Elegy for the evening news.

When the news of the removal of Connie Chung from the "CBS Evening News" broke, I was not particularly moved to concern. If anything, I was sympathetic to Connie, whom I have observed from the time when she worked for a Washington, D.C., TV station. I had some reservations about Dan Rather, not for any observed professional behavior, but because my dog (now dead) used to go to the apartment door to be taken out for her evening walk just as Dan came on to do the evening news.

Connie has charged gender discrimination. Rather denies any. There are, I believe, more significant issues involved. The whole concept of "evening news" is in play. Ed Murrow was the original TV news star. He was not an anchorman, he was the man. He had sponsors, but his program was not interrupted by advertisements. The only interruptions were the silences, while Ed drew on his cigarette, small puffs for minor news, deep, prolonged inhalations for more serious matters.

With the coming of Walter Cronkite, the anchorman was identified, and news became commercial, allowing the intervention of advertising after each or several news stories. Actually the nature of the ads was adjusted to the image of the anchor person. With Walter, the advertising reflected the concerns and needs of his audience, one beginning to experience the coming of disabilities associated with age. Years ago I made a study of Walter's program on two successive nights when Walter was reporting on six ongoing crises. One was Three Mile Island, with Diane Sawyer staked out in the rising mists of the Susquehanna River, she seemingly threatening to mutate. The news report was followed by an advertisement for Tums, as relief for heartburn and acid indigestion. The second crisis reported by Walter (it may have been further down the list) was Mt. Saint Helen's, followed by an advertisement for Polygrip (mint-flavored). Three other crises followed, with intervention by Martha Ray, plugging a product which would make false teeth five times whiter, an ad for Procelana, designed to remove brown spots from aging hands, and a compelling ad showing a man of about forty-five years chasing a woman of about twenty on a sandy beach and catching her, because, the ad said, he was taking iron tablets. The program ended with an advertisement for Ex-Lax, after which Walter said, "That's the way it is."

With the coming of Rather there was a slight change in the tenor, substance, and emphasis of the ads. A laxative said to be milder than Ex-Lax and more suitable for women was introduced, and frequent advertisements for hemorrhoid relief, especially through the use of Preparation H, after which Dan would conclude the news with, "That's it from CBS" or "That's part of our world today." For several weeks, in the time before Connie was brought in, Dan tried standing up as he delivered the news, to be more forceful, the network said, although there was a suspicion that Preparation H was not working.

Tricks, props, new personnel, racial and gender balance cannot save the evening news for it is basically in conflict with nature. Primitive societies look on twilight and sunset as magical times. The Muslims observe the coming of dark with special prayers. Christians mark it with vespers. The poet Longfellow reserved it as "The children's Hour" for "Alice, laughing Allegro, and Edith of the golden hair." Now it is reserved for Rather, Jennings, and Brokaw.

The natural time force is evident in the ratings of the anchor persons. Huntley-Brinkley led the charts for years. They were laid back, the shows ending on a slow, low note, like a clock needing winding. Neither Huntley nor Brinkley seemed to want to do the closing story, but just let things stop.

Walter, too, was reassuring in a way. Although he stressed crises, there was a kind of sameness about them. Three Mile Island and a decline of four or five points in the New York Stock Exchange averages elicited equal concern. Barbara Walters, in the group that supported Connie after she had been taken off the evening news, seemed to suggest that she herself had been removed from a joint venture with Harry Reasoner, on ABC, for gender reasons. She had been a great success on "Good Morning America." But morning voices, she should have recognized, are not good twilight voices. Her voice has good morning qualities. It was, and is, raucous." Get out of bed." "You'll miss the commuter train," etc. Crows cry havoc in all seasons and at all times of day, except evening.

If one applies the voice and manner test to today's three leading anchormen, the vespers factor prevails. Rather rates last. He is too harsh, too demanding, for twilight. Both God and man are fairly passive at vespers. Brokaw has a relatively neutral voice and approach, better for noon-day, pre-siesta news. He holds second place in the ratings. Jennings is in first, principally, I think, because as his broadcast proceeds he seems to become increasingly tired, or bored, and about to go to sleep.

Meanwhile, the curfew tolls the knell of parting day. The lowing herd winds slowly o'er the lea. And leaves the world s, to darkness and TV.

Eugene J. McCarthy lives in Woodville, Virginia.