Agnew singled out CBS's recent documentary on "The Selling of the Pentagon" as "a subtle but vicious broadside against the nation's defense establishment."

Citing Federal Communications Commission and House subcommittee reports on two previous documentaries-"Hunger in America" and a never-released special in 1966 called "Project Nassau" on an aborted invasion of Haiti-Agnew criticized CBS for a double standard on "misinformation, distortion and propaganda."

Agnew charged that a baby singled out as a victim of malnutrition in "Hunger in America" actually died of meningitis due to prematurity. He added that the FCC had found evidence that CBS had edited out moderate views on the Hunger problem as "too technical."

In the case of the aborted "Project Nassau," Agnew quoted a subcommittee of the House Commerce Commission which reported "The filming of sham events, manipulated of sound tracks, and the like. Underlying the whole activity was the earnest endeavor by a group of dangerous individuals to subvert the laws of the United States."

Agnew added that the "Project Nassau" documentary involved support for "personages actively engaged in breaking the law" and possible violation of U.S. Neutrality act.

Though he had previously billed his speech as a rebuttal to the "Selling of the Pentagon," Agnew only criticized the documentary on two points-that its scriptwriter had also written "Hunger in America" and its executive producer had also been the executive producer the executive producer of "Project Nassau."

Recounting his own rise in the field of news commentary, Agnew discussed the historical tradition of vice presidential obscurity. He concluded that finding "no authoritative reason why a Vice President is required to choose between catalepsy and garrulity, I forsook the comfortable code of many of my predecessors, abandoned the unwritten rules-and said something."

"My purpose here," he concluded, "has not been to pillory or intimidate a network of any segment of the national news media in its efforts to enhance the people's right to know.

"Rather it is, once again, to point out to those in positions of power and responsibility that this right to know... does not belong to the national networks or any other agency, public or private,"