Historical Newspapers of South Carolina

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GLENDA MILLER INTERIM EDITOR JIM FARRELL ART FRANK MGN. ED., 4AD MANAGER EDITORIALS Strom for amnesty? It looks as if Sen. Strom Thurmond may have, in his usual backward way, endorsed something he has been against all along. He indirectly endorsed the efforts to grant amnesty to young men who have fled our country and have gone to jail in support of their political convictions against the war. The reason we hope to see Thurmond In support of the amnesty is because he has defended his grandfather, who was a Confederate soldier who was granted amnesty, against the charge of being a '"traitor." Sen. Edward Kennedy had said that some people would call people who seceded from the Union "traitors." Kennedy said he wouldn't call them traitors himself. Thurmond took offense to Kennedy's statements, and said he would call Kennedy a traitor "when he runs for president." The Confederates were fighting for the rights of the states, Thurmond replied, and "to call these people traitors would be entirely out of line." We are so glad to see that Thurmond believes that people should stand up for what they believe. We hope he extends that right to the young men who went to jail or other countries. Disclosure of funds Sen. George McGovern has set a dangerous precedent. He is, according to a McGovern aide, the first presidential candidate to disclose the source and amount of all con tributions to his campaign. Do you know what this means? I t means that other t politicians may have to show from where their backing is I coming. We see nothing wrong with this, but we wonder t What the other candidates think about it. After all, what would the public think if a candidate was getting most of his support from one or two pressure groups? What kind of a deal would the other segments of the public get from the candidate? All we can say is that we hope that the rest of the can didates will respond to McGovern's challenge and disclose their campaign contribution sources. DUMACF. /N79 VIF FRMYE HIDYUIVl. 2 4TA N/9 ...t/D$14. ETEE Today. revisited The grea1 By JOHN T. GASH Associate Editor Occasionally somebody does something that irks the hell out of a lot of people. Monday night somebody did such a thing. WIS-TV, which l' consider the best local television station in the state, pulled the boo boo. It resulted in numerous irate callers letting their rage be known to WIS switchboard operators. The boo boo: WIS had the "audicity" to interrupt a sacred Carolina basketball game with a special report of President Nixon's arrival from China. Though I must admit some of the moverage of the President's China The watermark Stop Laug By BOB CRAFT Feature Editor What with the vagabond ?resident's arrival in Valhalla the >ther night screwing up the elevision programming (I guess hat shows where this fellow kmerican's head is) I got a chance o see Laugh- In at about 11:30. After seeing ole Dick stumbling iround Andrews Air Force base, eing led by Spirio, giving an iseptic hugs to Julie and Tricia >oth of whom were decked out like hey were ready for their first day n first grade, being followed by he faithful Grand Vizier Kissinger and being given unantiseptic Latin lugs by the Ambassador from gicarauga, I guess nothing could iave topped THAT for pure ,omedy. OWCA ?ht X/w FKJ 0 t game m trip was downright boring ("tonight we are going to watch President Nixon walk from one great hall to another"), I find the rage of the fans rather humorous. After all, though it is probably true that the trip won't alter world politics, it has created a new of ficial U.S. outlook. Red China is at least recognized as existing. Also the trip re-established a long overdue relationship. The President's speech at An drews Air Base was of great im portance because it was hoped that Nixon would reveal some of the substances of the secret talks the leaders held in China. This was probably the primary reason for the interruption of the basketball game, and it's a very good one at rh-In bef( However, having seen other installments of Laugh-In this season and even last, one must admit sadly that another day in television i s ending. Laugh-In is becoming threadbare and is ready for the syndication happy hunting grounds. Laugh-In did a lot for television. It got the tube away from comedy variety shows that did everything in five-minute segments. Laugh In's breakneck pace changed all of that, resulting in number one ratings and suicide for any show that was on opposite it. The suc cess of this pace resulted in a lot of spin-offs such as the one episode "Turn-on" whose blue humor brought down the wrath of the ABC Network heads on Thursday morning after its Wednesday night airing. However, one program SOC/AL GRA C-/' erruption that. One caller,however, went so far as to call The State newspaper and tell them that he would never vote for Nixon again because of the interruption. Well, let's see, the Gamecocks have two more regular season games. Ummm, the possibilities are endless. Nixon could lose South Carolina if he interrupts enough basketball games. Wouldn't that blow all the political scientists' minds. However, let us hope that the President doesn't decide to do something during the NCAA tournaments (in which, USC stands a good chance of playing), for I personally would hate to see WIS burnt down. )re it dies whose format can be traced directly to Laugh-In, Sesame Street, is a success story that everyone knows. Also, Laugh-In introduced such unknowns as Arte Johnson, whose exposure in the media had, until this time, been some Warners Brothers pictures among them a George Peppard horror entitled "The Third Day." Also, JoAnne Worley, Ruth Buzzi, Judy Carne Alan Sues, Lily Tomlin and Goldie Hawn among others. Laugh-In turned "Sock It To Me" and "Here Come The Judge" into national slogans on sweat shirts, ads, bumper stickers etc., etc. Someone remarked during the height of Laugh-In's influence that Laugh-In was so deeply imbedded in the high school conciousness that if one was to be up on what the other kids were talking about on Tuesday, one would have to have seen Laugh-In the previous evening. But like all shows, Laugh-In peaked and its influence was not as great as it was before. For a couple of reasons: After you heard Laugh-In's old jokes a couple of times you get tired of them. Also, members of the original company left the show and replacements were not of the same high calibre. Gunsmoke with its built-in audience opposed Laugh-In and ate into its audience and even tually passed Laugh-In in the ratings. Laugh-In's company also doesn't seem to be having as much fun as they used to. And finally, America's fickle heart was stolen away by a Queens bigot by the name of Archie Bunker. Perhaps Laugh-In could con sider doing what Dick Van Dyke did with his old show, stop production before cancellation. Bill Cate, sports columnist for the Roanoke (Va.) Times ex pressed a thought about Willie Mays that could be applied to Laugh-In when Cate spoke of Mays retiring soon: "I would rather remember him as a great ballplayer than as an old man sturhbhing Mowtd in -the .fieta .