrested today and charged with violating internal security by publishing an interview with the head of the banned African National Congress, Oliver Tambo. Tambo is one of 95 people the Ministry of Law and Order proclaimed unquotable. If convicted, the editor, Anthony Heard, would face up to three years in jail.

In the Philippines, President Marcos agreed to resign as president, as required by the constitution, to run in the new elections he's just called. But Marcos said his resignation would not take effect until after the election in January. An opposition assemblywoman, Cecilia Munoz Palma, commented, "He's making a fool of the Filipino people in saying he's complying with the constitution but at the same time holding on-to office."

LEHRER: And finally in the news of this day, an American search team will go to Vietnam later this month to look for the remains of Americans killed in the crash of a B-52 bomber in the Vietnam War. The Pentagon said the experts, the first Americans allowed in for such a purpose, will be in Vietnam for 10 days. The announcement also said, "The U.S. expects the Vietnamese government to turn over soon the remains of seven other persons who may be missing Americans."

MacNEIL: That's the news summary. Coming up, a hostage relative on the appeal for negotiations, flood damage in West Virginia, the fuss over "Cagney and Lacey," a look at how Charles, Di and other British royals manage their public relations. Hostage Plea

LEHRER: The hostage story is first. A man dropped a packet of letters at the feet of a security guard at the Associated Press office in Beirut. All were signed by four of the six Americans being held hostage in Lebanon by Shiite Moslem terrorists. One of them was an open letter to President Reagan, asking that he negotiate their release. The letter said their captors are getting impatient and there was no alternative to negotiations. Spokesmen for President Reagan said no to the request, saying the United States was willing to talk about their release but not negotiate for it. One of the four hostages who signed the letter was David Jacobsen, director of the American University Hospital in Beirut. He was kidnapped last May while on his way to work in Beirut. His son, Eric Jacobsen, is with us for a newsmaker interview now from Los Angeles.

Mr. Jacobsen, the President said no to negotiations. Is that the correct answer in your opinion?

ERIC JACOBSEN: Well, obviously not. I think we as families, and I think any other American family that would have a relative held hostage overseas, would want to see negotiations take place for their release.

LEHRER: What about the -- excuse me, go ahead.

Mr. JACOBSEN: Well, I was going to say that I'm not surprised by the administration's answer because that has been their stand through this entire ordeal, and unfortunately that stand has proven ineffective and they have not secured the release of anyone. And it's almost 20 months now for Mr. Buckley, if he's still alive. And unless there is some change that takes place in -- I would like to see in the form of negotiations, we are back to step one and an indefinite time period.

LEHRER: Well, what do you say to those in the administration, including the President, who say that if you negotiate with terrorists, all you do is encourage other would-be terrorists to do similar things?

Mr. JACOBSEN: That may possibly be true. But if we don't negotiate with these people, if we turn our backs and allow the men held hostage to be sacrificed on that principle, the captors are not going to simply give up and say, "Well, we failed, it didn't work." They're going to be more frustrated. And they've already said that they are going to possibly kidnap more Americans. So it's possible that the increase will occur no matter what happens.

LEHRER: Is that your -- excuse me.

Mr. JACOBSEN: I was going to say that it appears that rise and fall of terrorist acts against Americans does not hinge strictly upon negotiations.

LEHRER: Is it your position that your father and the others are on the verge of being sacrificed for a principle that doesn't work?

Mr. JACOBSEN: Well, this principle is theoretical. I don't know of any precedents offhand where it has been stuck to and people have been sacrificed on it and that it has controlled the rise of terrorism. And yet there are precedents for swaps and negotiations in this, the first being the TWA hijacking situation. Although publicly we did not admit it, it appears privately negotiations did take place. In the case of other countries such as President Duarte in the swap for his daughter, Israel last spring in the swap of three Israeli POWs for a thousand prisoners that they were holding, and possibly the apparent concessions that the Soviet Union made that resulted in the release of the hostages.

LEHRER: Is it your position -- now, the President and the administration have said that they have done everything humanly possible short of direct negotiations to gain the release of your father and the others. You just don't believe that?

Mr. JACOBSEN: No, I believe that they have done everything possible within the limits of their policy. However, I do not see that that has been effective. I don't see these men home now, and I don't see us any closer to bringing them home. So obviously it's time to reevaluate that, and this calls for a change in our foreign policy on this, and we must negotiate.

LEHRER: What is your -- yes.

Mr. JACOBSEN: Well, I was going to say that aside from the effect it might have on the rise of terrorism, there is also our world image to consider, and that's something I'm sure we're all concerned about. However, I think we also have to be aware of the image that we're presenting by the fact that we are not willing -- we are not putting the lives of our citizens first.

LEHRER: What do you make of the events of these last 24 hours? This time last night on our program and everybody else's program, we were reporting the fact that there had been these calls that said all of the hostages were dead, and then this morning these letters are delivered. Do you have any feel for what's going on?

Mr. JACOBSEN: Well, I'm obviously numbed by the whole situation, and you can imagine the relief that the families must have -- that we felt, and I'm sure the other families must have felt, upon the news of these letters today, that discounted the possibility of the executions taking place yesterday.

LEHRER: Did you not receive a letter from your father directly to you, to your family?

Mr. JACOBSEN: There is, I believe, a letter coming to us, but we have not received it yet.

LEHRER: Have you received any communications from him, directly?

Mr. JACOBSEN: The only communication we have gotten is a letter that was brought back by Reverend Weir upon his release. Other than that there has been nothing at all.

LEHRER: Yeah. Yeah.

Mr. JACOBSEN: And the point is that my father is one of the last men taken, and it's almost six months now. And I mean, I don't see a sense of urgency being applied to this situation that we've seen to other hostage situations. And I can't see this turning into a two-year, a 10-year or something like that. I mean, it's unacceptable and it's such an injustice to these men being held, and it sets a bad precedent for any other American who falls victim to this sort of thing while they're out of -- off U.S. soil.

LEHRER: Well, what's the problem, Mr. Jacobsen? Where do you think the -- why is that sense of urgency not there?

Mr. JACOBSEN: It's difficult to say. I don't know if it's simply because the hostages have not been accessible to the media, or if they were not all in one group at the same time, or if there's just not a lot of new information coming in daily on it. But the point is that they suffer with this duration of time because of the continued other events happening in the Middle East -- the spiraling violence that's occurring -- that is going to, at least indirectly, affect their position over there. And the longer that they are held there, the more difficult I can see it to get them out safely.

LEHRER: Do you think in the long run -- I know this is a very difficult question; I'll ask it anyhow -- but from your perspective, do you think in the long run it would be in the best interests of the United States government to negotiate -- sit down with these people who have the guns on your father and the others and negotiate a way out?

Mr. JACOBSEN: When you look at the way we deal with a hostage crisis on a national level, on a local level, the first thing that a police force will do in a hostage situation will make direct contact and negotiate. It seems to be the acceptable way to do it here. I don't know why it can't be applied on an international level.

LEHRER: Eric Jacobsen, thank you very much for being with us tonight from Los Angeles.

Mr. JACOBSEN: Thank you. Right to Speak

MacNEIL: Next we have a media story about the popular CBS television program "Cagney and Lacey." Next Monday's episode hasn't aired yet, but already it's stirred controversy. In the episode, the show's two tough policewomen take on the subject of abortion. The National Right to Life Committee has asked CBS to withdraw the program, calling it unfair, pro-abortion propaganda. The sequence in question is about the bombing of an abortion clinic by members of the pro-life movement. The bombing causes the death of a vagrant who was sleeping nearby, and officers Cagney and Lacey investigate.

[clip from "Cagney & Lacey"]

LACEY: Yesterday you said you had reported previous threats. Could you give us some specifics, sir?

ACTOR: Look, I appreciate your support, but -- I hope you don't mind my sarcasm, but don't you think it's a little bit late?

LACEY: I know you're angry, doctor.

ACTOR: Angry? You just look through some of these records. We had 12-year-olds, children, who came here pregnant. Now, what brand of compassion forces a child -- hell, anyone -- to go through an unwanted pregnancy?

CAGNEY: Well, apparently there are people who disagree with you.

ACTOR: Well, that's hard to see when you're standing in my shoes. It wasn't that long ago I'd see women who had literally mutilated themselves -- they were that desperate.

[second clip from "Cagney and Lacey"]

1st ACTRESS: You're under no obligation to speak to the police. I advise you to order them off the premises.

2nd ACTRESS: Then they'll think I have something to hide. But please believe me when I tell you, the bombings are not condoned by any legitimate pro-life organization. Extremists who resort to violence only set our cause back. We condemn any violent incident in support of our cause.

CAGNEY: Oh, really? I thought that you would see it as an act of heroism, like bombing the gas chambers at Dachau.

LACEY: Mrs. Crenshaw, your group was demonstrating in front of that clinic. What we want is a list of the people that were there, as well as a copy of your general membership roster.

1st ACTRESS: Absolutely not. Not without a warrant, which I doubt you have.

CAGNEY: Well, that's just a matter of time. If we have to get one, we will.

1st ACTRESS: Unless you can show a specific connection, I doubt any judge will grant you access to general membership files. Arlene, I recommend that you refuse.

2nd ACTRESS: I'm sorry, I'd like to help, but not at the risk of having anyone in my organization harassed.

LACEY: Harassed? You mean like screaming and taunting people?

2nd ACRTRESS: Look, when you feel passionately about a moral issue, you don't always behave reasonably.

CAGNEY: So you are not responsible if what you do incites others, is that correct?

2nd ACTRESS: No more than the civil rights marches. No more than the Vietnam protests. This is legitimate protest.

4th ACTRESS: Not if it leads to bombing. Not if it leads to violence. No. You don't like the laws in this country, you vote to change them.

MacNEIL: With us are two principals in the debate: Dr. John Willke, president of the National Right to Life Committee. He joins us from public station WRLK in Columbia, South Carolina. And Barney Rosenzweig, the executive producer of "Cagney and Lacey." He's with us from public station KQED-San Francisco.

First you, Dr. Willke. What are your major problems with this episode that you want CBS to withdraw?

Dr. JOHN WILLKE: Well, I think you've just seen some of them. This program is the most unbalanced, most unfair program we've seen on TV in a number of years. We said nothing until we reviewed it, of course. This thing is totally unrepresentative of the right-to-life movement. It picks out a minuscule minority and puts them in the most utterly unfavorable light. Furthermore, this thing is an insult to Bible-believing Christians, to Irish Catholics and Catholics in general, and to the right-to-life movement. Why, if you picked a different minority -- let's take black people or Hispanics or Jews or Italians -- and did this kind of a number on them, you'd never hear the end of it. We're protesting, and legitimately so.

MacNEIL: I see. In what way is the minority of Irish Catholics portrayed unfairly, do you believe?

Dr. WILLKE: Well, the segment that we asked to be aired, which wasn't, as a representative, showed one of the ladies' fathers as an ignorant Irishman who had no idea of why he was against abortion except that it was a mortal sin -- the typical ring-in-the-nose-from-the-Vatican thing -- who was obviously a man who was drinking, who had no thought of his own. Our people are against abortion because they're for the life of the unborn. They know why they're there. This is not a religious issue; this is a civil rights issue. Lacey in this program, one by one, went through and gave us every single pro-abortion argument in the book. We didn't hear a single right-to-life answer properlygiven.

MacNEIL: Well, now, we have the -- we asked each of you, incidentally, to pick a part of this episode that really made your point, you felt, and the one you've just referred to, we have that episode where the -- you picked the scene in which one of the policewomen argues with her father, who's an ex-cop, in a bar. Let's look at that.

Dr. WILLKE: Yes. That's the one we had hoped you would show.

[clip from "Cagney and Lacey"]

FATHER of CAGNEY: I think you ought to talk to Samuels and see if you can get yourself taken off this case.

CAGNEY: It's my job, Pop.

FATHER: Big boys downtown -- there's still a lot of Irish at the top, you know. You know the way they feel, same as me. It is a mortal sin.

CAGNEY: I'm investigating a bombing.

FATHER: This whole thing makes me sick, anyway. I mean, abortionist used to be a dirty word. Just because the times have changed doesn't change anything, you know, it is still a mortal sin.

CAGNEY: You're so sure of that?

FATHER: Chrissie, that is the way I was taught, it's the way you were taught, and it is the way I believe. People a lot smarter than me spend a lot of time figuring this thing out.

CAGNEY: What if I was pregnant and I didn't want to marry the guy, or he was married and I couldn't, I didn't want to raise the baby --

FATHER: Well, we'd keep it 'til we figured something out. I mean, you know, adoption, your brother, something.

CAGNEY: What if I didn't want to?

FATHER: What are you asking me with these questions for? I mean, it's not a man's problem, you know. That's not what I meant. What I meant was -- boy, this is some conversation for somebody who once wanted to be a nun.

MacNEIL: Mr. Rosenzweig in San Francisco, how do you respond to Dr. Willke's criticisms of that particular segment?

BARNEY ROSENZWEIG: Well, "Cagney and Lacey" is a reality-based drama, and to us, the people behind the show and people who create the show, the characters are very real. They all have a history, they all have a biography that we continually develop. The actors continue to string their beads. Now, you quite accurately portrayed the fact that Cagney is a second-generation police officer. Her father is not a particularly well-educated man, but he was a police officer in New York City. He has, as does his daughter, a lot of prejudices, a lot of biases based on their upbringing and the way they have matured in our society. I think -- I'm not prepared to debate Dr. Willke on pro-choice or anti-choice or so-called pro-life or whatever -- that's not my field of expertise, that's not my mandate.

MacNEIL: But how do you respond generally to his charge that this episode which he wants not shown is unfair because it stacks the deck on one side, on the pro-choice side of the argument?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Well, I would point out to him that a year ago we had an episode in which Christine Cagney believed she was pregnant, and never once considered abortion as an alternative. I didn't hear from the National Organization of Women or the Voters for Choice then about banning the show or boycotting us. I just got some rather nice letters from the pro-life people. We show our characters, I think, with a certain consistency, and I just wish that in this case our opponents were equally consistent in terms of understanding that what is balanced today may be slightly unbalanced tomorrow. Balance is not really my job. That's the job of the CBS network, and they do their job rather well. They screened our script very carefully. They asked for additions, they asked for deletions, and they saw the picture before it was made.

MacNEIL: Yeah. Dr. Willke, what do you say to that?

Dr. WILLKE: This network, known as probably the most pro-abortion network out there, has missed a golden opportunity. Here one of these people is pregnant. She could have -- you could have put together a very sensitive show. She could have talked about the development of the baby within her. We could have had some pro-life answers on here. We could have had a pro and con. Mr. Rosenzweig admits this makes a pro-choice statement. We tried to get this film for almost three weeks before we had to go to the top of CBS and finally got it about three days ago. Long before we got it, it was being shown at the National Abortion Rights Action League, the NOW women; they were showing it on Congress; there's been a press conference in New York with Planned Parenthood; National Abortion Rights Action League has had a reception in Washington, D.C., for the two ladies; and we finally got the film. We're looking at it, and as far as we're concerned, if the National Abortion Rights Action League had wanted to do a job that cleverly gave every one of their pro-abortion answers and just as cleverly excluded ours, this is it.

MacNEIL: Now, we asked Mr. Rosenzweig as well to choose a section that he felt showed that the argument is balanced and that the fact there is a debate. And Mr. Rosenzweig, you picked the scene where the two policewomen argue with each other. Let's look at that.

[clip from "Cagney and Lacey"]

LACEY: 'Cause the woman is entitled to make up her own mind about her own body.

CAGNEY: Marybeth, please don't lecture me. I lived what you're talking about.

LACEY: Pardon?

CAGNEY: I was raised Catholic. This is a hard one for me.

LACEY: Oh, I see.

CAGNEY: Oh, you do.

LACEY: Women like Mrs. Herrera are wrong. They don't have a right to make their own decisions.

CAGNEY: I didn't say that, but there are other choices besides abortion.

LACEY: No one should tell Mrs. Herrera to have a child she doesn't want.

CAGNEY: Marybeth, I am pro-choice. You know I've never led my life any other way. But that doesn't mean I'm -- I'm also pro-life.

LACEY: So you're on everybody's side? You have to take a stand on this one, Christine, otherwise you're walking a fence.

CAGNEY: Okay, I'm walking a fence.

MacNEIL: Dr. Willke, doesn't that show a range of argument on both sides of that?

Dr. WILLKE: Absolutely not. Lacey gives us some pretty solid pro-abortion arguments. All Cagney comes back and says is, "I've got a certain religious background and I feel uncomfortable." What she should have come back with is, "Look, do you know that there's a heart beating that we can listen to at the time the woman is missing her second period? Do you know there's brain waves before she misses her second period? Do you know this little person has fingerprints at the time when most abortions are done? Look, science tells us this is a human life from the first-cell stage. Can we kill an innocent baby because a woman makes that decision?" That's the kind of answer that we would want. We got none of it. All we got was a prolongation of the fact that the only reason to be against abortion is a religious one. That's wrong. This is a civil rights issue.

MacNEIL: Let's ask the executive producer why the argument wasn't portrayed that way. Mr. Rosenzweig?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: ZThe argk iument continues, by the way, where Cagney does say some of what Dr. Willke would have her say. She does go on to say, "I don't know when it's murder." And that argument continues for about another minute, minute and a half, as the conversation goes on. But my obligation is not to make a political dialectic. I appreciate that Dr. Willke feels it would be a very, very entertaining episode for Lacey, who was five months' pregnant when this episode takes place, to discuss herself analytically. When he gets his own show on the air, he should do that. I'm interested in delivering these characters in the realistic way that we have developed them, and in the way that the audience has come to expect to hear from them. And we do a pretty good job of that. As you know, we're the Emmy Award-winning show of this season, having swept that. We've been nominated for the Humanitus awards and won the -- this last week in Washington. What we were doing there was not so much for NARAL and the Voters for Choice, but we were winning the award as the best series of the year from the National Commission of Working Women. Our obligation is to present a realistic drama.

MacNEIL: But you mean -- am I interpreting you correctly if you're arguing that you're not required to reflect the pro, anti, or pro-choice, pro-life argument in all the niceties that those two sides would reflect it if they were in a debate. Is that what your argument is?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Exactly.

MacNEIL: What do you say to that, Dr. Willke? Do you think that is their duty to do that?

Dr. WILLKE: I think it's absolutely their duty to do it. What if we took slavery, and Mr. Rosenzweig took the side of the slave owner and used his obvious intelligence and cleverness to give us that one-sided case on slavery? Or what if we took killing Jews in Germany and did the very same thing? We would be absolutely outraged. We are killing almost every third baby conceived in America today. The death toll is over 4,000 every day. We're having a holocaust that puts those almost to shame in terms of numbers. He is required -- this is public television. It has a somewhat monopoly; it's not -- he is required to be fair. There is a fairness doctrine. This incidentally is a political issue. We consider this a political statement and he has said it. He's told us it's a pro-choice statement. We want equal time if it's shown.

MacNEIL: What's your answer to that, Mr. Rosenzweig?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Well, he's badly misquoting me. I'm talking about the characters of Christine Cagney and the characters of Marybeth Lacey. That's my responsibility, to have them speak with a voice that the people who understand the show and care about the show and who've been faithful to the show understand.

MacNEIL: Because you're producing a work of fiction.

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Exactly. However, CBS gives us a mandate to be fair and to be balanced. And they monitor our activity, and we feel wE OZwent of our way on this show to present an absolute balanced program. Finnula Flanagan character that you saw earlier, we spent an inordinate amount of time. "Cagney and Lacey" usually doesn't get that preachy, but we spent a lot of time on camera so that she had the opportunity to say all the things that we believe the pro-life movement stands for.

MacNEIL: So in this episode you kind of did go out of your way to go further than you normally would, to present more of a debate? Is that what you're saying?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: We went out of our way under duress, if you will, by the network, to present a more balanced view than we normally would.

MacNEIL: So the network was sensitive to the argument that Dr. Willke's making?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Oh, absolutely. No question about it.

MacNEIL: Dr. Willke, you have asked CBS affiliate stations not to run the segment. Haveany agreed, to your knowledge?

Dr. WILLKE: We have -- see, we didn't get this show 'til Monday night. We began calling Tuesday. We're only now getting some feedback. Yes, we have one station we know of is going to run it and then give us a half-hour for the film of our choice. We have a number of them who almost certainly are going to black it out. Now, if that doesn't happen, and we would be open to local option -- if they want to give us a half-hour and put some of our folks on to rebut this, that might be another way. If not, we are going to call for a nationwide blackout of CBS during the balance of the month of November, which is their rating month. We're very, very serious about this. They have censored, they have twisted, they have distorted, they have totally unbalanced the issue. Just one thing. Not -- we condemn bombing flat out. We think it's been counterproductive to our movement. A minuscule number of radicals have done it. We just weep over it. Yet they have shown something that has never yet happened: a person killed in a bombing. There are more women die inside the doors from legal abortion than have been killed from those bombings. I'm referring to the Journal of OB-GYN of May of this year.

MacNEIL: Mr. Rosenzweig, from your side of this, what do you think the response has been by CBS network affiliates to this argument that Dr. Willke's making and the pressure not to run this?

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Well, I think that they are -- network affiliates are notoriously subject to local pressure. And I don't wonder that they are concerned about this kind of phone calls and harassment and letters that they're receiving from Dr. Willke's group. It's interesting to me, you know, that the description he gives of my show has been given by the NARAL and by the opposition forces to the fictional work The Silent Scream, which has been on the CBS network three times, I believe, and ABC three times, and without any equal time given to the other side.

MacNEIL: Which is the pro-life movie.

Mr. ROSENZWEIG: Exactly. You know, Dr. Willke and I have something in common. He's enjoying the publicity of this and the notoriety that this is bringing to his minority, his very small minority, and I'm enjoying, of course, the notoriety it's bringing to my program.

MacNEIL: Well, gentlemen, we've enjoyed talking to you both, Mr. Rosenzweig in San Francisco, Dr. Willke in Columbia. Jim?

LEHRER: Still to come tonight, flood damage in West Virginia, and on the eve of the royal coming, a look at what it's like to cover the royal family of Britain. Selling the Royals

LEHRER: Next tonight, a royal story about the royal coming: the coming to the United States of the Prince and Princess of Wales, otherwise known as Charles and Diana, or Chuck and Di. The couple stopped off in Hawaii today on their way from Australia. They go on to Washington for a three-day visit tomorrow. Wherever they go, they carry with them an aura, an image. It is an image polished, protected and projected with great effort, energy and enthusiasm. Special correspondent Jane Walmsley told us that story last May. Tomorrow's coming makes it a royal natural that she tell it again tonight.

JANE WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Britain's royal family is part of a real-life fairy tale that's caught the imagination of millions of subjects. The Queen has never been more popular. In spite of the nation's economic decline, no one is in the mood to re-examine the role of the monarchy. Instead, these human symbols seem to grow in stature and influence every day. Princess Di's arrival consolidated the position of a vastly rich and popular dynasty. The public can't stop watching her. The press can't stop writing about her.

DIANA SIMMONDS, author, "Princess Di -- The National Dish": Well, I think she's a great pinup, and neither the Queen nor Prince Charles by any stretch of the imagination is a pinup. And I think she's the most popular pinup, probably behind Michael Jackson, in the entire cosmic world at the moment. To be the pinup she has to be 5 foot 10, 120 pounds, a clothes horse, which she is, and that's pretty rare. I mean, how many women do you know who are 5 foot 10 and 120 pounds? And she had to be a virgin. That's also pretty rare.

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Royalty had turned into a magnificent obsession. Hardly a week goes by without a royal face appearing on a magazine cover somewhere in the world. It's not so much a family as a dream machine. Their lives and loves, tiffs and tantrums make great copy. So the rule is: never let the facts stand in the way of a good story.

[on camera] And here's proof that you can't believe everything you read. According to stories in the popular press, the Queen has been pregnant 92 times. She's had 149 serious accidents and nine miscarriages. She's abdicated in favor of Prince Charles 63 times and been on the verge of divorce from her husband Prince Philip 73 times. She's suffered nervous breakdowns on 32 separate occasions. And no wonder, since her life has been threatened 29 times. [voice-over] There's a more serious side, too. A royal face on the cover guarantees a leap in circulation, so the temptation is hard to resist. Women's Own, a popular British weekly, has already featured Princess Di on the cover nine times since the beginning of the year. At today's editorial meeting, they're considering repeating the trick. Are they responding to public demand or creating it, using the rules or being used by them? They don't know or seem to care.

1st EDITOR: I'll just have a look at this one. If we do -- now, that can be lovely. If we do a cover inset, what about something like that? Not go for the cover.

2nd EDITOR: Not do Di on the cover.

1st EDITOR: Not go for a cover and go for an inset like that.

3rd EDITOR: Interesting sign of nerves there. Have a look at the neck.

1st EDITOR: Oh, yes, it is interesting, isn't it?

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Keeping the royals in public view and public favor is this man's job. Michael Shea is the Queen's press secretary.

[on camera] Unfortunately, as press secretary, the one thing he's not allowed to do in this country is talk to the press. What he can do is give background briefings, and this is what he told me. He's not, he says, in the business of public relations. The royal family has no need of an image-maker because the British public is already sold. Ninety-five percent of press coverage here is overwhelmingly favorable. And what of the remaining 5 ? Well, Shea is relaxed. "We ignore it," he says, "and it goes away."

Shea shrugs it off, unless it tarnishes the royal image. Like this story, which alleged that Diana was unstable and suffering from anorexia. In an unprecedented move, the Queen summoned 25 newspaper editors to the palace and asked them to back off. The man who broke the anorexia story is James Whitiker, veteran journalist and royal watcher. He spent some of his finest and coldest hours here at Cohern Court, home of Lady Diana before her marriage, when he and fellow pressmen laid siege to the building for months. Months later, Whitiker followed a pregnant Princess to her island retreat and beat a path through the jungle to sneak these grainy snapshots. The palace was outraged.

JAMES WHITIKER, reporter: It was a shame about that because the emotive side of it was that she was wearing a bikini. It would have been a lot easier, actually, if she'd been wearing a one-piece swimsuit. It looked a little bit peeping Tomish that she was in the bikini. But I have subsequently heard that Diana was not nearly as upset as the Queen was, and the Queen did go right over the top. She hooted and hollered and made a terrible noise about it, which then got everybody else excited.

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: It's Shea's job to control a voracious press. In a world where both sides feed off each other, things can turn nasty. It all reached a head when The Sun published this story about Koo Stark, the opening shot in a series of revelations about sexy nights at the palace with Prince Andrew. Shea never denied the truth of the stories, but that wasn't the point. The Queen had had enough. She took out an injunction against the paper to stop further publication. It was the first time she'd used the courts to kill a story she didn't like, and all Fleet Street editors quickly got the message. Shea was demanding a new code of conduct, a kind of pact. For Whitiker it marked a turning point. The palace, he feels, has tied his hands.

Mr. WHITIKER: They're doing it via my editor, they're doing it via editors of Fleet Street. What they do is they had -- recently they had a series of lunches -- this is the Prince and Princess of Wales at Kensington Palace -- at which they invited editors of Fleet Street, of all the leading papers. And they trot Diana out at this lunch, fairly naturally, and with her huge blue eyes and her winning smile and Diana looking across the table at an editor and saying, "Oh, please, Mr." -- whichever one it is -- "we would be so grateful if you didn't send." And you know, even tough old editors just roll over on their backs as Diana tickles their tummy. And they come out absolutely shell-shocked, they were all tough fellows when they went in; they come out, "Oh, God, she's wonderful," they say. "I do understand. No, no, no, Whitiker, no you mustn't start up. She is marvelous." And that's how they do it. Very cleverly.

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Derek Jameson is well known in Fleet Street. He's been editor of three popular papers, and royal stories are his bread and butter. He admits collusion with the palace.

DEREK JAMESON, editor: There is an unwritten [unintelligible] that you don't go too far, you don't push them too far, you don't do anything that's really naughty that's going to get you into trouble. Behind that is the patronage and the power of the monarchy. Most of your proprietors in Fleet Street automatically become peers, lords of the realm. And it goes with the job. You own a big newspaper, we'll make you a lord of the realm. So you're not going to do anything to upset the royal family that hands out the patronage.

WALMSLEY: If there is a pact of the kind that you describe, then how do you know when you've gone too far?

Mr. JAMESON: Well, sometimes they'll have a nice sort of soft chat on the phone and make it known that this is not quite the thing, old boy. And if you take no notice, then they get very heavy and threaten you with injunctions. I had a maid at the palace who came to me via another party with a story of a royal romance. She was involved with one of the royals. And it was quite obvious that she had a good story to tell, and she'd left the palace service, and I thought this story deserves a better audience. It's magic -- the maid and the Prince. Can't be bad, can it, you see? So I was all set to publish this and was warned that they would take out an injunction on Saturday afternoon to prevent the publication of the story. Now, I was the editor of the News of the World, Britain's biggest Sunday paper, over four million copies. And if they had stopped the run just after I'd began, it would have cost Rupert Murdoch millions of pounds and he would not have been best pleased about that. And all the legal advice was, "You can't get away with it, old boy. Confidentiality -- she is only a servant." And so I had to kill the story. That was the end of it.

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Writs and threats of writs keep potential royal detractors at bay. The palace has effectively put the frighteners on tough old editors and on individuals with stories to tell. Koo won't speak, even for a million dollars.

Mr. JAMESON: It astonishes us that we can't offer a million dollars to Koo Stark and she'll tell us all. There's something's wrong somewhere. But in her case, God bless her, she thought, "No, why should I betray my love and my trust?" It's back to the fairy tales. You know, you don't betray the prince on the white charger.

WALMSLEY: Doesn't sound terribly convincing to me.

Mr.JAMESON: Nor me.

WALMSLEY [voice-over]: Meanwhile, this is the sort of set piece that Shea is good at: a perfectly charming and sanitized press call.

Mr. JAMESON: Michael Shea is a master of manipulating the media in this way, so he tells us only the fundamentals of what we want to know. And they take the view that everything else is private. And if we poke our noses into it, it's intrusion. And that is to protect their image of being Mr. Nice Guy.

WALMSLEY: It makes Fleet Street sound like they're lackeys, you're simply instruments of the royal palace.

Mr. JAMESON: No one in the world in a hundred years would ever accuse Fleet Street of being lackeys of anybody. We have got the most vigorous, bold, noisy, brash, outrageous press in the world. Makes the Americans look like, you know, those fairy tales I was telling you about. No, we're not lackeys, but we believe in goodies and baddies, we believe in fairy tales, we like everything to be the way it is, you know. We just reflect what the public wants, and we know the public loves the royal family. After the Flood

MacNEIL: This week's floods have brought real devastation to some parts of West Virginia, where 20 people have died and 39 are still missing. One of the worst-hit areas was along the Cheat River. Elizabeth Brackett reports on the aftermath in the river town of Albright, West Virginia.

ELIZABETH BRACKETT [voice-over]: Much of the town is simply gone; 113of Albright's 135 homes destroyed. Most swept away by the Cheat River's Monday night rampage. The bridge into town: gone. The power plant that served a four-state area: down for at least a year. Last summer the town looked like this, a pretty river town of 400 residents. One quarter of those residents worked at the power plant, the rest in coal or timber. The whitewater Cheat River attracted canoeists and kayakers from across the country. But on Monday the Cheat River started to rise. Residents were startled. It was the first time in 100 years that the river had come out of its banks. And residents say they had no idea of what was to come.

ARTHUR HILL, resident: We didn't really get no warning at all. You know, people say, "Well, didn't you have time to get stuff upstairs in your house?" Well, by the time wegot everybody out, you know, we just -- it was like a chain reaction. As soon as we got families out along the river, it was the next house back, you know. Then we had to get back on that row, and we got them. And then by the time we got them out, the water was already coming up to the next houses.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: Today, the mayor of Albright, Carl Vaughan, walked through the remains of his town. Miraculously, only one person is unaccounted for. Twenty-two homes remain standing, but the sewage system is ruined, there is no power, no water.

[interviewing] There's no water in the town now?

CARL VAUGHAN, Mayor: Oh, no, no, no. Because, you see, we've got to go around and shut off of all of our lines in houses and things like this, you know, and then they told me about [unintelligible] and pumping, and I've got to clean out a tank that's up on the hill.

BRACKETT: How long do you think it will be before there's water?

Mayor VAUGHAN: I'd say a couple of months, maybe.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: The mayor found his car as we walked through the town, the car about one block from where his riverfront house had stood, until Monday. The mayor had come away from his home of 30 years with only the hat he had on his head.

[interviewing] What about those things, pictures, and those kinds of things?

Mayor VAUGHAN: See, my wife's wedding dress, both of our daughters were married in it and we had a granddaughter that it was already big enough for her, and she was going to plan on using that too. Things like this of course are irreplaceable. And the big thing that hurts me the worst is the fact that we raised our children here and this was home. That's it.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: The mayor's wife has not seen the devastation. She is still with relatives, as are most of the town's residents. The rest remain at a nearby shelter.

[on camera] In the late '60s, Congress approved the funds to build a dam on the Cheat River. It never happened. Opponents feared damage to the environment; canoeists and kayakers were reluctant to give up one of the country's few white-water rivers.

[voice-over] Area residents fought about the dam for years. Local newspaper accounts say the dam was literally studied to death. Now Mayor Vaughan says the dam could have saved his town.

Mayor VAUGHAN: The dams that they're building today is not like they used to. Break up and come down and flood out whole areas, you know. No, it -- and it would have been controlled. The heights and when it come to our wet weather time, you know, they would have been ready and would have held the water back. This wouldn't have happened.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: There is little to do now but clean up. Albright has qualified for federal disaster relief. A local coal company and a trucking company have sent over heavy equipment, but results are slow.

WORKER: He hasn't got the in-loaders started. We've got three dump trucks, but we haven't got the in-loaders yet to move the stuff out of the streets and off the sidewalks and stuff.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: Some of the residents say their town can come back.

MARION CUSTER, resident: My house is one of the 21 left. And right now it's not worth anything, and I'm going to stay and help rebuild the town as much as I can. And a lot of people are staying and some are leaving, you know, but I think that we can do it.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: But not everyone is so sure.

[interviewing] Do you think the town can recover?

Mr. HILL: It'll be hard, you know. I don't know if we will or not.

BRACKETT: Do you still want to live here?

Mr. HILL: I don't know. Right now I don't know what I want to do, you know? I haven't really thought about it.

BRACKETT [voice-over]: Mayor Vaughan says he expects about half the residents to return, but as he looks over the damage even he says he doubts if the town of Albright will ever be the same.

MacNEIL: And now, tonight's cartoon, and Lurie's look at the royal visit of Princess Di and Prince Charles.

[Ranon Lurie cartoon -- Prince and Princess in raft flying S.O.S. flag for British economy. . They see U.S. raft. Prince says, "I say, we're saved." Princess says, "Lovely." U.S. trade deficit raft says, "S.O.S. TOO." Uncle Sam sees British raft, says, "I'm saved."

zMacNEIL: Once again the top stories of this Friday. President Reagan rejected an appeal from the American hostages in Lebanon to negotiate with their captors. Treasury Secretary James Baker warned that the government could run out of money and default next week. The final death toll in the 27-hour siege of Colombia's Palace of Justice rose to 90. A subpoena for a Soviet sailor to appear before a Senate committee was served tonight. Soviet officials aboard his ship said they would not honor it.

Good night, Jim.

MacNEIL: Good night, Robin. Have a nice weekend. We'll see you on Monday night. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.