The Home Front
BOHN, WILLIAM E.
THE HOME FRONT By William E. Bohn The TV Industry Argues Back ON NOVEMBER 9 I wrote a column which I called "TV Mess and Public Policy." It was only partly about the much-discussed rigging of the...
...You suggest that 'it is as if we had found out that our schools, churches...
...What bothers me about this pungent letter is that the author implies that there is nothing that we can do: Business is business...
...The matter is not up to Congress...
...The statements which were handed out after the rigging scandal were nothing more than flat and blatant excuses...
...I have many times agreed in advance to what my correspondent says about the good programs...
...Honesty belongs in your articles, as it does in television...
...When I took in the significance of this description my conscience smote me mightily, for I quickly realized that in my little essay I had failed to mention newscasts, along with sportscasts, as one of the really good features of our programs...
...There are many barren days and nights when there are none of them at all...
...They put on the high class performances which are mentioned by Mr...
...From one point of view, the basic trouble with this business over the air is that there is no effective competition...
...In the first place, I think that my comparison between the TV industry on the one hand and the schools, churches and industries on the other stands up pretty well...
...We have passed a lot of laws since I can remember and set up a lot of commissions and committees to change all sorts of things...
...It is up to individual Americans...
...This is the attitude that brings on revolutions...
...The author, Leland L. Nichols, describes himself as working "in television news broadcasting...
...This is, sir, a business based on the motive to avoid financial loss...
...Nichols...
...Not at all...
...As long as the basic law provides stations a quasi-ownership over 'their' air-lanes—and as long as stations band together in networks geared to aid in the stations' profitable operation —so long will the American business ethic rule over the muse...
...This is a commercial country and we must live according to the rules...
...I cannot give you an exhaustive list, but let me jot down some of the evenings that have given me pleasure in the last few weeks: I Don Quixote, The Doll's House, Yves Montand on the Dinah Shore show, NBC Opera's magnificent production of Fidelio, Murrow's Small World, Huntley's Time: Present...
...This sort of discussion may lead to something...
...That is where responsibility for morality rests—not in Washington...
...After all, the airwaves belong to the people of the United States...
...The trouble with these fine programs is that there are so few of them...
...The merchants are banded together and persistently hand us the same wares...
...You toss out this bone with a lot of meat left on it for you to chew...
...Among the great authorities who control the programs that are ladled out to us over the airwaves, however, there was no consciousness of the need of any change...
...I have been hot about this subject for a long time and when I write about it I am likely to go overboard...
...That is a good letter...
...Here is Mr...
...There are four or five high class manufacturing concerns which are obviously run by men of taste and intelligence who wish to appeal to the discriminating sector of the public...
...Preach to me—stop throwing stones...
...Apart from this argument, I must object to your dismissal of the good that is accomplished...
...There is criticism of all three features of our society, but in all three the leaders are going to work to face their problems and make what improvements they can...
...Walter Lippmann, in the column which you quote, notes most properly that the trouble lies in our society and 'its moral condition.' The object in broadcasting is to make entertainment, information and even education pay...
...Nichols' argument: "The problem in America is one of national morality—not of an industry's ethics...
...This is not true of other businesses...
...If we don't like what is offered, we just leave it on the counter...
...It was more concerned with the whole function of television and the question of how it should be controlled...
...And then Mr...
...And we, the poor customers, are stuck...
...In the course of time we will get round radio and television...
...You may object—but that is the way it functions...
...The merchant understands the implication and does his best to secure merchandise to our taste...
...And you said: 'We never give our audiences a chance.' That, sir, is untrue...
...Congress and the President are the executive committee of these millions of citizens...
...It was only partly about the much-discussed rigging of the quiz shows...
...or some important industry were in the hands of fakers.' Sir, have we or have we not a crisis in education, does our refound national zeal for church-going reflect some new piety, is there no industry whose labor relations or product labeling causes you concern...
...My rather superheated piece of writing has drawn from a reader in Los Angeles an answer which is heated to about the same temperature...
...Nichols goes on to imply that because TV activities are a business we must be satisfied with what is given to us...
Vol. 42 • December 1959 • No. 47
