The empty tube
McCarthy, Abigail
OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy THE EMPTY TUBE TV TRASHES POLITICS w hoever wins the Democratic nomination, whoever wins the 1992 presidential election, will have done so as the result of...
...But in a nation where a generation has spent up to eight hours a day passively absorbing the present TV offerings, it is possible to wonder if we have waited too long...
...The primaries were part of the machinery of selection and eventually a way of giving alternative candidates a chance to be heard and elected...
...The arbitrariness and superficiality of the news side of television has been further complicated by the television advertising which assaults viewers day and night prior to election day in each primary...
...The effect of advertising and the more or less disengaged public relations advisers was very evident in the pre-Super Tuesday campaigns in the South...
...Predictably only the most controversial piqued their interest...
...By television...
...You'll like it...
...Commonweal 10 April 1992: 9...
...Its task force called on the Federal Communications Commission to return to the principle of the Communications Act of 1934 which said that, to keep their licenses, broadcasters must serve the public interest, convenience, and necessity...
...In fairness it must be said here that public television's "MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour" did lengthy in-depth interviews with more candidates than those the commercial networks had deemed viable...
...This is only one of the more obvious of the effects of television on society...
...They are told their stories by someone who has something to sell...
...Not only must the harried contender spend hours of precious campaign time at fund-raising events, but this advertising has become so specialized that he or she must have the help of high-priced political consultants and public relations people who may or may not have any valid political philosophy...
...Not only did the television news (and the print media following it) pay exaggerated attention to the New Hampshire campaigns but the majordomos of the networks decided which candidates were viable and which were not and allowed only those they chose to appear on their debate programs...
...In addition to that arbitrary decision restricting access to the voters, the network personalities presiding over the debates decided, by their attention, which issues were important and which were not, which candidates' proposed programs merited attention and which did not...
...The Psychological Association advocates government support for noncommercial outlets...
...What can be done to reverse the negative effects of television...
...Those state party members who chose to wait until their delegates could weigh the qualifications of each candidate in the close encounters of the convention went to them with "favorite son" candidates...
...This principle has been more or less abandoned in the deregulatory atmosphere of the Reagan and Bush administrations...
...Most Western nations have some form of this teaching, it was reported, and an example was shown of a course in television watching in an Ontario, Canada, school...
...One of the original purposes of the primary—to allow voters to appraise all those candidates legally on the ballot—was thus summarily defeated...
...Students were encouraged to ask what the intended effect of a program was, why certain news stories were chosen over others, etc...
...In its recent book-length report on five years of research on the impact of television on society the American Psychological Association concluded that "the major flaw in American broadcasting is that commercial television must generate revenue through programming that attracts large, heteroge8: 10 April 1992 Commonweal neous, affluent audiences which do not represent the majority of viewers...
...Television and other forms of electronic media slice through churches and schools and into the home...
...The American two-party system evolved as a means of giving practical expression to contrasting political philosophies and selecting men (later women) for office and giving them cohesive support...
...Dean George Gerbner of the Annenberg School of Communications recently told the first meeting of the Association for Communications and Theological Education at Yale Divinity School that it is time for religious groups to help people regain control of the words and images that make life meaningful...
...As in several recent election years, the primary in New Hampshire, a small state with an electorate unrepresentative of the varied general population of the United States, assumed an abnormal importance because it was made the focus of the news...
...Gerbner admitted that it was, on the face of it, impossible to shake the foundations of the commercial culture but he urged religious groups to call for change...
...They were also given the experience of constructing a program within a time frame...
...And if you like it, that's all there is to it...
...Now consider what has happened this year...
...One can be grateful that there is increasing recognition of the problem and one can hope that the approaches outlined above will be successful in controlling this powerful medium and making it a force for good in society...
...Try it...
...The political atmosphere, needless to say, was consequently filled with bitterness...
...That's how instant gratification works....Children are not told their stories by someone who has something to tell," he said...
...Don't ask how your choice will affect other people....The more satisfying something is, the more you want it and soon you are addicted...
...The same television hour that showed us debating candidates greeting each other civilly and arguing the issues in a moderate reasonable manner was interspersed with slashing thirty second spots distorting opposing candidates' positions and accusing them of "pandering" or being "un-American...
...That's all you need to ask...
...It has become, he said, our "cradle-to-thegrave value system...
...He explained: "Commercial stories say this, 'Here are your choices and this is what we recommend...
...In short, the ultimate effect of television on politics has been to make the party system meaningless, to make a telegenic appearance more important than character, to raise the power of money in political choice, and to debase the level of debate...
...If it wasn't impossible," he said, "it wouldn't be worth trying...
...In consequence Americans get their ideas of how they should live from television...
...OF SEVERAL MINDS Abigail McCarthy THE EMPTY TUBE TV TRASHES POLITICS w hoever wins the Democratic nomination, whoever wins the 1992 presidential election, will have done so as the result of a political process warped almost beyond recognition...
...Originally—and not so long ago candidates developed support state by state and came to the party convention where the final decision was made...
...Still another effort to counter the effects of television were described, interestingly enough, on ABC's "Nightly News" on March 3. The segment dealt with the work of Professor Robert Kubey at Rutgers on how to teach TV through communications courses in the nation's schools...
...And the end is not yet...
...The report also endorsed most of the recent research on the effects of television: that, for example, the constant portrayal of violence leads to the acceptance of violence and antisocial behavior and that the portrayal of sexual violence in particular "leads to the increased acceptance of rape...
...The cost of this advertising is the single biggest cause of the current outrageous cost of political campaigns and it automatically gives the edge to the candidate with the most campaign money...
Vol. 119 • April 1992 • No. 7
