The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The TV Mess and Public Policy IT is ONLY by the exercise of the utmost self-restraint that I have refrained during recent weeks from writing about television. It...
...We learn that in addition to being merely stupid and brutal, the whole business is dishonest...
...They never have seen one...
...The quality of the performances and their effect on the people who make up the audiences are matters of the highest public importance...
...If the big men in this industry did not know what was going on...
...Would we follow the example of the BBC...
...Nearly everyone goes to some movie performances...
...Things have become worse instead of better...
...The matter seems to be up to Congress...
...at least, give them a chance to choose...
...People in general—and especially members of Congress—should give serious attention to this situation...
...But it is also sure proof that there is something radically wrong with the fundamental national policy under which television operates...
...Some of the best programs have been taken off—and the worst ones continue to flourish...
...Where would the money-come from...
...No one in this country would advocate a dictatorship over movies or television...
...Who would select the directors...
...after all, other plays—all sorts of plays done in all sorts of styles...
...There is no competition in television except among competitors trying to sell the attention of their audiences for profit...
...And now comes this scandal...
...As a feature of our national life the movies and television are now comparable with the school and the church...
...I see no end of difficulties in the way of trying out this idea...
...This is, after all, a free country...
...We never give our audiences a chance...
...These television programs are one of the chief features of American life...
...Television is the greatest medium for expression and communication which men have ever had at their disposal...
...As things are run now, we never give the good plays a chance...
...What sort of programs would be put on...
...If people like Westerns and producers put on Westerns, O. K., I love the horses...
...On the average, we utilize our scientific achievement to multiply and send out our social stupidity...
...In the field of educational television there have been some stirrings...
...It is about time for a first-class debate on the whole matter of public entertainment...
...Lippmann's solution of this knotty problem is that one network should be run as a public service...
...This careful and rather conservative critic of our manners and morals speaks out with unusual heat about recent revelations in regard to the quiz programs: "The size of the fraud is a bitter reflection on the moral condition of our society...
...A start should be made by the introduction of a resolution during the coming session of Congress...
...It has long been obvious, of course, that the dirty mess which has been revealed in connection with the quiz shows is not limited to a few performers in a few exhibitions...
...Now nearly everyone either sits before the television screen or goes to the movies...
...But no matter how great the difficulties, this experiment must be tried...
...Once in a great while the gift of our scientists is utilized in a way which reveals its possibilities...
...Formerly, only those who lived near theaters or who had enough money to buy theater tickets could go to shows...
...There would, of course, be a great howl of opposition from the beneficiaries of the Madison Avenue regime...
...Most of our young don't know what a decent play is like...
...The present moral mess gives advocates of improvement an opportunity...
...But there are...
...But such events are so rare that we talk of them for weeks as children do of Christmas...
...Our scientists and engineers have served us well...
...The principle of that policy is that for all practical purposes television shall be operated wholly for private profit...
...They involve practically the whole population...
...But in the field of commercial television, the handmaiden of Madison Avenue, there has been real retrogression...
...It is as if we had found out that our schools or churches or some important branch of industry were in the hands of fakers...
...they should have known...
...What we have now is really intolerable...
...A great athletic event is sent out nationwide, or a fine concert, like the one based on Leonard Bernstein's visit with the New York Philharmonic to Russia, is sent into our living-rooms...
...I suppose that what is happening is inevitable...
...And now we suddenly discover that a whole group of programs which have been the center of attention for millions of viewers have been conducted by a set of swindlers...
...We can...
...As a result, while television is supposed to be 'free,' it has in fact become the creature, the servant and, in fact, the prostitute, of merchandising...
...I am encouraged to return to this subject by reading a first-class column by Walter Lippmann...
...The poorest homes send their aerials into the sky...
...Educators are learning how to use this magnificent medium for their purposes...
...To most Americans matters of morals are more important than matters of taste...
Vol. 42 • November 1959 • No. 41
