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V
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Turner’s Man Terry
BY MONSIGNOR
NOEL BURTENSHAW
You could call him Ted Turner’s
top project promoter and
confidential inside executive.
“Don’t do that” says six foot
three Terry McGuirk “call me a
trusted lieutenant.”
Whatever you decide to call this
right hand of Turner
Communications you’ll find him on
the inside of the doings of Mr. Ted.
Right now, Terence McGuirk, 28
and growing, sits on the edge of the
most exciting project in the
expanding art of the television
camera since Super Station-Channel
17 was born. And he attended that
birth too.
“I came on board with Ted
Turner in 1973 straight out of
college,” says the bachelor redhead
“in fact my Dad and I passed each
other on the road. He, another Terry,
was leaving Channel 5 for Albany,
New York and I was headed for the
sunny south. Channel 17 was just
coming alive.”
Well, 17 is alive and doing fine. It
now penetrates 8 million homes.
The Cable News Network is next.
June 1, 1980 will see the beginning
of an era which has grown from the
wild, but wonderfully working, ideas
of Ted Turner.
Cable News Network (CNN) will
be an around the clock, 24 hours
news service. The kernel will be a
two hour prime time newscast
beginning at 8:00 p.m. But for the
first time the nation will have an
all-news TV network.
“Cronkite and Company,” says
McGuirk “give you the world’s
happenings, once each day in 24
minutes. We say there’s more, lots
more.”
Where did the idea for Cable News
Network originate. “Turner of
course,” says the smiling Cathedral
parishioner. “Ted conceived the
Super Station idea, not strictly from
research, but rather from a seat of
the pants decision. CNN has been
something similar.”
Ted Turner sees the media of
television line up in this order.
Number one is sports. Then comes
movies, next the Archie Bunker type
Sit-Coms and finally news. “Channel
17 gives us the first three,” says
Terry “now we are going after The
last.”
Will it work? Will people buy into
the Cable for the all-news station?
Terry McGuirk has the answer. “The
Pros think so. Daniel Schorr is on
board and he is a respected veteran.
Anchor people from 20 markets have
signed with us. Ralph Nader will do a
daily piece, so will Barry Goldwater,
William Simon, and Dr. Joyce
Brothers. The Pros like the idea, it
will work.”
It better. The start up costs for
this the 5th Network (McGuirk says
the current Channel 17 is the 4th) is
50 million dollars and when it starts
operations in June the bill will be 2
million a month.
The figures are most believable
when you see the rising Turner
conglomeration in mid town Atlanta.
The old Standard Club with it’s
adjoining 22 acres was purchased,
gutted and expertly carved into the
nation’s most up to date network
studio. Like a giant Disney space
condominium, with glass walls and
blinking gagets the 90,000 square
feet are reaching for a completion
date of early summer.
“Then the army of trained experts
will move in,” says Terry in
anticipation” and we can’t wait. This
will really be a center of
Communications. Large hotels want
to locate close to us and news people
from round the nation are visiting to
look. It’s happening here in Atlanta.”
You look and you readily believe
this lieutenent of the terrible Ted.
The figures are frightening, but
not to Terry. “Listen,” he smiles,
“we will start with 3 ] /2 million Cable
homes, who knows what it will be in
a year. Cable News Network is
bringing hope to the industry.
Besides we have already seven sales
people on the road.”
Will the new venture be quality?
The answer is fired at you in a
returning question. “Is TV quality
now? Ted Turner is a great humanist.
To him life is a game to be played
and enjoyed. And the marvelous
thing is he wants those who work for
him to enjoy it too. And so he gets
the best from his people. He gets
quality.”
It will be tough going financially
for a few years and Terry McGuirk
knows it. “When we started Channel
(Continued on page 2)
Terry McGuirk
*9
Arlington Cemetery
Like an ugly reminder of
pain endured, the eternal flame
still burns.
If you look back over your
shoulder, the tunnel-like view
through the trees, across the
Potomac, into the heart of
Washington is spectacular. You
remember that somber route,
taken by the procession 15
years ago, as John F. Kennedy
was brought here to Arlington
for final rest.
T w e n t y
minutes ago,
along with a
friend from
the Washing
ton press, you
attended the
News Confer-
e n c e of
Secretary
Brown in the
stiff and
starchy halls
of the Pentagon. The
heart-breaking high point of
that sad confession was the
dreadful realization, those who
died were still lying in the
deserts of Iran.
Their place was surely here
in Arlington among heros who
answered a call.. Their
headstones should pronounce
their honorable deed, laying
down life for a friend without -
ever reasoning why. Yes, they
should be here, in this sacred
place, to rest.
You look at the tasteful
quotes chiselled into the walls
of the Kennedy tomb. He said
them as our youngest President
and now this day, as misery and
hopelessness spread their evil
layers, these words bring new
meaning and a glimmer of fresh
strength. “Let the word go
forth to friend and foe alike . . .
we shall pay any price, bear any
burden, meet any hardship . . .”
We have paid the price. With
patience and muted meekness
we have asked that innocent
men and women be returned.
But with vicious glee, puny
captors have simply poured
vinegar into the open wounds
of our painful requests.
We have borne the burdens.
Fanatics stand dangerously
close to the fringe of lunacy.
Round table agreements
concocted by reasonable men
find only demented rejection.
Commandos were sent to steal
back what was ours. We bear
the burden of their failure and
their death.
But still we will meet any
hardship. Our backs are to the
wall. We have made our pleas.
We have gone the way of
arbitration. We have used the
halls of United Nations. We
have sought the World Court
verdict. We have passed the test
of patience. The High Priests of
Islam may now wake the
sleeping giant as their open
flaunting fanaticism carries
them into possible oblivion.
These thoughts of
humiliation and terror pass
through your mixed up mind as
you stand among the beautiful
blooms of Arlington.
Above you on the incline,
the guard changes in slick
precision at the tomb of the
Unknown Soldier.
And the eternal flame still
bums.
■ ;
Catholic Archdiocese of Atlanta
Vol. 18 No. 18
Thursday, May 1, 1980
$6.00 Per Year
Bishops Request
Restraint By US
BiiiaiK
I1S1I
TEKAKW1THA CELEBRATION ~ Rejoicing
at the news that Kateri Tekakwitha will be
beatified by Pope John Paul II, members of the
Kateri Society of the Pueblo, Colo., diocese
celebrate the 300th anniversary of her death with
RESCUE MISSION
a Mass at Holy Rosary Church in Pueblo.
Members of the society have been publicizing the
life of the “Lily of the Mohawks” for four years
seeking her canonization.
Vatican Silent On Deaths
BY NANCY FRAZIER
VATICAN CITY - A Vatican
spokesman declined to comment
April 28 on reports from Iran that
the Holy See may be asked to be an
intermediary in the transfer of the
bodies of Americans killed in the
aborted mission to rescue U.S.
hostages.
“I have said nothing and I will
have nothing to say” about the
reports, said Father Romeo Panciroli,
director of the Vatican press office.
The Ayatollah Sadegh Khalkhali,
president of Iran’s Revolutionary
Court, said April 27 in Teheran, Iran,
that the bodies would not be released
to anyone acting for the U.S.
government, but might be released to
a third party such as a delegation
from the Vatican.
He specifically mentioned
Archbishop Hilarion Capucci, former
Mel kite-Rite patriarchal vicar of
Jerusalem, as a possible
Vatican-appointed intermediary.
Archbishop Capucci has visited
Teheran three times since the Iranian
revolution, but Vatican spokesmen
have emphasized that he made the
trips on a private basis.
The archbishop, who was
convicted of gun-running for
Palestinian guerrillas in 1974 but
released from Israeli prison in 1977,
was not available for comment.
In Teheran, the Ayatollah
Khalkhali said nine bodies had been
recovered from the Iranian desert
after the United States abandoned an
attempt April 25 to rescue the
hostages held since Nov. 4 at the U.S.
embassy in Teheran. The United
States said eight Americans were
killed in the aborted rescue mission.
In Rome, Jan Queen of
Lincolnville, Maine, reportedly met
with Cardinal William Baum, prefect
of the Vatican’s Congregation for
Catholic Education and former
archbishop of Washington, and
Cardinal Egidio Vagnozzi,
chamberlain of the College of
Cardinals, at the Vatican April 24.
Cardinal Baum’s office could not
immediately confirm that the
meeting took place.
Mrs. Queen’s son, Richard, the
U.S. vice consul in Teheran, is among
the hostages. She was on a European
tour to gain support for the release
of the hostages.
After news of the failed U.S.
rescue operation reached Rome, she
said, “I cannot believe that the
Iranian people can associate the
operation with the fate of the
hostages.”
Addressing a news conference at
Rome’s Leonardo Da Vinci Airport
before leaving for Luxembourg, Mrs.
Queen added, “I hope and pray that
they will understand. I am
nevertheless worried as I believe any
mother in my position would be.”
Vatican sources said Pope John
Paul II and other Vatican officials
were watching the Iranian situation
closely after the failed rescue
mission.
Archbishop Annibale Bugnini,
apostolic nuncio in Iran, has been
asked to keep the Vatican constantly
up-to-date on developments and
other Vatican diplomats were
requested to transmit world reaction
to the situation, the sources said.
WASHINGTON (NC) - The
president of the National Conference
of Catholic Bishops (NCCB) has
advised ‘‘a continued policy of
patience and restraint” in a
statement issued after a U.S. mission
to rescue the hostages in Iran was
aborted.
Noting that all Americans feel
frustrated by the plight of the
hostages and desire their speedy
release, the NCCB president,
Archbishop John R. Quinn of San
Francisco, called the behavior of the
responsible parties in Iran “an
affront not just to the United States
but to basic human rights.”
“Nevertheless,” he said in the
April 25 statement, “the recent
events, even though they underline
the gravity of the situation and
reflect an understandable desire to
take action, do point to the wisdom
of a continued policy of patience and
restraint.
‘‘The international community
has a serious responsibility in this
matter,” Archbishop Quinn
continued, “since the issue does not
simply pit the United States against
Iran, but raises severe questions of
human rights and international law.”
The archbishop said he prayed
that the U.S. government would
continue to pursue possibilities in the
international forum, “frustrating as
such an approach may be.” He said
he prayed also for the hostages and
for the eight Americans who died in
the collision of two U.S. aircraft
during the attempt to withdraw the
failed mission from Iran.
Auxiliary Bishop Thomas J.
Gumbleton of Detroit, who visited
the hostages at Christmastime, said,
“My main concern was that we
would not be able to bring them out
safely.” Even after reading
newspaper accounts of the rescue
plan, he said, he considered the
operation “very highly risky” and
capable of succeeding only if
everything worked “100 percent.”
“I feel so close to the hostages,”
Bishop Gumbleton said, “that I felt
it would not be worth it to take the
risk.”
Having seen the set-up of the
embassy compound and the
determination of those holding the
hostages and others to resist, the
bishop said, he thought there would
have been massive resistance.
“I felt very distressed that we
would risk the lives of the hostages
that way,” he said.
The bishop was also critical of
making the rescue attempt after
telling U.S. allies that military action
would not be taken. Japan had said it
had been humiliated by being misled,
he noted.
Cubans Keep Coming
Hyde: Decision Out
The arguments are over and now both sides - those who favor life
and those who oppose it - are waiting for the Supreme Court to hand
down a decision in the Hyde Amendment case.
The issue is constitutional; does the Congress have the right to limit
the use of federal funds in abortions to those cases in which the life of
the mother is at stake?
The government says yes; however New York court said no and the
issue went before the United States Supreme Court.
The Justice Department says the matter is one of the Congress’s
right to budget. Those who wish to overturn the Hyde Amendment
say that abortion is a right that all women have and that limiting it by
any means is unconstitutional.
There are at least three issues at stake - the definition of medically
necessary abortions, an earlier Supreme Court ruling that says states
do not have to fund non-therapeutic abortions, and the argument that
the judiciary has no right to be involved with the budgeting process.
With so many issues to consider no one is predicting the court’s
decision on this case.
NC News -- ‘‘The Cuban
community is going through an
emotional moment,” said a Miami
pastor, Father Jose Nickse, as
Cuban-Americans began rescue
attempts to bring refugees to Florida.
“It’s the opportunity to go down in
boats' and literally bring back
relatives.”
But as storms lashed the Key
West, Fla., area April 27, emotions
turned to grief and fright and sent
people waiting on the shore to their
knees in prayer for those still at sea.
Families and volunteer workers
could only wait as U.S. Coast Guard
rescue teams, augumented on
presidential order because of
concerns for the safety of the
flotillas, fished people from a
turbulent sea. No lives were reported
lost following the storm.
Father Nickse, pastor of Christ
the King Parish, predicted April 28
that the rescues would continue with
the return of favorable weather.
“It would be difficult to stop.
When it amounts to rescuing a
brother or a sister or a mother or
father, people will do anything,” he
said.
Father Nickse said he thought the
boatlift, which has brought more
than 3,500 refugees to Florida in
defiance of U.S. government
warnings, would continue “unless
another alternative is offered.”
Even before the storm, dangers
arose because of the small boats used
and the inexperienced sailors. Many
boats had been considered
unseaworthy to start with and were
manned by people with no sailing
experience, using no radios or charts.
“No one can be indifferent to the
dramatic effort by Cuban-Americans
to bring, at risk of life and limb, their
relatives and friends out of Cuba,”
said Archbishop Edward McCarthy
of Miami April 25.
“We recognize the seriousness of
such unregulated and unorganized an
exodus,” he added.
The U.S. Catholic Conference’s
Migration and Refugees Services
(MRS) representatives in Miami
began immediately helping the first
waves of refugees who fled Cuba.
“The situation is very muddled,”
according to Don Hohl, associate
director of MRS. He said the agency
had originally offered to accept
3,500 of the more than 10,000
Cubans who had taken refuge in the
Peruvian embassy in Havana.
But, with the stream of refugees
fleeing Cuba by boat, “we can’t have
any orderly movement if they are
brought in this manner to the United
States,” he said. .
Father Nickse said the exiled
Cuban community has raised close to
$500,000 for the refugees.
“Families are taking care of their
own here,” he said, and there is
“money and food to support those
who have no families. They will be
very little burden to Dade County
(Fla.).”