David Brudnoy's Comeback

show is a prime exhibit in his case for pri- New York City’s first “educational” sta- introduction’s promise to do so, this book vatization. Since its premiere in 1983, tion. If PBS were to lose government sup- offers no coherent proposal of how thai “Frontline” has reliably taken a left-lib- port, it would need to boost its 2 percent might be accomplished. Will the era1 slant, whether showing the brighter share of the viewership and start running inevitable costcutting mean a shake-up oj side of Soviet Communism or the darker commercials-both unattractive prospects the network establishment, or are its mem. side of Israel’s Palestinian policy, some- for the rest of the industry. bers as dug-in as tenured university fac. times on the basis of highly dubious data. Of course, cutting off the subsidy won’t ulty? Lobbyists for CPB are even demand. Other news coverage has tended to fol- by itself make PBS any more ideologi- ing a billiondollar gift, as a “trust fund,’ low this line. Even nature documentaries, cally balanced than ABC or The American before public broadcasting is weaned from always among PBS‘s most popular offer- Spectator. Jarvik seems to assume that the taxpayer‘s wallet. That’s not a program ings, predictably extol the virtues of prim- subjecting the network to market forces many Americans can be very eager to see itive society while warning against the will turn it into a “free marketplace of and its cancellation depends on mort dangers of modem technology. The occa- ideas.” Well, perhaps-yet despite the reviews like Jarvik‘s. # sional conservative offerings, such as William F. Buckley’s long-running “Firing Line” or Milton Friedman’s miniseries, “Free to Choose,” are token gestures typ- ically banished to obscure time slots. David Brudnoy’s Comeback he Corporation for Public Broad- pretenses, and describes a sense of “heal- casting (CPB) was established by Life Is Not a Rehearsal ing” when the inevitable “outing” came T Congress in 1967 to fund and reg- David Brudnoy Though some of the details are trou. ulate public television and radio. A man- Doubleday / 299 pages $22.95 bling, there’s something admirable in date for fairness was written into its found- Brudnoy’s refusal either to supplicate foi ing legislation. Two years later CPB in REVIEWED BY pity or seek absolution from readers. He turn established PBS to organize the dis- Matthew Scully disdains, for the most part, what he calls tribution of programming. This separa- the attitude that “all my woes are some- tion of powers was meant to insulate net- t’s been two years since David Brud- body else’s fault.” He doesn’t want to be work executives and producers from noy, the popular radio host and con- seen as David Brudnoy, homosexual, 01 government influence, but the eventual servative writer, turned up in a Boston conservative homosexual, or “AIDS result was to lessen their accountability dospital gravely ill from AIDS.A “seem- celebrity,” but just as David Brudnoy: a to any standard of objectivity. After the ingly unlimited capacity for denial,” as man with his own share of strengths and Nixon administration sought to replace he tells the story, led him to shrug off the weaknesses, achievements and mistakes. politically charged programming with early symptoms until finally his body “The Best Little Boy in the World,” cultural and educational shows, the “pub experienced a massive collapse. For nine the chapter about his childhood, describes lic affairs” division fought back with twice- “lost” days he was nearly comatose. Over a mostly happy youth in a small Minnesota a-day broadcasts of the Watergate hear- the next two months he survived pneu- town and his growing sense of disappoint- ings during the summer of 1973. That monia, congestive heart failure, liver ed expectations. During his first three particular miniseries turned out to be the problems, shingles, and the prospect of years, his father was away in the Army; that most influential PBS program ever, has- permanent paralysis in his legs. Today, absence, he writes, fulfills “one of the tening the downfall of the president and at 56, Brudnoy is back on the air, broad- hoariest clichCs of the etiology of homo- making stars of the network‘s hosts, Robert casting from home to save strength, and, sexuality in young boys.” But Brudnoy McNeil and Jim Lehrer. as this book attests, in full possession of his rejects this explanation on the grounds The PBS establishment, a “topheavy, writing powers. that if it were so, “then millions of boys- expensive, and stifling bureaucracy” “Life is not a rehearsal,” he writes, “it’s all of whom grew up while Daddy was according to one of its former presidents, the real thing”; so we’d better avoid the away at war or grew up with no dad at all - is not the only group interested in keeping role-playing and each be the person we would probably be homosexual.” things as they are. The major commer- are. For many years he had led a not quite He was always a “just SO” person, a cial networks are happy to let public tele- secret double life, conservative polemi- neatnik with a sense of order and a love of vision provide the social services that edu- cist by day and homosexual prowler by fine things, like his stamp collection, nice- cators and government officials demand, night. He was never harshly critical of ly arranged. A sharp wit made up for his while making advertising time an even homosexuals, so it wasn’t a case of being an unathletic, gawky kid, though scarcer and more valuable commodity. hypocrisy. But he was uneasy with the always Brudnoy felt “somethingabout me This has been the pattern at least since .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ,. .. wasn’t quite right, something didn’t quite 1961, when the Big Three networks backed MATTHEWSCULLY is a writer living in cohere into a well-rounded boy.” Often the conversion of WNTA into WNDT, Arlington, Virginia. with his best friend Clara, a live-in maid, 74 LICENSED TO UNZ.ORG January I997 . The American Spectator ELECTRONIC REPRODUCTION PROHIBITED ie went to the local theater. “But for me, book, Brudnoy talks about the “myths” signal along our way from infancy to the in undiscussed pleasure at the movies surroundinghomosexuals. But his own grave to apotheosize that one tme love, but was watching not the screen goddesses story confirms one’s worst suspicions. we are not allowed to solemnize that as )ut the supporting gods.” There were gay bars, more hotel rooms, heterosexuals can. We are betwixt and His story of being taunted as a “fairy” by more parks, “the bathhouse scene,” between, and even having, as I had, a Stephen to love couldn’t be acknowledged i schoolmate recalled for me painful mem- sauna rooms at the Y, and on and on, beyond our small group of other outsiders. iries of using similar words in grade school, recalled in a tone bordering at times on If the appeal of variety, to put it politely, is ind the eon or so I will spend in purgato- nostalgic reverie: powerful, the boundaries put up by our y for the hurt they caused. In high school culture almost propel us into promiscuity. 3rudnoy dated girls half-heartedly, but In those days before AIDS, nothing irrived at Yale still in a state of inner tur- seemed impossible or dangerous or That “almost”suggests he sees his ratio- noil. “When I wasn’t studying or doing unhealthy. I had the sense that what- nalizing for what it is-an attempt to pret- ;ood, I could be found lingering hopehl- ever I wanted was within my grasp, that tify something deeply distasteful, some- whomever I wanted I could have, and yon the sidelines of life, glancing at hand- thing not easy to square with Brudnoy’s ,ome classmates, wishing that someone that I could successfully function as a college teacher, program administra- own sense of order and “just so“ tem- vould drag me into the arena of action.” tor, and man about town-a gay blade, perament. Someone does, and though we all have though the expression didn’t come to )ur share ofsecrets and troubles, I must say mind then. My energy seemed limit- rudnoy is bearing his affliction with he next hundred or so pages make a jarring less, and on an ordinary day I would be amazing courage, and is in no need ead. The first arena of action turned out to at the college by seven in the morning, Bof lectures on decency or manhood )e Bryant Park behind the New York Pub teaching and administering the honors from me or anyone else. In many ways ic Library. After what followed, at a nearby program until late in the day, then at the book is truly inspiring. I myself have iotel, he felt “soiled, abused, frightened,” the gym for a strenuous workout-and endured the flu with less strength and dig- )ut also “a wave of satisfaction that I had sometimes a quickie in the steam nity than Brudnoy has displayed these past room-and then, as often as not, I lone what I set out to do and now I two years. Even the “double life” he led would pop by one of the bars and once lad the option to do it again seems a mostly valiant attempt to be a v i, in; while find the true lust du jour. md again.” \\I/// man first and homosexual second, avoid- \ Though he can be ruth- ;r ing the mania of identity politics.

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