I was listening to the Diane Rehm Show as she interviewed veteran TV journalist Roger Mudd. Here is an excerpt from his book of a speech he made...
"It is now my belief that broadcasting in sound or vision will not have proven to contribute to the advancement of ideas or the education of man as much as the printed word.
The inherent limitations of our media make it a powerful means of communication, but also a crude one that tends to strike at the emotions rather than at the intellect.
For television journalists this means a dangerous and increasing concentration on action, which is usually violent and bloody, rather than on thought.
The bright hopes that we all have for television forever elude us. The industry somehow is either unable or unwilling now to move beyond its preoccupation with razzle dazzle.
Our broadcasts have not improved, if anything the quality has declined.
The tube has become a trip, a national opiate, a babysitter who charged nothing, something to iron by, to shave to, or doze over. And in the news departments at the networks the first question the producer asks the reporter is NOT what's in it? -- but how long is it?"
He made this speech in 1970 at Washington & Lee University.
Because he made this speech, CBS "iced" him off the anchor desk for a year and a half.
"It is now my belief that broadcasting in sound or vision will not have proven to contribute to the advancement of ideas or the education of man as much as the printed word.
The inherent limitations of our media make it a powerful means of communication, but also a crude one that tends to strike at the emotions rather than at the intellect.
For television journalists this means a dangerous and increasing concentration on action, which is usually violent and bloody, rather than on thought.
The bright hopes that we all have for television forever elude us. The industry somehow is either unable or unwilling now to move beyond its preoccupation with razzle dazzle.
Our broadcasts have not improved, if anything the quality has declined.
The tube has become a trip, a national opiate, a babysitter who charged nothing, something to iron by, to shave to, or doze over. And in the news departments at the networks the first question the producer asks the reporter is NOT what's in it? -- but how long is it?"
He made this speech in 1970 at Washington & Lee University.
Because he made this speech, CBS "iced" him off the anchor desk for a year and a half.
I'll be back to try again later (earlier!). 
