After the GOP presidential debates, good night and good luck (op-ed)
In 1959, one year before the first televised presidential debates, Mike Wallace (CBS) interviewed television writer Rod Serling (Twilight Zone). They discussed sponsor interference and censorship.
“Who’s the culprit?” Wallace asked.
Serling fingered the network and sponsors but, to Wallace’s surprise, he also said “the audience themselves.”
Serling suggested that the networks needed to pacify the frenzy of a “lunatic fringe” of viewers. He gave an example; Lassie (A TV series about a dog) gave birth to puppies. Serling stated it was a wonderful episode depicting the birth process. After an influx of letters about the episode it was immediately decided there would be no more shows about birthing puppies.
The letters were hostile and deemed the episode a “sex show” inappropriate for children. Here the offense was exaggerated to maintain a standard of decency. Serling said the comparison was beyond logic. (He gave this example so you could easily imagine what happens when shows attempted episodes about the red scare or racial unrest.) This was the “lunatic fringe” to Serling but the culprit was their expectation.
Viewers didn’t want the illusion of America (Winston Churchill said right before the 1950’s America “stands at the summit of the world”) infiltrated with its harsh realities, the audience expected a cover up.
But the cover up is worse than the crime.
This fact was articulated a year before by CBS news correspondent Edward R. Murrow at the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention. Murrow said in his 1958 speech:
“ …If there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes (tape-recording) for one week of all three networks, they will find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. ”
Murrow continued:
“We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small fraction of their advertising appropriation along the lines I have suggested … There might ensue a most exciting adventure -- exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.”
But reality TV is not what Murrow had in mind.
Over fifty years later it seems the industry went from pacifying a “lunatic fringe” to feeding the frenzy for the latest lunacy. Television has made reality a genre. Its definition states reality (or scripted without paper) TV differs from documentary television in that the focus tends to be on drama, personal conflict, and entertainment rather than educating the viewers.
Ever since the association of the names Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly the GOP debates have been nothing but a reality TV show. The GOP isn’t selecting the best man for the presidency they’re nominating an American idol.
The decade of the 50’s officially closed with the farewell address of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower issued another warning.
He said, “In councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exist and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process.”
Did the previous Republican administration heed this warning?
Eisenhower also said, “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing … Of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Serling would have asked, “With a reality TV audience?”
Murrow would have replied, “Good luck.”
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 3/9/16
“Who’s the culprit?” Wallace asked.
Serling fingered the network and sponsors but, to Wallace’s surprise, he also said “the audience themselves.”
Serling suggested that the networks needed to pacify the frenzy of a “lunatic fringe” of viewers. He gave an example; Lassie (A TV series about a dog) gave birth to puppies. Serling stated it was a wonderful episode depicting the birth process. After an influx of letters about the episode it was immediately decided there would be no more shows about birthing puppies.
The letters were hostile and deemed the episode a “sex show” inappropriate for children. Here the offense was exaggerated to maintain a standard of decency. Serling said the comparison was beyond logic. (He gave this example so you could easily imagine what happens when shows attempted episodes about the red scare or racial unrest.) This was the “lunatic fringe” to Serling but the culprit was their expectation.
Viewers didn’t want the illusion of America (Winston Churchill said right before the 1950’s America “stands at the summit of the world”) infiltrated with its harsh realities, the audience expected a cover up.
But the cover up is worse than the crime.
This fact was articulated a year before by CBS news correspondent Edward R. Murrow at the Radio-Television News Directors Association convention. Murrow said in his 1958 speech:
“ …If there are any historians about fifty or a hundred years from now, and there should be preserved the kinescopes (tape-recording) for one week of all three networks, they will find recorded in black and white, or color, evidence of decadence, escapism and insulation from the realities of the world in which we live. ”
Murrow continued:
“We are to a large extent an imitative society. If one or two or three corporations would undertake to devote just a small fraction of their advertising appropriation along the lines I have suggested … There might ensue a most exciting adventure -- exposure to ideas and the bringing of reality into the homes of the nation.”
But reality TV is not what Murrow had in mind.
Over fifty years later it seems the industry went from pacifying a “lunatic fringe” to feeding the frenzy for the latest lunacy. Television has made reality a genre. Its definition states reality (or scripted without paper) TV differs from documentary television in that the focus tends to be on drama, personal conflict, and entertainment rather than educating the viewers.
Ever since the association of the names Donald Trump and Megyn Kelly the GOP debates have been nothing but a reality TV show. The GOP isn’t selecting the best man for the presidency they’re nominating an American idol.
The decade of the 50’s officially closed with the farewell address of Republican President Dwight D. Eisenhower.
Eisenhower issued another warning.
He said, “In councils of government, we must guard against the acquisition of unwarranted influence, whether sought or unsought, by the military industrial complex. The potential for the disastrous rise of misplaced power exist and will persist. We must never let the weight of this combination endanger our liberties or democratic process.”
Did the previous Republican administration heed this warning?
Eisenhower also said, “Only an alert and knowledgeable citizenry can compel the proper meshing … Of defense with our peaceful methods and goals, so that security and liberty may prosper together.”
Serling would have asked, “With a reality TV audience?”
Murrow would have replied, “Good luck.”
First published in New Pittsburgh Courier 3/9/16
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