Television Viewers Swamp Media With Calls, Letters

Joseph Dill, the editor of the Fargo, N.D., Forum, was jarred from his sleep early Saturday morning when an irate reader called at home to complain that the Forum’s front page picture of a frowning Oliver North was not dignified enough.

“He said, ‘We have a patriot here, and you run this picture of the guy making him look so sad,’ ” Dill recalled.

Dill may be one of the few newspaper or broadcast executives to field a call from his bed about North, but similar calls and letters have swamped editors’ offices across the country since North began a forceful defense of his role in the Iran- contra scandal before a congressional panel last week.

The reaction has been heavily--but not universally--sympathetic to the Marine lieutenant colonel and critical of his treatment by lawmakers and, in some cases, by the press.

Report Some Erosion

But some media outlets say that, as North’s testimony wound into its second week, they have seen some erosion in what had been overwhelming pro-North sentiment expressed last week by readers and viewers.

“During the first day or two (of the hearings) we received several telephone calls pro Ollie North,” said Jerry Dhonau, editorial page editor of the Arkansas Gazette in Little Rock. “People wanted information about where to send telegrams, money and complimentary letters. Then we started receiving fewer and fewer calls, and the mail started picking up . . . . Now they’re very critical of North.”

Kenneth Towers, editor of the Chicago Sun-Times, noticed a similar change. “Today’s mail shows a shift in sentiment,” he said Tuesday. “This morning’s mail shows the majority anti-Oliver North. It could reflect the weekend coverage, the Sunday talk shows and people assimilating what they’ve heard all week.”

Whether in praise or condemnation, Americans have been scurrying to their phones and writing tablets in unusual numbers to air their opinions about North. Some media experts think the phenomenon may have to do with gavel-to-gavel network television coverage that for many viewers has transformed a complex controversy into a version of “People’s Court.”

“It’s the closest people have ever come to those events, so they now think it’s their experience too, as well as North’s,” said Richard A. Schwarzlose, a professor at Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. “In a sense, they have endured it the same way he has and the senators and congressmen, too. So they feel a commitment to make up their mind, come to a judgment, be a participant, talk about it with their friends, write letters, send telegrams.”

That commitment is not universal. Tom Tobin, an editorial writer at the Grand Rapids, Mich., Press said the newspaper, in the hometown of former President Gerald R. Ford, has received only about 10 letters about North, with a larger number than expected in a conservative community opposed to his activities.

Similarly, Bob Hallstein, assistant managing editor of the Peoria, Ill., Journal Star, said letter writers to his paper were more concerned about plans to build an extension of the county courthouse than about North. Of those who did write about North, half were for him and half against him.

Television networks and stations seemed to generate the most interest in North. Darla Ellis, program director for Denver’s KUSA-TV, said viewers first complained when the ABC affiliate dropped its regular fare to air North’s testimony. As the week wore on, she said, the complaints ceased and callers said they preferred the hearings to their usual soap operas. Ratings from Monday showed the hearings grabbing a much higher viewership than did an episode of “General Hospital” during the same day the week before.

Cable News Network said it fielded double the number of calls about North than it had about the PTL scandal, which held the previous record for generating viewer response. Lisa Dallos, a spokeswoman for the network, said many people without access to a television or radio called and asked to be put on hold because the network pipes in audio of the hearings over phones of waiting callers.

Dallos said opinion about North seemed to be split along regional lines with, for example, Texans uniformly praising him and New Englanders more critical.

An NBC spokesman said that, in addition to over 3,000 calls concerning North, the network has received five checks from viewers wishing to contribute to his defense fund. Similarly, the New York Daily News said it received so many queries last week from readers asking for information about how to contribute to the fund that it ran a story last week explaining where people could write for information.

Bill Goldschlag, the paper’s national editor, said interest in North has been heavy but not record setting. “The number of calls has been the same as those who would want to help an abandoned puppy,” explained Goldschlag, referring to a popular Daily News feature on orphaned pets.

Callers Versus Writers

Some newspapers have seen a difference of opinion about North between those who call in to make a comment and those who write. At the Los Angeles Times, for example, editorial assistants who fielded phone calls about North estimated that three out of every four favored the lieutenant colonel. But Mary Cox, a Times editorial page editor, said letters to the editor were running three out of four against North.

James Kinsella, the editorial page editor of the Herald Examiner, said letter writers were evenly split in their views of North, while callers heavily backed him. The paper was hit with a firestorm of critical calls from North backers after it ran an editorial cartoon last Thursday ridiculing North, Kinsella said.

Leroy Thomas, managing editor of the Chicago Daily Defender, a black-oriented newspaper, said the North testimony generated more mail and phone calls than most issues not considered of vital interest to the black community. He said most readers expressed skepticism of North and the government in general.

But Thomas said the story was not front page news in his publication. “Culturally, the black community isn’t going to get as wrapped up in the ferocity of Senate hearings as they are in the fact that they can’t get their social programs,” he explained.

Media in Washington, home to the hearings and most of the major players in the controversy, have experienced a split reaction. Kathryn Stearns, the Washington Post’s letters editor, said the paper had received very few letters about the hearings prior to North’s testimony. The first large batch of mail came in Monday and was evenly split on North and his performance, Stearns said.

Tony Snow, editorial page editor of the conservative Washington Times, said mail was heavy and overwhelmingly in favor of North. “The letters supporting North said such things as, ‘Congress is a gang of communists’ and ‘Oliver North is the President we thought we elected when we elected Reagan in 1984,’ ” Snow said.

Also contributing to this article were James Risen in Detroit, Eileen Quigley in New York, Edith Stanley in Atlanta, Lorna Nones in Miami, Rhona Schwartz in Dallas, Cecilie Ditlev-Simonsen in Washington and Dallas Jamison in Denver.