SMITH@SLACVM.BITNET (10/02/86)
CWM says in commentary about Keith's "TV" in poli-sci V6 # 72: > ...I'm surprised that you are so down on TV shows 'sameness'. >The producers of most TV shows operate on the principles you hold >dear: sell what people want. If people don't want what they sell, >they watch something else. If a show stays on the air, people are >watching it. If the producers of TV shows don't have much >imagination, well, that's too bad. As to a 'liberal blandness', >perhaps it is the people who run the stations that have this bias. >Jesse Helms, before he became a Senator, was vice-president of >Capital Broadcasting in North Carolina (Channel 5, Raleigh). He >gave an editorial every night. If you think that was a 'liberal >blandness', think again. - CWM].... I purged TV almost completely out of my life 10 years ago and am over 99% TV clean. My suggestion to everyone: Read Instead. You have more control over what you read. You can read someone you have strong disagreements with, but the time is well spent because at least you are in the presence of an elevated mind. TV is a superb instrament for disception, after all it's mostly someone elses carefully chosen pictures. TV and I parted ways was because I heard one too many "News" commentators introduce themselves as a "molder of public opinion". Is that what commentators are taught at broadcasting school? Who put this type of mentality into the "News" curriculum? Also, there is a very well known Hollywood producer of TV sitcoms (who reachs perhaps 150 million americans per week) who was interviewed and said quite bluntly :"I view it as my mission to mold the values of the american people". I think he was serious and that he is succesful. The most successful type of brainwashing is when the victim doesn't even realize that is is happening and say to themselves with pride "I'm educated, I'm intelligent, You can't fool me". John R. Smith smith%slacvm.bitnet@wiscvm.arpa [ Curiously enough, I think that many book writers have the same opinion of themselves. Anyone seen or heard by many millions of people has the opportunity to mold opinion. In the late 1800's and early 1900's, this power fell to the 'moguls of the press' - the owners of big newspaper chains. With the advent of radio, it moved to radio and then to TV. I don't think the answer is to damn the medium because some people in the medium take themselves a little over-seriously, or because some people rely on it for all their opinions. The difference between us then is I choose to watch TV. I read too. I also go to the movies. I talk to people. My opinions come from a blend of all these. In the same way you choose what you read, I choose what I watch. I feel no need to 'purge' myself of Star Trek, HBO, The Prisoner, C-Span, CNN, John McLaughlin, or MTV (yes, even MTV) just because some bozo on TV tells me what he thinks I should think. Bozos write books too. - CWM] -------