Issues at Hand: I--The Information Agenda, Intro/teaser

ISSUES AT HAND
Document IH2-18/RX1-1
First Complete
SECTION ONE: Intro/teaser

{IAH logo fades up briefly, dissolves; resolve to:


{caption:}
Richard Benning
Anchor, Issues at Hand
The Information Agenda.

Sometimes called the Bloodless Coup, sometimes called the Neo Deal. Always controversial, always challenging, always changing the ways in which we live.

Tonight, on the third anniversary of the passage of the Information Agenda legislation, a look at the changes wrought by President Williams' Agenda.

dissolve to:

FACES, scenes taken from interviews by Art Rosenthal. during the NY/Boston/Des Moines/DC trip, base tape IH9584922.

Section master IH9684-9142.}


{caption:}
Bob Cinder {TAPE #IH9684-9142:101}
Freight operator, New York

{big bruiser, flat nose, beer belly. Taken in front of a department store. He's scowling.}
"It's {-----}ing socialism in electronic form. There's been nothing more damaging to the American way, and it's creeping overseas. I never thought I'd see the day that Americans would let the government control their lives like this. The price of beer's gone up almost a buck a sixpack in three years. You call that American?


{caption}
Allysh Froman {TAPE #IH9684-9142:102}
Media assistant, Columbus, OH

{slight, cheerful woman}
"Have to say it's been fun. It's been wild. And I have yet to find its end. Bright future, really, I think."


Peter Grunwald {TAPE #IH9684-9142:103}
Farmer, La Grange, IA

{wearing a bandana around his neck, short sleeves (this was taken in September. He's laughing)}
"It's democracy in a very real way. And what it's done is connect everybody to everybody else. I think it's the best revolution I've seen recently, and it even seems to be spilling over into the rest of the world.

I think it truly is evolutionary, and I think there's nowhere to go but up. Remember, we were heading toward a nasty depression not three years ago, and it looked inevitable. And Williams pulled the Agenda out of his hat.

You at least have to give him credit for that, even if you don't agree with all the methods.


{caption:}
President Jack Williams {{TAPE #IH9684-9172:2203}
Address Ten

February 23, 1993

We can find a way for the disenfranchised to feel part of the larger community. We can find a way to have our nation becomes as rich as its diversity, where our uniquely mixed society becomes our unique strength in the world economy. We can find a way to meld our voices into music, until we have a choir the likes of which the world has never heard, a glorious choir whose singing makes every voice more full and more rich.

We can find a way, and we will find a way. If not now, then tomorrow, or another tomorrow down the road. But I believe our moment is now. And I believe we will do it.


{caption:}
Fani Walton {TAPE #IH9684-9142:104}
Dancer, New York

{she's in mostly because she's beautiful. Gotta have pretty people in the intro}
I don't think we'll know for another three or four years whether it's a good thing or not. I know my life's different because of it. But I wonder sometimes if it's really better. It hasn't changed my life all that much. I hardly ever use the Window, except for mail.


{caption:}
Stu Rada {TAPE #IH9684-9142:105}
Economics professor, Ursinus College, PA

{graying, balding, plump, and intense}
The full effects won't be known for another three or four years. It's possible that we've sold our soul to the Devil, as some have said. Or it's possible that we've found a way to form communities within utter diversity, to craft languages out of the Babel of the online Web.


{caption:}
Brother Ray {TAPE #IH9684-9142:106}
Itinerant preacher, North Carolina

{this fire-and-brimstone preacher is LOUD, his voice doesn't even need a mike. Just shouts louder when anybody argues with him. Arthur thought he was a character}
It is Babel we fight against, and it is against Babel that we shall raise our voices and cast BACK from our ears and from our eyes the offending chaos of the media monster.

Tell your brothers and the others the truth of the Word, SPEAK to them of the WORLD without END, tell them to LISTEN to the TRUTH of the WORD, not the LIES of the Window."


{caption:}
President Jack Williams {TAPE #IH9684-9142:107}
Inaugural Address, January 12, 1993

Knowledge can make us free. Providing tools for responsible freedom is precisely what the government's business is. And if I have a mandate, it is to assure that all Americans have access to the tools of education, the tools of wealth, the tools of freedom. Without these tools, we will fail. But with these tools, we will thrive, and we will prosper.


{caption:}
Dan Quayle {TAPE #IH9684-9142:108}
Former Vice President, Republican primary candidate

{this is in just for comic relief. If you think that it's overly political, redline it out.

It just strikes me as fuzzy thinking. `Knowledge can make us free.' What does that really mean?


{caption:}
Rick Tw'nanda {TAPE #IH9684-9142:109}
Grant recipient, Boston

{he's got dreadlocks, but still sounds quite educated.}
"What does it mean, anyway? `Responsible freedom.' That's pretty strong stuff. I still can't believe we've got this guy as president, and that he pulled it off. Pretty gorbachevian, if you ask me. And, like Gorbachev, I don't think he'll be able to be reelected. He deserves another term, and I'll be voting for him, but I'm afraid he made too many enemies. Rich enemies. There's going to be some big, big money creating havoc around election time, economic havoc, making people feel like a change is necessary."


{caption:}
Arthur Brown {TAPE #IH9684-9142:110}
Arthur Brown & Sons

{Mr. Suit--clearly a very wealthy man, whose suit price would buy most people food for half a year. His office is spacious and tidy}
Big business hasn't really been hurt by the Information Agenda--and in many ways was helped. And I think most CEOs were at least as surprised as the right-wing pundits about that. At the beginning of '93 most of them thought the economy was being finally tipped over the edge. "Sabotaged by the liberals." I heard that one a lot. Or "sabotaged by Williams," since he was hard to define. Most of them discovered over the next year that opportunities were blossoming before their eyes.

Admittedly, many heavy industries have suffered a great deal--oil, coal, steel, and the like, but most of the parent companies had long ago diversified enough to absorb the shock. In fact, the more diversified corporations in general had the best response to the Information Agenda. So while Williams faces opposition, and at this point there's even some attention to it on the news and on the boards, online numbers doesn't mean audience agreement.

The polls are very fuzzy. My sense is that everyone is so busy trying to find their place in the new order that they don't want to add a new variable into the works, and so the known quantity of Williams will win. Williams is shrewdly avoiding talk of any more major changes. And I think that's wise.

The presidency is his to lose.


{caption:}
Tat Parker {TAPE #IH9684-9142:111}
Direct Grant recipient, Miami, FL

{he's got on a Miami Dolphins hat on, and has a cigarette burning. Talking from his front stoop}
"I'd'a figured the guy's dead meat. I'd'a figured they'd'a pulled a Kennedy on him, aced him out before he could push through the Agenda. Maybe they didn't think it'd go. Maybe they're waiting, though, the CIA & FBI & NSC. Waiting, just like we are, to see what Williams really did. And to see if they should off him or not.

{Dissolve from IntroHeads, move to ANCHOR intro.

RICHARD at desk, wallscreen graphic behind him showing map of U.S. inside of Window screen.


{caption:}
Richard Benning
Anchor, Issues at Hand

In eight months the voters will declare whether they think the change worked. Regardless of the outcome, all of us, like it or not, will always be living with the consequences of that change.

The Information Agenda on its third anniversary: Three years older, how much wiser? Has it worked? Can we ever retreat? Do we want to? These are tonight's Issues at Hand.

More, after this.

{Dissolve to ISSUES AT HAND logo. AD BREAK, 90 secs}



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