Compilation tracing the evolution of CBC television journalism from the early 50's to 1977. Knowlton Nash stands in the main satellite control center in Toronto as he introduces the program. Excerpts of noteworthy shows are shown and, where possible, the journalists featured in the programs come on camera to comment on them, and on their involvement in the action portrayed. The programs are as follows: 1. NEWSMAGAZINE. Excerpt was shot the first time the series came on the air. The event was the impending capture of the Boyd Gang. Harry Rasky reminisces about the story. Michael MacLear and Morley Safer also comment on the series later on in the program as excerpts of the sinking of the Andrea Doria, of Yuri Gagarin and Nikita Khruschev, the Hungarian revolution, the British and French invasion of the Suez region and the Algerian crisis, with Douglas LaChance, appear on the screen. 2. TABLOID. Dick McDougall, Percy Saltzman, Ross McLean and Joyce Davidson, the latter on her last appearance on the show, appear briefly as hosts of the series. 3. SPECIALS. Shots of the Queen's coronation in 1953 and the film being rushed to Canada by helicopter and Vulcan Bomber for a world scoop. 4. SPECIALS. Joyce Davidson and René Lévesque broadcast in English and French on the occasion of the first coast-to-coast network program. 5. CLOSE UP. J. Frank Willis introduces a program on adultery for a price staged to facilitate divorce proceedings. June Callwood interviews the disguised woman. 6. SPECIALS. Charles Lynch relates a confrontation between John Diefenbaker and the new Liberal leader, Lester Pearson, and talks about his own suspension from duty for having been too outspoken regarding Diefenbaker's victory at the polls. 7. SPECIALS. Norman DePoe tells about a running with John Diefenbaker and goes on to speak about Gerda Munsinger. Excerpts of the interview in Austria.~Flashback to a tussle between Larry Zolf and Pierre Sevigny who was implicated in the Munsinger affair. Zolf discusses the incident. DePoe is also shown talking to Justice Minister Pierre E. Trudeau about the latter's lack of ambition to go any higher in politics. DePoe and Trudeau are shown talking. 8. SPECIALS. Sequences on racial violence in the U.S., on JFK's Inauguration, with Richard Nixon, Lyndon Johnson, Dwight Eisenhower and others congratulating him. Sequences also on the Cuban crisis with James M. Minifie commenting, on JFK's assassination and Lee Harvey Oswald's "execution" by Jack Ruby, the last in slow motion. 9. SPECIALS. Knowlton Nash is shown interviewing Robert Kennedy about, among other subjects, JFK's dislike of Sukarno and John Diefenbaker. Cut to flashback of Diefenbaker, Kennedy, Olive and Jackie on the steps of Parliament in Ottawa. Later on in the documents, Robert Kennedy speaks to crowd, to Knowlton Nash while on his way to a presidential primary in California. Cut to moments after Kennedy's death. Sequences on Martin Luther King, the Civil Rights revolution in the 60s, riots and demonstrations in protest of King's assassination. 10. THIS HOUR HAS SEVEN DAYS. Patrick Watson speaks to the camera about the cancellation of the series. Sequence on Robert Hoyt interviewing two members of the KKK and a black minister. Watson comments on reaction to this particular program. Larry Zolf discusses SEVEN DAYS and is shown conducting a street interview in London about John Diefenbaker. No one could place the name of the Canadian Prime Minister.~Watson comments on television magazine shows as being "a theatre of real events". Excerpts from Beryl Fox's THE MILLS OF THE GODS showing the Vietnam countryside, Douglas Skyraiders dropping napalm. Sequence on pilot of camera-plane exulting at the napalm strikes and at his role in the operation. Michael MacLear talks to the camera about the filming of events centered around Ho Chi Minh's death. 11. SPECIALS. Sequences on the first Moon shot in 1969. Sequence includes blast off, Armstrong's historical utterance as he steps on the Moon, space capsule being fished out of the water. 12. SPECIALS. Larry Zolf talks to the camera about the way the CBC behaved during the October Crisis and why the Corporation would not show excerpts from the Russian Revolution during the Crisis. The excerpt in question is shown on the screen. Prime Minister Trudeau is interviewed briefly by Tim Raine about his reaction to the crisis, the calling of the army and about "bleeding hearts". Zolf relates a story about a taxi ride in company with John Turner and a nervous soldier sporting a sub-machine gun. 13. THE FIFTH ESTATE. Adrienne Clarkson introduces a program on air pollution and shows excerpts of AIR OF DEATH. Eric Malling speaks of UN sanction in 1977 against Rhodesian tobacco smuggling. 14. CONNECTIONS. Excerpts from a film taken by a hidden camera and a night lens showing Montreal underworld figures - the Dubois brothers - being interviewed, skulking in dark alleys by night, etc. 15. OMBUDSMAN. Sequence from this consumer-oriented series. 16. SPECIALS. Peter Kent talks about, and shows scenes from a filmed sequence shot in Cambodia after a Khmer Rouge rocket attach on a native house, dead and dying people, Kent controlling his emotions as he reports. 17. SPECIALS. Sequence on René Lévesque's election victory as the PQ come to power.~18. PARLIAMENT ON THE AIR. Views of cameras moving into the House of Commons; Trudeau, Clark and Broadbent at their posts. 19. SPECIALS. Sequences on the launching of the Anik satellite, with graphics showing the orbit of the satellite. Intercut into the program are comments by journalists on television as a medium of communication, its foibles and virtues; and their reflections on the increasing maturity of CBC television programming. MacLear thinks back to the days when CBC was extremely cautious not to jar sensibilities. Watson talks about the ability of the medium to put viewers into the action and to make them feel the emotions being felt by the participants. Safer, on the other hand, thinks that television viewing, especially in connection with Vietnam, had little effect on people. Peter Kent speaks of the "Toronto perspective" and the desire to scoop the world at the expense of good journalism. Like Watson, Charles Lynch now sees television as an effective witness to events and recalls the time when it was not considered to be a legitimate member of the Fifth Estate. He talks about television in Parliament and of the beneficial effect the camera will have on the quality of debates. DePoe echoes Safer in saying that television does not change minds; it only reinforces existing opinions and prejudices.
