Television is one thing that Americans
seem to have in common. About 99% of American households have at least one TV set. (Mine
doesn't. I haven't owned a TV since 1980.) Television is powerful and could have been
used as a mostly positive influence in our culture, but it has turned into one of the most destructive
forces in our society.
Many TV stations and networks are on the air 24 hours a day and seem to have plenty of programming
material available to fill the time. (That's partly because drive-in movies disappeared and the
"B movies" are now on UHF TV.) But if you look closely, much of that material is merely
serving as spacers between the commercial breaks. The revenue from commercials keeps the stations
on the air. Therein lies the root of TV's troubles: They have to keep your attention, so
you'll keep watching, so the ratings for that station will go up, and the advertising rates on that
station will then increase. And the cycle repeats.
This results in programming and advertising that looks like it is designed to entertain
and inform people with extremely short attention spans — people who get bored after
looking at the same thing for more than five seconds. In the business of television
news, this means less thoughtful journalism and more three-second sound bites and one-liners. It
also means that the typical TV advertisement is a 30-second frenzy of
special effects and very short edits.
The sound bite syndrome means that meaningful half-hour debates are condensed down to
the few seconds when someone raises his or her voice. That leads to political arguments (and
entire campaigns) in which the winner is the person who has come up with the greatest
number of memorable one-liners. People who base their votes
on this kind of shallow information — or on someone
else's emotional outbursts — are
likely to do more harm than good at the polls.
The effect on entertainment programming is that prime time shows are becoming more and more
salacious in an effort to attract viewers. Material that was considered unfit for
broadcast 20 or 30 years ago is now commonplace. Society's standards didn't change
overnight — the TV networks kept "pushing the envelope" gradually to get us
where we are today. The envelope has taken quite a beating, but the incremental changes
seem to go in only one direction.
Much of the blame for the deterioration of broadcasting belongs to the FCC, which has
repeatedly deregulated the industry, allowing unlimited advertising time on radio and TV,
and ownership of more than one station in each market. More stations means a diluted market
and the desperate need to attract an audience. The FCC has also abdicated its role as enforcer
of basic decency on radio and television, opening the door to FM "shock jocks" and prime time TV
programming that would have been unimaginable a few decades ago.
Some of the blame should go to the producers of network shows. Many of their creations
carry the warning, "Viewer discretion advised." (Apparently if they make that disclaimer,
it's okay to include anything in a TV show.) But why should discretion be entirely up to
the viewers? Couldn't the producers show a little discretion of their own?
The rest of the blame belongs to the audience. You could say that the FCC has just stepped aside
and let our society's downfall run its course. The government prefers to "let the market
decide" what's appropriate or unfit for broadcast, and how many stations can survive in a given
city. But the market doesn't seem to decide that anything is inappropriate. No
matter what is on the air, Americans keep watching and listening.
Newton Minow, in his famous vast
wasteland speech on May 9, 1961, said, "When television is bad, nothing is
worse." If you allow television into your home, you will not benefit from it, unless your goal is to
squander your time and take your mind off your troubles. For that purpose, television is
cheaper than alcohol and safer than heroin. Television is widely used in hospitals,
jails and laundromats as a Time Vaporizer -- it makes people less aware of
the passing time.
And you may also
enjoy The Last Empty Channel, which is about
TV Channel 37, the only TV channel that is completely empty. (Originally published
in TV Technology.)
Closed Captioning
Closed Captioning started out as a simple favor to those less fortunate and has turned into
an entitlement. It is now mandatory. But it costs a lot of money to put closed captioning into
reruns of old sit-coms, and the TV stations will almost certainly pass the cost along to
the advertisers, who will then pass the cost along to you, whether you watch
TV or not.
Occasionally during a commercial break on TV, you may hear an announcement such as, "Closed captioning of this
program is sponsored by...", followed by one or more commercials. I find it hard to believe that sponsors
sign up for commercial time to pay for closed captioning, since closed captioning is required by the FCC,
and the station has to provide it anyway.
The FCC says, "Closed captions provide a critical link to news, entertainment, and information for
individuals who are deaf and hard of hearing, enabling these individuals to be part of the cultural
mainstream of our
society."*
That is simply nonsense. Television is not an essential part of life, or of civilized
society. In fact our society was more civilized before television came along. In any event, a
person can be "part of the cultural mainstream of our society" without watching television.
The FCC's Closed Captioning Fact
Sheet says, "Closed captioning is an assistive technology designed to
provide access to television for persons who are deaf and hard of hearing."
Usually when you see the word "access" it is a code word for the implementation of special rights
and privileges for a protected and politically sensitive minority. Everybody has
access to television; sometimes a little too much access. If a person can't make
sense of a television program without being able to hear the sound, that person isn't
missing anything. I can see where it would be reasonable to require closed captioning
on a tornado warning, but to require it on nearly 100% of all programs (no matter how
old, unpopular, or self-explanatory) is the kind of foolishness one can expect
from an overgrown government.
Brief History of Closed captioning:
The engineering department of the Public Broadcasting System started to work on the [closed captioning] project
in 1973, under contract to the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped of the Department of Health, Education
and Welfare (HEW). The Federal Communications Commission set aside line 21 in 1976, for the
transmission of closed captions in the United States.
The Editor says...
I should have known that the Department of HEW was in on this. For those of you too young to remember,
HEW changed its name in 1979 to Health and Human Services, to get away from the well-deserved stigma of the
name Welfare, and to spin off the Department of Education into its own enormous entity. The two
departments devour a total of about $123 billion a year. But that's another topic.
Newest disabled
right: audio TV captioning. The FCC has proposed that TV networks
be compelled to provide at least four hours of programming a week with "secondary
audio" descriptions of filmed action in hopes of giving blind viewers an "equivalent
experience" to what sighted viewers are getting.
Editor's Note:
Common sense should tell you that "blind viewers" will never have an "equivalent
experience" sitting in front of a TV, no matter what provisions are made by the
broadcasters.
Timeline of Closed Captioning
Development. Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 enacted,
requiring all federally funded public service announcements to be closed captioned.
This kind of incrementalism only goes one direction. First it's applied to
television, then to movies in theaters, and before long it will be required on
DVDs, video games, and anything that can be shown on a television.
Deaf group files
lawsuit against movie theaters. Invoking the Americans with Disabilities
Act, eight hearing-impaired persons in Portland, Oregon have filed what aspires to the
status of a national class action seeking to force three large cinema chains, Regal,
Century, and Carmike, to install closed captioning devices for films in their theaters.
ADA
Goes to the Movies. The movie-theater snob looks for big screens, high-end sound,
legroom, and the newest innovation, stadium seating. If you're a movie-theater snob,
chances are you worship at the altar of AMC theaters because they are the gold-standard of
the cineplex world. So naturally, the Department of Justice is trying to put them
out of business.
Movie theaters face suit over lack of
captioned films. For most cinema buffs, silent movies went out with the Coolidge administration
eight decades ago. But for film fans who are hard of hearing, today's theaters offer little beyond an
indecipherable silence. Captioned showings remain rare, and existing technology that would allow
attendees to read along at their seats is rarely used.
The V-Chip:
An ineffective substitute for parental supervision.
If you bring a television into your house, you know exactly what you're getting into. Whether your
TV set has the V-Chip or not, if you see offensive programs on TV, it's only because you failed to push
the POWER OFF button.
Parents Have the Tools to Control TV
Content. What's so troubling about calls for increased media regulation/censorship in the
name of "protecting children" is that it ignores the fact parents have at their disposal many
constructive alternatives to censorship.
When the Chips Are Off: If
Americans overwhelmingly favor the V-chip, why don't they use it? In his 1996 State of the Union
address, President Clinton urged Congress "to pass the requirement for a 'V' chip in TV sets,
so that parents can screen out programs they believe are inappropriate for their children." He
said the technology would enable parents "to assume more personal responsibility for their children's
upbringing." This was an odd way to characterize the V-chip, which actually represented an abdication
of parental responsibility. Instead of monitoring what their kids watch and deciding for themselves
what was appropriate, parents would rely on ratings assigned by the networks. There would be no need
for active supervision or discussion: Once the V-chip was programmed, everything would
be automatic.
The
obscene "reality" at MTV. There's approximately one instance of foul
language every three minutes. None of that onslaught would be caught by your
supposedly foolproof V-chip, since MTV is skipping out on identifying its own filth.
The networks are
fighting a two-faced war. To parents and the general public, they talk of social responsibility,
and spend hundreds of millions of dollars talking up their V-chip, and how they aid parents to navigate the
channels. But in court filings, and in the councils of power, the networks are unmasked for what they
are: people who believe in no limits, no standards, no scruples. It's an industry that is just a
profitable assembly line of garbage, and wants the "right" to offend many millions of families, using the
public airwaves owned by those families to do so.
Ratings, V-Chips
and Self-Policing: "The ratings system is a fraud, and therefore the V-chip
is, by extension, useless," said PTC Founder and President Brent Bozell upon the release
of the April 2005 special report The Ratings Sham. The report studied 638 different
shows during 2003 and 2004 on the seven broadcast networks. Among its major findings:
• Every network had problems with accurate and consistent application of content descriptors.
• NBC didn't use any content descriptors on its programs.
• 81% of CBS's TV-14-rated shows contained sexual dialog yet lacked the "D" descriptor.
• 43% of the Fox shows were missing appropriate content descriptors.
• 73% of ABC's TV-14-rated shows lacked appropriate content descriptors.
• 82% of WB's TV-14-rated shows containing sexual behavior lacked the "S" descriptor.
Cable's
creepy lobbyists. For the V-chip to work effectively, it must rely on an
accurate ratings system. This ratings system is at best wildly inconsistent, with
each network making its own decisions determining what is or isn't offensive in its own
programming. At worst, it's a joke.
The
V-chip is no magic pill. For starters, most parents have no idea how this
V–chip works or know that their TV set even contains one. A survey done by
the Kaiser Family Foundation discovered that only 15 percent of parents they
surveyed have used the V–chip.
Say
Goodbye to Family Friendly TV. Avoiding objectionable material has become more difficult, despite
V-chips, which allow parents to control access to certain programs. And one of the more toxic areas is
now the ads. Not only do commercials try to use sex to sell everything from automobiles to soap, it
seems half the ads on TV now are marketing sex itself in the form of sex-enhancing drugs. And there's no
avoiding the ads, no matter how careful you are with selecting your programming.
The TV Boss. A web site developed by the Ad Council to
explain how to use the V-Chip. (If you can't figure out how to use the V-Chip, would you be able to
get to this web site?)
NBC
slices and dices "Veggie Tales". This is one of those moments where you understand that networks
like NBC are only talking an empty talk and walking an empty walk when it comes to the First Amendment, and
"creative integrity," and so on. They have told parents concerned about their smutty programs like "Will
and Grace" that if they're offended, they have a remote control as an option. The networks have spent
millions insisting that we have a V-chip in our TV sets. Change the channel. Block it out.
But when it comes to religious programming — programming that doesn't even mention Jesus
Christ — just watch the hypocrisy.
TV's
trouble with religion: For an industry that claims to reflect reality,
the results are not good. Religion is virtually ignored, and when covered,
more often than not it's attacked.
Industry leaders
announce new ratings system. The parent companies of the major broadcast networks, along with several media
buying agencies and advertisers announced Thursday [9/10/2009] the creation of a new TV ratings measurement organization:
The Coalition for Innovative Media Measurement (CIMM). The group includes 14 companies making a multi-year
commitment to establish a new data system.
The latest: Judges
Find Dignity in Profanity. Anyone who's had half an eye on broadcast television in the last
10 years would not be so ridiculous as to suggest that Hollywood hasn't been trying to push the envelope
on what frontier of dirty language, sex and violence it can surpass. Of course, broadcasters came into
the courtroom to tell judges they've made a "good faith" effort. But the record shows — the
useless V-chip, the corrupted ratings system and so much else — that they could care less.
After the decision, the broadcasters kept the phony routine going, insisting that nothing would change now
on TV.
Senseless Violence
and the FCC's attempts to put a lid on it.
TV's
Increasing Female Body Count. Violence — especially grotesque, gory or bloody
violence — has become a staple of network television during sweeps periods. But there's a
new kind of violence surging — violence against women.
More Television, More Crime? In the fight
against senseless violence, Hollywood remains a tempting target. But don't blame the remote
control. Blame a remote dad.
FCC
Seeks To Rein In Violent TV Shows. The Federal Communications Commission has concluded that regulating
TV violence is in the public interest, particularly during times when children are likely to be
viewers — typically between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., FCC sources say. The agency's
recommendations — which will be released in a report to Congress within the next week, agency
officials say — could set up a legal battle between Washington and the television industry.
ACLU Fires Back. Although Sen. Jay
Rockefeller (D-WV) grabbed the spotlight with his attack on TV violence, little noticed at the time was a
proposal by Sen. Sam Brownback (R-KS) to craft a bill strengthening the FCC's profanity-regulation powers and
giving it authority to regulate violence. The American Civil Liberties Union wrote to legislators asking
them to oppose such a move.
The Editor says...
The ACLU's position is surprising: They see no need to regulate profanity on television
because of the "technologies enabling parents to control content". They assume that children
are the only people adversely affected by violence on TV, and that everybody makes use of the V-Chip and
the POWER OFF button.
Media Violence and
the American Public: Scientific Facts Versus Media Misinformation. Over the last 50 years,
the average news report has changed from claims of a weak link to a moderate link and then back to a weak link
[between media violence and aggression]. However, since 1975 the scientific confidence and statistical
magnitude of this link has been clearly positive and has consistently increased over time.
The
Ancient Problem of TV Violence. How ancient is the concern over violence on television and its
effects on society? Crack open a cobwebbed copy of Lyndon Johnson's National Commission on the Causes
and Prevention of Violence from 1969, where it reads, "Public concern for violence in entertainment television
programming has been with us since at least 1954." In other words, go back to the days when people were
still using their first TV sets. You'd also discover reading this report that even back then, the TV
industry execs were trying to duck and weave out of any public concerns.
[The "violence" that LBJ saw on television was probably just a fistfight on "Bonanza."]
TV violence found to be more
frequent, graphic. America's children are being exposed to more dead bodies, fistfights and
perverts than ever before, according to an analysis of violence on prime-time television released yesterday by
the Parents Television Council. Violent content from 8 to 11 p.m. on weekdays jumped
75 percent from 1998 to 2006, largely because of popular crime-solving shows and medical dramas
such as "Law and Order" and "CSI," the Los Angeles nonprofit concluded in its report, titled "Dying
to Entertain."
Here is their report: Dying to
Entertain. TV violence has become a paradox of sorts. Medical and social science have proven
conclusively that children are adversely affected by exposure to it — yet millions of parents think
nothing of letting their children watch C.S.I. or other, equally violent programs. Prominent leaders
in the entertainment industry publicly decry violent entertainment — but then continue to produce and
distribute it. Despite the widespread consensus that TV violence is a significant problem, it has
become not only more frequent, but more graphic in recent years.
Remote control:
On Tuesday [6/26/2007], the Senate Commerce Committee held a hearing to discuss whether there is too much violence
on cable and satellite TV and what to do about it. The issue of TV violence is the baby of Kevin J.
Martin, chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, who was scheduled to testify, but canceled at the
last minute for family reasons. Martin thinks there is too much violence on subscription TV.
Criticism of TV in General
You probably know people who leave their television on all the time just for background noise.
I know a few, and I also know people who watch less-than-mediocre programs "because that was all that
was on." Television seems to be the primary source of entertainment for almost everyone — an
indispensable part of their everyday routine. But about 1980 I realized there was channel after channel
of nothing worth watching, and gave away my last television set. You'd be surprised how much
spare time that opens up.
If you watch fifty hours of television every week, you might see one or two minutes of material that
was informative, fresh, edifying or uplifting. Something you're glad you watched. But the
rest of the time you're probably thinking to yourself, "What a pointless show!" or, "What a stupid
commercial!" It's like digging through a barrel of garbage, knowing there's a perfectly good
chocolate chip cookie in there somewhere. It just isn't worth immersing yourself in garbage
to occasionally find one little morsel.
9 Things to Say Goodbye To: [#7] Television.
Revenues to the networks are down dramatically. Not just because of the economy. People are watching
TV and movies streamed from their computers. And they're playing games and doing lots of other things that
take up the time that used to be spent watching TV. Prime time shows have degenerated down to lower than
the lowest common denominator.
Television News: Are We Amusing
Ourselves to Death? Anyone who relies exclusively on television/cable news hosts and
political commentators for actual knowledge of the world today is making a serious mistake.
Unfortunately, as Americans have devolved into non-readers with woefully short attention spans,
newspapers providing even semi-analytical content have found themselves struggling to stay afloat
while television, which delivers little more than news sound bites sandwiched between superficial
chitchat and entertainment buzz, has become the prime source of so-called "news."
Tocqueville and
the Tube. Television makes us fat, lazy, inattentive, unsociable, mistrustful,
materialistic — and unhappy about all of that. It cheapens political discourse, weakens
family ties, prevents face-to-face socializing, and exposes kids to sex and inures them to violence.
Yet Americans can't get enough. In 1950, just 9 percent of U.S. households owned a television; by
1960 it was 90 percent, and by the year 2000 TVs were just about everywhere. Now the average U.S.
household has more TVs than people.
Silence
that idiot box! For turning brains into mush, you can't do better than television. The
"vast wasteland" Newton Minow deplored in 1961 is infinitely vaster now — a largely unrelieved wilderness
of mindless, stupefying entertainment, where dysfunction vies for predominance with vulgarity, and where the
insatiable hunger for ratings eventually overpowers every consideration of taste, morality, and intellect.
Publicly
Funded Leftism on Community Television. Community television began, like many bad ideas, in the
1960s, when self-styled "media activist" George Stoney and others began lobbying the FCC to mandate "public
access" broadcasting. Stoney is described as "an early advocate of video as a tool for social change,"
who makes films "focusing on issues of social justice." In short, he's a leftist. ... Media activists
demanded that this revenue be earmarked to support local public, educational and government television, known
as PEG channels. FCC rulings in 1972 and 1974 led to the mandate that every community with 3,500 or more
cable subscribers be offered four public access channels funded by access fees. The Supreme Court ruled
in 1979 that the FCC had overstepped its authority, but by then it was too late...
Hollyork Nation: Denunciations of television have
become as routine as breathing: the programming is crass, stupid, propagandistic, so bad that only
an idiot would watch it yet everybody does. Actually things are worse. They are much
worse. To see what is happening, start with what may be the crucial truth of our times:
People will watch a screen. They will watch anything in preference to nothing, watch programs they
don't really like, comedies so unfunny that only the laugh track tells them when to respond. The
bright know that the fare is witless, that it is directed at fools. The ads irritate them. Yet
they too watch. People cannot not watch television.
The
"TV Gap" Cripples Minority Kids. A powerfully disturbing new report by the Kaiser Family
Foundation shows that black and Hispanic kids consume 4½ more hours of media every day than
their white counterparts -- investing a startling total of more than 90 hours a week on television,
video games, social networking and other distractions. "It's clear that, overall, American youth
spend an enormous amount of time with media, but minorities spend most of their waking hours with media,"
says study director Ellen Wartella, head of the Center on Media and Human Development at Northwestern
University. The chief culprit is television, of course: black youngsters spend more than
41 hours a week watching the tube, while white kids devote less than 25 hours per week.
Television
Addiction Is No Mere Metaphor. Perhaps the most ironic aspect of the struggle for survival
is how easily organisms can be harmed by that which they desire. The trout is caught by the
fisherman's lure, the mouse by cheese. But at least those creatures have the excuse that bait and
cheese look like sustenance. Humans seldom have that consolation. The temptations that
can disrupt their lives are often pure indulgences.
The side
effects of binge television. A good television show writer understands that Oscar Wilde wasn't
kidding when he said, "I can resist anything but temptation." Drama holds its audience in a perpetual
state of anticipation, joyful in the knowledge that answers will be doled out only sparingly, that no resolution
will ever be as powerful as the growing desire for it. Theater and film do this for a few hours; television
can do it for years.
TV shortens life by 22 minutes per
viewing hour, says study. A new study suggests that mom's warning might not go far enough.
It showed that too much television could make a person die sooner. Researchers from the University of
Queensland, Australia say every hour of TV watching after age 25 cuts almost 22 minutes off the
viewer's lifespan.
Why
TV Addiction Links to Liberalism: An important new study from the Culture and
Media Institute shows that those who describe themselves as "heavy" TV viewers embrace
distinctly liberal attitudes on a range of crucial issues, placing them well to the left
of those who report "light" TV viewing.
We're
Struck Dumb. The award show is cotton candy television at its most vacuous. There's no
story line to follow. It's just a parade of famous people there for our viewing pleasure.
What Television Teaches Children: All
the way through college years, and beyond, young people too often learn little of the attitudes necessary to function
as an adult. ... Television, I fear, teaches children from an early age that all parents are essentially fools, no more
to be respected than one's peers.
Monkeys
like watching television. Monkeys like watching television, Japanese scientists have revealed
in a new study. A three-year-old male rhesus macaque thoroughly enjoyed a video of a circus elephant,
giraffe and tiger performing, according to scientists from 1 University's Primate Research Institute,
who monitored the monkey's brain during the experiment.
How to Lower Your IQ: Watch the History Channel.
As you have probably deduced by now, I am very unhappy with the pabulum and low-brow offering of programs aired
on the History Channel. I am most irked by shows that have absolutely nothing to do with history.
To wit, "Ice Road Truckers", "Pawn Stars", "Swamp People", "Stan Lee's Superhumans", "American Pickers",
along with "Sharp Shooters" and "UFO Hunters." These programs are utterly devoid of anything a
moderately educated person would deem to be of any historical value.
Horsehide Hangover. I
have given up wondering when sports — which used to be a way to encourage young men away from more dissolute
pursuits — has now embraced all that is debased in our modern culture; the objectification of women as sex
toys, vulgar language, egotism, and violence. All of this was on display during "The Hangover" promo and another
one for a flick aptly titled, "Drag Me to Hell;" both of which would have never appeared in prime time a few short years
ago, but now invade our homes on a Saturday afternoon. Sadly, the trash emitted from Hollywood has now found its
way onto the playing field; so much so that I sometimes feel that baseball itself has become some kind of perverted
cross-promotion.
HDTV's
turning Americans into couch potatoes. The numbers are in, and it appears that high-definition
television is getting Americans to spend more time glued to their TV than ever before. … At a minimum,
consumers seem to find high-definition TV a more compelling experience. In a survey conducted on behalf
of ESPN, 22 percent of sports fans said they watched sporting events they would not have watched because
they now have HDTV.
Too
much TV leads to an early grave. Couch potatoes sit up and take notice. Every hour
spent veging in front of the television increases the risk of early death. ... Even fit TV fans increase
their risk of premature death from heart disease by 18 percent for each hour spent in front of the
box. They also have a 9 percent increased risk of endometrial and colorectal cancer and,
similarly, an 11 percent increased risk of death from all causes.
Watching
television 'damages the heart'. The risk of heart disease and premature death from any cause
doubled for those spending more than fours hours a day glued to a screen, it was claimed. Metabolic
factors and inflammation may be partly to blame, the report said. Research revealed those who devote
more than four hours watching television, surfing the web, or playing compuer games are more than twice as
likely to have major cardiac problems.
Soap Operas Blamed For Lack Of Babies.
Researchers trying to discover why Brazil's fertility rate has plummeted in recent decades think they have found
the problem: Brazilians watch too many soap operas. The London-based Centre for Economic Policy Research
(CEPR) says that unrealistically small families portrayed in the hugely popular programmes influence the number
of children women want.
Nielsen
Study: African Americans Watch More Television Than Any Other Group. There's a reason they call
television the "idiot box." Some believe that if you spend too much time watching television, it will
negatively affect your ability to think. Let's hope this isn't true, since a recent study from Nielsen is
showing that African Americans watch television more than any other group in the country.
America Is Gone. There
is no better index for America's moral degradation than television programming. Compare today's shows
with those of a generation ago. Every episode of "The Andy Griffith Show" contained a short moral lesson, and
"The Twilight Zone" challenged our intellects and stretched our imaginations. But entertainment and
instruction have devolved into shock and novelty. The networks are locked in a downward spiral to see
who can provide the most outrageous and offensive programming.
The Editor says...
The television producers in New York and Los Angeles are pushing our society into the
gutter. They are not being dragged into the gutter by Americans clamoring for more
and more salacious programming on TV. Nobody writes to the networks demanding to see raunchier
programs next season. And another thing: Notice that when TV shows "push the envelope"
with something more violent, blasphemous or risqué than ever, the promos always end
with "Viewer discretion advised." Why don't the networks show some discretion?
Cable Company Bills Tornado Victim $2,000 for
Damaged Equipment. Time Warner Cable billed a number of Wheatland [Wisconsin] residents for
equipment destroyed in the Jan. 7 twister that struck the southeast corner of the state. [Ann]
Beam's bill covered five cable boxes and five remote controls. She immediately called the cable
company, but a man who identified himself as a manager said there was nothing the company could
do. … [But then, after the news media picked up the story,] Time Warner Cable spokeswoman
Celeste Flynn said Beam's case was simply a misunderstanding.
Writers
vote to end strike that crippled Hollywood. Striking Hollywood writers are going back to work.
The Writers Guild of America said its members voted Tuesday [2/12/2008] to end their devastating, three-month
strike that brought the entertainment industry to a standstill.
The Editor says...
It is very difficult to feel sorry for the unionized writers. These are the people who develop such
great products as the TV series based on the Geico cavemen, and a great number of other shows whose
"pilot" episodes weren't good enough to put on the air even once. When you look at the worthless
pap on prime-time television, you have to wonder if that's the best they can do. If it is,
our country would be better off if the writers stayed out on strike forever!
Think about it. How many movies and TV shows about time travel, space wars, talking animals, talking babies,
pirates, foul-mouthed cartoon characters, dysfunctional families and children-as-super-heroes can you stand?
Not to mention the sappy, predictable romantic films ("chick flicks"), or the unreal reality shows, or the
cheap and insipid programs stitched together from other people's video clips,
like America's Wackiest Dash-cam Videos? Being a Hollywood writer
requires less talent than the writers would have you believe. It is only natural that they
band together in unions, and even then, the writers' union would be worthless without the support
of the other labor unions and the on-camera talent.
HDTV is a threat to Canadian culture,
critics warn. Bart Beaty and Rebecca Sullivan argue that while HDTV is offered as part of an
expanded choice for consumers, the selection of programming using digital over analog technologies is almost
exclusively American. "If you were to ask most Canadians what's wrong with Canadian TV, they wouldn't
say 'image quality,'" said Beaty, co-author with Sullivan of the newly published book Canadian Television
Today, in a statement Thursday [11/23/2006].
Americans see media aiding moral
decline. Most Americans think culture is becoming more immoral, and they view the
media — both entertainment and news — as prime culprits, according to a new survey.
American Pop
Culture: Degeneracy On Parade. With television, movies, the Internet and even local stores
and markets acting as conveyers of debauchery, it seems there is no escape. Once confined to the margins
of society, depravity has now become mainstream. Those who mistakenly thought television shows geared
toward families, such as "American Idol" and its dance version "So You Think You Can Dance," were a safe bet,
might want to think again.
Turn the channel?
Are you kidding? All information is not equal. You would think we would know that by now,
but all education is not equal either. In fact, it seems like our modern education prepares us more to
be consumers than connoisseurs of information. A connoisseur of wine can tell the difference between
an exquisite wine and a merely good one.
The Gratingest Generation. Does it ever
occur to media chatterboxes that people watch tennis because they want to see tennis, not hear about some
celebrity's latest movie or TV series? If those who lived during World War II were "the greatest
generation," this must be the gratingest generation. It's not just the constant meaningless chatter
that grates. There is the incessant self-dramatization.
Media easily influenced.
In between wars and terrorist attacks and election nights, reporters have very little to actually
report. … Seasoned reporters make a good living sitting back and waiting to be pitched on the day's
possible stories, and they grow accustomed to the spoon-feeding. Add to this natural human inclination
toward laziness most political reporters' left-leaning political ideas, and you get the current state of
political journalism.
Inventor of TV Remote Control Dies at
Age 93. Robert Adler, who won an Emmy Award along with fellow engineer Eugene Polley for the
device that made couch potatoship possible, died Thursday [2/15/2007] of heart failure at a Boise nursing
home at 93, Zenith Electronics Corp. said Friday. In his six-decade career with Zenith, Adler was a
prolific inventor, earning more than 180 U.S. patents. He was best known for his 1956 Zenith Space
Command remote control, which helped make TV a truly sedentary pastime.
What
are you laughing at? In 1953, Charles Douglass invented a machine called the "laff box," which we
commonly refer to today as the "laugh track," ushering in a new era of comedy on television.
Counterculturalist Paul Krassner once called the laugh track "the epitome of televised hypnotic suggestion."
More TVs Than People in Average
Home. The average American home now has more television sets than people. That threshold
was crossed within the past two years, according to Nielsen Media Research. There are 2.73 TV sets
in the typical home and 2.55 people, the researchers said. With televisions now on buses, elevators
and in airport lobbies, that development may have as much to do with TV's ubiquity as an appliance as it does
conspicuous consumption. The popularity of flat-screen TVs now make it easy to put sets where they
haven't been before.
Beating
back the TV takeover: The typical household accommodates only 2.55 people, but 2.73
televisions. An astonishing 50% of all homes boast three or more TV's, and only 19% contain
just one. In 1975, by contrast 57% of households owned only one television, and only 11% contained
three or more.
Just Say "Off".
I was trained at a young age to worship television. It was the center of our home, akin to a shrine.
From within the wooden box, a powerful force seemed to pull our small family of three toward it. Our day
didn't begin before the set was turned on, and no one went to bed until it was turned off. The compelling
need to constantly watch left me laying on the floor for hours, leaning first on one arm, then the other, until
my elbows formed nearly permanent impressions of broadloom fibers. Rather than be interrupted by meals,
we simply adapted by eating on wobbly trays.
TV Addiction Quiz: Do you eat
dinner while watching TV? Can you turn off the TV now, right now, and leave it off
for three days? Do you flip mindlessly through the channels to find something good?
Do you need TV to unwind or fall asleep after a hard day? Do you need TV to wake you up
in the morning? Do you watch TV more than you talk to your family?
Doctors
treat Thomas The Tank-obsessed boy. A child obsessed with watching Thomas The Tank Engine has
alarmed doctors after failing to make friends at school, instead wandering around in a daze mumbling lines
from the show. Specialists are so concerned about the three-year-old American, known only as 'Max', that
a report has been published in the Journal of Developmental and Behavioral Pediatrics.
Television: opiate of the masses.
The signs of addiction are all around us. The average American watches over four hours of television
every day, and 49% of those continue to watch despite admitting to doing it excessively. These are the
classic indicators of an addict in denial: addicts know they're doing harm to themselves, but continue
to use the drug regardless.
The Failure of Technology: When
Jerry Mander suggested in his book Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, published in 1978,
that television was not reformable no matter who controlled the medium, it represented the first time
anyone had dared suggest that we do away with television altogether. Mander argued that television is
visual intoxicant that entrances the viewer into a hypnotic state and thereby replaces other forms of
knowledge with the imagery of its programmers. It infuses young children with high-tech, high-speed
expectations of life, so that a walk in nature would likely seem interminably boring.
The Editor says...
Yes, he's right so far, but as the interview goes on, you'll find that Mander is opposed to
all forms of "high tech", just like the Unabomber. And if you look around the web site where
this article appears, you'll see that it's strictly for left-wing "activists" and
anti-capitalist troublemakers.
TV or Not TV? Not!
Television emerged as a mass medium in the 1950s and quickly came to occupy a key role in an orchestrated
campaign to eradicate conventional middle-class morals and culture.
Turn
Them Off — Turn Them All Off. Mitch Altman's invention is
called TV–B–Gone. It
fits snugly in the palm, a near-weightless lump of black plastic. Its shape vaguely
suggests the Batman logo. A tiny diode rests on the very tip of Batman's head,
between his pointy bat ears. Press a button and from this diode a
beam of invisible light escapes that can turn off any television — any
television — within a radius of 45 feet.
Switch
off TV and switch on your memory. Turning off the television, picking up a crossword and eating
more fish could be the key to a better memory, an Australian survey has found. Those who took part in
the test were asked to fill in a survey on a range of habits, such as alcohol consumption, television viewing
and reading habits. The results found no differences between men and women, with the same scores for
both groups on all the tasks. But it found television viewing had the main impact on results.
Too much TV for
tots. Many parents have created homes where the TV is a nearly constant presence, all around
the house. Almost half the children (43 percent) aged 4 to 6 have a TV in their
bedroom. Even more shocking, there's an idiot box in 19 percent of the rooms with
babies one year or younger.
Preschoolers
pacified with TV programming. What do American kids ages 2 to 5 do an average of 32 hours
a week? It's not napping, playing outside or building spaceships out of Legos. It's watching TV,
according to a new report released by Nielsen, the ratings company. According to the report, television-watching
is at an eight-year high with children ages 2 to 5 leading the way, closely followed by children ages 6
to 11, who watch an average of 28 hours a week.
Fighting
childhood obesity the family way. At the root of childhood obesity are two connected problems:
At the same time that children are consuming more "empty" calories, they also are getting less exercise.
Many factors have combined to foster a more sedentary lifestyle, even for children. In many communities,
children are not allowed to walk or ride bicycles to school. Many schools have eliminated recess and
physical education from the school day. At home, the children are watching more television and playing
video games for longer and longer amounts of time during the day.
Watching
SpongeBob Can Lead to Learning Problems? The cartoon character SpongeBob SquarePants
is in hot water from a study suggesting that watching just nine minutes of that program can cause
short-term attention and learning problems in 4-year-olds. The problems were seen in a study
of 60 children randomly assigned to either watch "SpongeBob," or the slower-paced PBS cartoon
"Caillou" or assigned to draw pictures.
It's Official: To Protect Baby's
Brain, Turn Off TV. A decade ago, the American Academy of Pediatrics suggested that parents
limit TV consumption by children under two years of age. The recommendations were based as much on
common sense as science, because studies of media consumption and infant development were themselves in
their infancy. The research has finally grown up. And though it's still ongoing, it's mature
enough for the AAP to release a new, science-heavy policy statement on babies watching television, videos or
any other passive media form. Their verdict: It's not good, and probably bad.
Kofi Annan
offers his #1 tip to prevent bad weather: "watch less TV". ["]You may not like some of the
suggestions I'm going to give. First is to watch less TV. Turn off lights when leaving the
room. Of course rationalize [sic] the use of appliances, for example expect that the washer is full
before turning it on.["]
The Girl in the Plastic
Bubble. Everyone in America is exposed to the opinions of the left. The journey of
new Americans into the weird world of leftism takes root in children's television, which is filled
with politically correct drivel, and progresses via films for younger audiences, which are lightly
painted propaganda. Public schools follow the same track. Academia, almost invariably,
is far to the left of the rest of America. Television programming, documentaries, news
networks — everything, really, is little more than a tool for reinforcing leftism
in our lives.
A new study reveals the obvious: TV Linked to Kids'
Short Attention Spans. Because the brain of a newborn develops rapidly
throughout its first several years of life, researchers from the University of Washington
and Seattle-area mental health professionals theorized that early exposure to TV might
affect brain development.
The Media
is the Politics. In a random telephone survey of 1,000 parents of children ages two months to
2 years in Washington state and Minnesota, parents said they let their babies watch television for "fun
and education." Few of them admit they use the tube as an electronic babysitter. In other studies,
doctors suggest that babies who watch television experience changes in their brain development at a time when
they should be learning to talk through association with the larger of their species.
TV and Tykes Don't
Mix. Kids aren't just gravitating to the tube; the one-eyed monster is being used as a babysitter
by parents who think they're too busy for them and by folks who see giving a child his own tube as a way of
allowing parents to gorge on TV themselves. … This is so sad, because TV makes kids fatter and dumber.
Babies and TV Screens Don't
Mix. By the time children are two years old, 90 percent are spending two or three hours a day in
front of a screen. According to the article in TIME, "…the research team found that with every
hour per day spent watching baby DVDs and videos, infants learned six to eight fewer new vocabulary words
than babies who never watched the videos.
TV Really Might Cause Autism. Today, Cornell
University researchers are reporting what appears to be a statistically significant relationship between
autism rates and television watching by children under the age of 3. The researchers studied
autism incidence in California, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington state. They found that as cable
television became common in California and Pennsylvania beginning around 1980, childhood autism rose more
in the counties that had cable than in the counties that did not.
Is
3D TV hazardous to your health? If conventional wisdom says that watching TV is bad for your
eyes, watching 3D TV may be three times worse, we're beginning to discover. Doctors and researchers
are starting to warn viewers about the potential dangers of spending too much time in front of a 3D boob tube.
Warning — 3D TV may be bad
for your health. Less than a month following the roll out of its 3D TV, Samsung Electronics in
Australia states on its Web site that some viewers may experience more than just awesome visual effects.
It cautions users to "immediately stop watching 3D pictures" and consult a doctor if they experience altered vision,
lightheadedness, dizziness, involuntary movements such as eye twitching, confusion, nausea, loss of awareness,
convulsion, cramps or disorientation.
Are 3D TVs Dangerous?
There are a total of 10 depth perception "cues", and stereopsis (the cue that relies on parallax) is only one.
And when you see a 3D movie, the other cues that don't match up are fighting with your brain, which is why
people often feel a little disoriented when the movie ends and they take the glasses off.
The New Media
Elites: It has become a staple of Sunday newspapers, television talk shows,
and late-night news programs: the cautionary tale about the Internet turning America's
youth into a generation of socially inept zombies, plugged in but tuned out, incapable of any
conversation longer than an instant message, and headed for a sedentary life of weight gain,
eye strain, and information overload. But if anyone is in danger from the growing power
of the Internet … it is not America's youth but the old media themselves.
Do not adjust your
set: TV is about to blow apart. The internet, in the television industry as in many others, is both the
infection and the cure. It will do to television what it has done to journalism: make everyone a producer and
everyone a potential star. … I don't know about you, but I rarely leave my evening viewing to chance or to programmers
any more. It's planned and recorded in advance. And even if I watch live I delay starting for 10 minutes so
I can zip past the advertisements.
Turn
that confounded thing off. I have read the bumper stickers saying "Kill Your TV" and know
the reasons why you should. I realized that TV was creeping into my psyche: the violent and
overtly sexual shows, penetrating ads, the put-down humour, the time-draining, mind-numbing
influence. Most of all, it was hurting my relationship with my husband, my best friend.
Don't Expect
Hollywood to Learn from Academy Awards Broadcast Bomb. So Sunday's Oscar™ broadcast was,
underwhelmingly, a television ratings bomb. Not even the allure of Tinseltown's beautiful people
walking down the red carpet in free gowns and borrowed jewels could tempt Americans to tune into what's
known as the biggest self-congratulatory backslapping event in the history of mankind.
The CEO of
silliness. The late Steve Allen used cite a delicious analogy to describe why the public airwaves
should be kept free from offensive content. If a stranger walked into your house, stood before your
children in the living room, and started stripping and cursing, would you feel their innocence had been
violated? Why then, he'd ask, should TV networks be allowed to do the same, using the airwaves owned by
those very parents?
What
The Most Watched TV Shows Say About America: Fox News crushes CNN and MSNBC. We've heard that
so many times that it has become a meme. But guess what? Every one of the top 10 shows on the
Hispanic network, Univision, beat Fox's top program (The O'Reilly Factor — 3.5 million viewers),
as did WWE Raw's fake wrestling (4.9 million). Proof that shows making the most noise aren't necessarily
what people are paying attention to.
Americans will devote
half their lives to forms of media next year. In 2000, Americans each spent an average of 3,333
hours consuming media — and most of that time (1,467 hours) was spent in front of the TV, according to Veronis
Suhler Stevenson, a media-oriented money management company that supplied much of the media data used in the
report. Next year, Americans will spend 3,518 hours with their beloved media, including 1,555 in front of the
TV, says Veronis Suhler Stevenson. That means the average American will spend roughly 146 days, or five
months, consuming media.
In every
corner, a television set. Television ownership used to be an accepted indicator of wealth and
social class: the higher the number of sets in a neighbourhood, the better off the residents. No
longer. Indeed, some of the poorest corners of Britain now have the highest ownership rates. … Find
a household with no television and it is likely to be a sign less of poverty than of middle-class sensibilities.
Medic, Marcus Welby, Dr. Kildare,
Medical Center, Ben Casey, The Doctors, General Hospital, St. Elsewhere,
M*A*S*H, AfterMASH, Emergency, The Nurses, ER, Chicago Hope, House, Grey's Anatomy ... TV, heal
thyself. What is it with you people and medical shows? How is it that I and every other
normal human being hates going to the hospital even if it's just to bring candy and flowers to someone who has
to be there, but when it comes to TV, you can't seem to get your fill of smocks and surgical masks?
Unanswered TV questions. Sure, I watch TV for
entertainment, but sometimes it's all I can do not to put a foot through the screen in frustration. Many
reasons for that (the general quality of shows these days, Hollywood's obsession with wealth), but the shows
also invite weird plot-related irritation with their UQs — Unanswered Questions. Every show
has one or more, questions that normal people would ask, but that would ruin the entire plot
of a show if they were actually voiced.
Rumors of Broadcast TV's Death Are
Premature. Financial analyst Steve Kamman has said that, with the advent of digital
video recorders and video-on-demand, there will no longer be any demand for broadcast
television. … [However] Watching television is a passive activity. To be
entertained, you don't have to do much more than turn on the TV and surf until something
good comes up. If there were no channels to surf, only thousands of programs you
could call up on demand, how would you know what to watch?
[What an odd question. If there were no TV stations, how (and why) would you stay in the habit of
watching TV?]
Cable
choice now. Increasing numbers of public policy organizations, political leaders,
and even telecommunications companies are endorsing the very simple concept that consumers should
take and pay for only that which they want on cable television, rather than having to continue
subsidizing programming they find offensive or just plain lousy.
Man
admits killing the cable guy. A Gary [Indiana] man became so enraged when he learned his TV
wouldn't readily accept his newly installed cable, he shot and killed the cable guy. Fransuah Mathews
admitted Thursday he fatally shot a man installing cable for him to repay a debt when Mathews realized
his TV was not cable ready.
Americans are Eager to Know about
Economics, Study Says. Television, by far the most popular conduit for those seeking
economic knowledge, leaves its viewers with below-average knowledge. But television viewers
outperform those who turn to political leaders, friends, relatives, or civic or religious leaders
as their primary source of information, according to Blinder and Krueger.
TV Profanity Will Go Before Appeals Judges. Fox
and CBS's First Amendment challenge to regulations against on-air profanity could either open the way to more
cursing on network television or encourage broadcasters to play it safer with tamer programming.
Note: This article is replete with profanity. The words you can never say on TV, except when you
can: It's obvious by now that the FCC makes up the rules for acceptable speech as it goes
along. In the paradigmatic example of broadcast indecency, Carlin's monologue about "the words you
couldn't say on the public airwaves," there's no question that the expletives were "integral" to the routine,
which was partly about the very censorship to which it became subject.
Does Profanity
Reign Supreme? The Supreme Court has taken up the case of FCC vs. Fox Television Stations, the bizarre
case in which Fox and other broadcast TV networks have argued that "fleeting" profanities are mere accidents that
should not be punished with fines. While it's laudable that the nation's top court would take up the matter,
it's beyond outrageous that what Hollywood really wants — and, in a cowardly way, is refusing to declare
publicly — is the "right" to bombard your living room, and your children, with obscenities.
The Editor says...
It is fairly easy for a TV network to include a ten-second delay into any "live" program, in order to
catch and filter out profanity before it gets on the air. With that technology available (and indeed, already
installed), nothing gets on the air accidentally. At least not at the network level. So-called "fleeting"
profanity is being justified and defended for one reason: to open the door for more frequent, intentional and offensive
outbursts, and eventually normalize every imaginable sort of corrupt communication. Once again I remind
you, this kind of incrementalism only goes in one direction.
Stop Taxpayer Subsidies for all
Broadcasters! As another conservative journalist is exposed on the payroll of the Bush Administration,
the nation's leading media watchdog, Accuracy in Media (AIM), called on public television and radio to give up their
$400 million in taxpayer subsidies. AIM Editor Cliff Kincaid says that it is obvious that the liberal media
are only against taxpayer subsidies for journalists when they are conservative.
The Disappearing
Anchor 'Man'. Turn on your TV for the nightly newscast and you're now more
than likely to see a woman on the screen — whether it's Katie Couric, Elizabeth
Vargas or the woman delivering your local news.
[Why do you suppose that is? It is partly because TV stations are under pressure to hire
women and minorities, but it is also because people have become accustomed to women as figures
of authority, thus credible bearers of serious news. Forty years ago it wasn't that way.]
The Struggle for Control of the
Media: One of the key, though underestimated, ways in which America differs from other Western
democracies is that it lacks a partisan media system. By this, I mean a complete panoply of openly
partisan outlets in every form of media. It has this today only on the Internet, and is
acquiring it on television.
Network TV Lacks Diversity, NAACP
Says. Nearly a decade after the NAACP condemned a "virtual whiteout" in broadcast TV, the civil
rights group said major networks have stalled in their efforts to further ethnic diversity on-screen and off.
Television shows of the future could be even less inclusive because of a failure to cultivate young minority
stars and to bring minorities into decision-making positions, NAACP President and CEO Benjamin Todd Jealous
said.
Television
Statistics: According to the A.C. Nielsen Co., the average American watches more than
four hours of TV each day (or 28 hours/week, or 2 months of nonstop TV-watching per year). In
a 65-year life, that person will have spent nine years glued to the tube.
It's about time to clean
up our act. [The FCC] recently released a report that said Congress
has the authority to keep programs with violent content from being shown during hours when children could view
them. Ha. That is laughable. Imagine Congress or any other lawmaking body in this country
actually trying to regulate social behavior in an effort to give us a healthier climate to live in! No,
it won't happen because the self-centered majority won't let it happen.
Toned-down
awards shows: The "wardrobe malfunction" that launched a national outpouring
of rage against televised soft-porn slime continues to reap great benefits for
the forces of reason, reticence and decency on television.
Judges vs. the
FCC: The federal judges who ruled against the FCC suggested the agency's rulings were "arbitrary
and capricious." But is there anything more arbitrary and capricious than an egotistical celebrity
dropping the F-bomb on national TV? Or the network refusing to administer a tiny delay? Pardon me
if I can't imagine Thomas Jefferson and Co. pledging their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor for the
valiant cause of transmitting the potty mouths of washed-up pop singers and spoiled-rotten mall princesses
into millions of American households.
The Editor says...
When you turn on a television, you know exactly what you're getting into. When someone curses
on television, or exposes herself (or himself), or sets a bad example for your kids, it gets into your
home only because you didn't turn off the television. If it happens more than once, it is only
because you didn't get rid of your television.
Reed Irvine,
R.I.P.. In its infancy, network television news was a rip-and-read enterprise,
15 quick minutes of wire service copy. But as TV news divisions recognized their own
political power, they began actively to steer a national audience toward a political worldview
of their liking. Sometimes it was as simple as covering something, or refusing to
cover something.
Even as Viewers Tune Out, BBC Bosses
Get £3.7 Million. The BBC paid its top managers £3.7 million in
salary and bonuses last year despite losing more than half a million television viewers to rival
digital channels and the internet, according to the corporation's annual report.
Media bias regarding gun
control: Today, the right to own a gun is under assault like never before. Every
time a firearm is used in a high-profile crime, calls for stricter gun regulation — even
outright prohibition — are pounded into us by a press that has taken sides. In
fact, when it comes to guns, journalists have clearly made up their minds. According to a
recent study, television news stories calling for stricter gun laws outnumbered newscasts opposing
such laws by a ratio of ten to one. In other words, we are
hearing only one side of the story.
Violence and Promiscuity Set the Stage for Television's
Moral Collapse. Long hailed as the cheapest form of family entertainment, television has cost us our
imagination, our conversation, and our children's innocence. As Dr. George Gerbner puts it, "The roles [young
people] grow into are no longer home-made, hand-crafted, and community inspired." Instead, they are developing
a worldview based on television and not their own experience.
The Dumbing Down Of Politics:
[Scroll down] The [LA] Times noted that Barack Obama, during a tight schedule that had him shuttling between New
York and Washington last Thursday, "managed to squeeze in time to visit an influential national television
program: 'The Tyra Banks Show.'" "During the hourlong show," the Times said, "the supermodel turned
TV personality challenged her guest to a game of pickup basketball and had him look in a crystal ball to divine
his future."
The Editor says...
To describe the Tyra Banks show as "an influential national television program" is either a gross
distortion or a sad commentary on the number of malleable dupes who watch it. Tyra seems to have
forgotten that she got where she is based entirely on her gender and her race, even as she preaches that all
women and blacks are victims of discrimination. The show is an hour of meaningless pap that exists only
to fill the gaps between commercial breaks.
Flick Off Obama. The omnipresence of Barack
Hussein Obama is guaranteed by the television, more aptly identified by the little people as, "the boob tube". Obama's
speech to Congress last night was forced upon the unwashed masses. Or was it? ... The television networks and lying
politicians do not deserve your patronage.
Local TV Stations Face a Fuzzy Future.
Lisa Howfield, general manager of KVBC, the NBC affiliate here, watched last year as the broadcast-television business began
to shrink. She started cutting. She combined departments. She made do with old equipment, and did away with
luxuries like yearly sales getaways. In December and January, she laid off 15 employees, or 6% of her staff.
After the weatherman left last month, one of the morning news anchors took on both jobs. "It's like a bad roller-coaster
ride," says Ms. Howfield. Her station's full-day viewership is down 7.7% this TV season from the same period last
year, according to Nielsen Co., and Ms. Howfield expects her ad revenue in 2009 will be down 30% from 2008.
The Editor says...
Hey Lisa! The advertising revenue is down because people don't like the meaningless drivel that you present in prime
time. Nor do they enjoy sitting through a three-minute commercial break that is packed with insipid spots and self-aggrandizing
promotional ads for shows they aren't interested in watching. Your "news anchors" are essentially reading the morning
newspaper in front of a camera. (In radio, "rip and read" has been a minimum wage job for 40 years.) How
much of your local news coverage is anything more than filler between the commercials? Who cares if there was a car
wreck on the other side of town last night, or if an airplane landed with one wheel up, or if a five-year-old kid in Wisconsin
saved his grandma by calling 9-1-1? Put something worthwhile on the air, and you won't have any difficulty attracting
viewers and advertisers. If you really want to perform a public service, sign the station off, surrender the license,
and board it up.
Broadcast TV Faces
Struggle to Stay Viable. CBS ... is having a better year in prime time than any other network. And
yet, as at the other networks, profits have declined sharply at CBS. For decades, the big three, now big four,
networks all had the same game plan: spend many millions to develop and produce scripted shows aimed at a mass
audience and national advertisers, with a shelf life of years or decades as reruns in syndication. But that
model ... no longer appears viable.
WTVH
Ends News Operation. WTVH-TV (Channel 5), the first television station in Syracuse, lost its
independent newsroom Monday after 60 years. The station brought news legend Ron Curtis to living
rooms for four decades, but has suffered since then in the race for viewers and advertising dollars.
About 40 Channel 5 employees were fired on the spot.
CNN Fails to Stop Fall in Ratings.
The trend in news ratings for the first three months of this year is all up for one network, the Fox News
Channel, which enjoyed its best quarter ever in ratings, and down for both MSNBC and CNN.
In Ads, 1 Out of 5 Stats Is
Bogus* A downward-spiraling economy means less spending money, so food makers increasingly
are running ads aimed at grabbing the other guy's share of the (pizza) pie — or burger, or
soup can. And their advertising arsenal includes numbers — based on their market
research, often controversial and sometimes top-secret.
High-wrinkle TV. They mandated the
nation to transition to digital television, yet some members of Congress may be having trouble making the change
themselves. Makeup artists who worked both the National Republican and Democratic conventions, the presidential
debates and in the U.S. Capitol say most lawmakers are unprepared for the toll that high-definition television is
taking on their appearances — and that that could translate into lost voters in the 2010 elections.
California To Ban TV: But Not For a Good Reason.
Why is the California Energy Commission (CEC), a Gov. Jerry Brown creation, wanting to ban television
sets? Well, it seems that a honking 48-inch plasma screen, that bright symbol of the bygone days of
conspicuous consumption and purveyor of drooling vacuity, uses too much electricity, and electricity
production makes too much greenhouse gas emissions (at least in America, where half of our electricity
comes from coal — in France, a plasma screen would emit nary a CO2 molecule as the TVs there
are nuclear powered).
California Proposes Ban on Energy-Hogging
HDTVs Starting in 2011. The California Energy Commission is proceeding with a proposal this
summer to ban the sale of TV sets that did not meet new efficiency standards when they are turned on and
displaying a picture — a measure of power consumption that is not currently regulated at all.
The British method:
Television in England is apparently non-commercial, at least on some channels, but there is an annual license
required for a TV receiver.
Colour
TV licence goes up to £142.50. Black-and-white only licences will go up by £1 from
£47 to £48, it was confirmed today. The current cost of a basic colour TV licence is
£139.50.
License
fee police may target you for watching TV on Net. Viewers who watch television only through their
computers could be forced to pay the licence fee, it has been revealed. Currently, those who solely use
catch-up services, such as the BBC's iPlayer, do not need to pay the annual £139.50 charge. But a law
could be introduced to change this, amid growing evidence that more television viewers are migrating online.
Blow
for TV licence dodgers as detector vans go undercover. TV detector vans have gone undercover in a
controversial move to catch those watching without a licence. The latest vehicles are unmarked to make them
indistinguishable from those driven by 'white van man' as they cruise the streets — although they will
probably be going a little slower.
The Editor says...
I don't get it. If the British government is so concerned about people watching television without
paying for such a great privilege, why aren't the TV signals encrypted? Wouldn't that be easier than
having someone drive all over the country looking for unauthorized receivers?
The British TV receiver tax could be easily implemented in the U.S. Here's how: Once the
television stations in the United States have been converted over to digital transmitters, it would
be a relatively simple matter for the FCC to order all of them encrypted and then charge the viewers
for the keys to unlock the once-free signals. The mechanism for subscription TV is already a part
of the digital transmission protocol: It's called "conditional
access." Lookitup.
TV
licence rebel seeks trial by jury. A retired engineer who is being taken to court by the BBC for refusing
to pay for a television licence over its 'biased reporting' is hoping to persuade a jury that the corporation is acting
illegally. John Kelly has refused to pay the fee since 2002, arguing he does not have to as the BBC has breached
its requirement for political balance when covering issues such as the European Union.
In Sweden: Outrage over licence fee demand for CCTV.
Swedish business owners are up in arms over a recent push by the country's television licencing bureau to
collect fees from companies using surveillance cameras. "It's crazy, the screens aren't used for
watching TV," said Dick Malmlund, head of security for the Swedish Trade Federation (Svensk Handel), to the
Dagens Nyheter (DN) newspaper.
Cell phone owners could face TV licence fees.
Swedish TV licensing body Radiotjänst has indicated that cell phone users may soon face licence fees as
technological advances bring television to the mobile.
Computers owners to face TV licence fees.
Sweden's television licensing agency Radiotjänst is preparing to push through measures requiring computer
owners to pay the annual television license fee of around 2,000 kronor ($327).
Outrage over licence fee demand for CCTV.
Swedish business owners are up in arms over a recent push by the country's television licencing bureau to
collect fees from companies using surveillance cameras.
Somewhat related... Five
of the Royal Family demoted as BBC changes its protocol on broadcast death list. The BBC has
downgraded five senior members of the Royal Family by ordering that their deaths should no longer trigger an
automatic interruption of normal broadcasts. [They] had formerly belonged to a special BBC list known as
Category 2, which has now been abolished.
Scrap TV licence fee and
make BBC subscription-based says think-tank. The BBC should wind up its licence fee and become a
voluntary subscription-based service, a report from think-tank the Adam Smith Institute said today.
The report ... acknowledged the importance of the corporation as "the UK's strongest media asset".
But it said that scrapping the fee would better equip the BBC to operate as a major business on the world
stage.
Are commercial breaks louder than TV programs?
Yes and no. The peak audio level is the same, but the average level is usually higher, simply because
most advertisers have only 30 seconds to make their point and pitch their product. Most movies,
soap operas, and dramatic productions have long quiet scenes -- especially in the last few seconds
before a commercial break. Comedy shows are usually augmented with canned laughter and applause, so the
viewers don't notice much contrast in loudness when the commercial break begins.
Congress considers shushing
loud TV ads. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act, or CALM Act, would require TV
stations and cable channels to turn down the volume on those decibel-heavy ads that blast from the box during
breaks.
Bill seeks to
turn down sound on TV ads. Fed up with TV ads so loud that they send viewers scrambling to hit
mute on their remotes, a Bay Area lawmaker is pushing a new bill that would force federal regulators to ratchet
down the volume of commercials. The proposal was introduced this week by Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Palo Alto,
and it isn't winning her any friends in the broadcasting or advertising industries. But Eshoo's House
colleagues are warming to the idea, which could address a daily annoyance for millions of TV viewers.
In the analog TV world, over-the-air TV stations used equipment that regulated the peak
audio level of everything that went into their transmitters. Soap operas, commercials, and
local news programs were all treated the same way, and variations in audio levels (from one
second to the next) were surprisingly small.
In the digital TV age, this problem is far more difficult to address than anyone in Congress likely
realizes.
To impose new regulations on the subjective loudness of commercials, and keep those audio levels lower than
the surrounding program material, the broadcasters would have to artificially boost the volume on program
segments that are not necessarily intended to be loud, and actively suppress the effectiveness of commercials.
It is the commercials, after all, that pay the bills at a TV station, and I'd hate to be a TV advertising
salesperson having to explain to a client that his spots will be intentionally half-muted.
In fact, many commercials are delivered to the TV stations through satellite/fiber distribution services
that are contractually forbidden to alter the audio or video levels. At the TV station, the commercials
go from the "delivery truck" server to the main playback server without being tweaked by the engineers
(if any), and as a result, the commercials are as loud as the production house wants them to be.
Strict adherence to a standard maximum level is voluntary, at this point. But there are now devices
being marketed to the stations which can measure the program audio loudness and make the commercial breaks
match the shows.
Twenty years ago I noticed that the video levels are just as different as the audio levels. Soap operas
(a/k/a daytime dramas) are usually very dark, while the interspersed soap commercials are bright. This
is still true today. Since many soap operas are produced by Proctor and Gamble, this should come as no
surprise, and for the same reason, this trend will continue indefinitely.
Rep. Anna Eshoo may or may not have a good idea, but its implementation would require a new set of unambiguous
standards for the measurement of average loudness, and a long discussion about how much reduction is enough,
and whether it would be just as annoying and tiresome for a movie to have a constantly loud sound track.
I think we should leave things the way they are, and "let the market decide" if it's really that big a
problem. The viewers have plenty of options available, including
the POWER OFF button.
Update: House
votes to turn down volume of noisy TV ads. The House on Tuesday [12/15/2009] voted to level off
the abrupt spikes in volume felt by television viewers during commercial breaks. The bill —
approved by a voice vote — is aimed at stopping TV ads from playing noticeably louder than programs.
Here's some good news: Loud TV ads may be near an
end. Under a proposal to be taken up Thursday [6/10/2009], the Federal Communications Commission
would squelch ad volumes to the average decibels of the TV show during which they appear. Currently,
TV ads can't be louder than the loudest peak in a show, said David Perry, the chairman of the broadcast
production committee of the American Association of Advertising Agencies in New York. Ads often
seem louder to viewers, he added, because a program's volume peak rarely comes just before an ad.
The Editor says...
If this becomes law, TV stations will have the incentive to compress audio levels on all programs,
so TV stations will sound like AM radio stations. In other words, the audio in every program
will be homogenized, and the infomercials will all be consistently loud.
House
passes bill to reduce volume of TV commercials. The House by voice vote Thursday [12/2/2010] passed a bill
sponsored by Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.) that would lower the volume of television commercials, sending it to President
Obama's desk for his signature. The Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation Act would authorize the Federal
Communications Commission to regulate the volume of advertisements to ensure they aren't noticeably louder than the
programs they interrupt, a problem that has annoyed consumers for decades.
Obama
signs law to limit volume of TV commercials. President Obama on Wednesday [12/15/2010] signed
into law a bill that will regulate the volume of television commercials. According to the White House,
the "Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation" or "CALM" Act "requires the Federal Communications Commission
(FCC) to prescribe a regulation limiting the volume of audio on commercials." The regulation applies to
"television broadcast stations, cable operators, and other multichannel video programming distributors."
Blaring
Commercials No More: FCC Passes Rules to End Loud Commercials. Today [12/13/2011] the Federal
Communications Commission unanimously approved new rules that require cable and broadcast stations to play
commercials at the same volume as the TV shows they break into. The new FCC order is a step in carrying
out the Commercial Advertisement Loudness Mitigation, or CALM Act, which President Obama signed in 2010.
The Editor says...
Commercials don't "break into" programs. In some cases, the commercials are scheduled
almost as far in advance as the programs.
The United States of Advertising.
America is, I think, the only country in the world which permits advertising of drugs which are available only through your
doctor. The insidious message is simple; if your doctor is not offering you this drug, maybe you should be asking for
it. …The whole point of [prescription drugs] is that it is not considered safe to let us simply buy them over the
counter. They are so strong or so habit forming that it is up to the doctor to decide that we really need them.
Advertising subtly changes that relationship….
Why TV Ads Are a
Waste of Money: To the extent that TV ads have ever had an impact in a general election, that
influence has been sharply diminished by the Internet and TiVo Ages. Viewers now receive their
information in ways that minimize their contact with commercials. Sure, advertisers still flock to
television. But effective product commercials these days run far more often and strategically than do
political ads, and production-value-wise, they are light years ahead of anything the candidates ever
put out.
Warning:
Products Ahead. Hide the children: Commercial products are visible on network television.
That's the urgent message from a clatch of public interest groups who wrote to the Federal Communications Commission
last week demanding an end to "advertainment." … This conspiratorial view of advertising goes back to Vance
Packard and the "Hidden Persuaders," the book unmasking the supposed media manipulation of the 1950s.
TV and Test Scores Don't Mix. A new study
finds that children who have TV sets in their bedrooms score lower on school tests than those who don't, according to the New
York Times. … The issue may have more to do with parental control. Parents may not be aware if their children are up
all night watching television, or if they are watching inappropriate programming.
Networks Plan on Blaspheming
God — Most Shocking TV Season Ever: ABC, CBS and NBC are considering dropping many of the
few remaining standards on network prime-time TV programs — and will likely allow expletives and
four-letter words never spoken before on broadcast TV.
Violence on Prime
Time Broadcast TV. Concerns about the impact of television violence on society are almost as old
as the medium itself. As early as 1952, the United States House of Representatives was holding hearings
to explore the impact of television violence and concluded that the "television broadcast industry was a
perpetrator and a deliverer of violence."
Foul Language on
Prime Time Network TV. The connection between media violence and real life violence has been well
documented. The consensus of the scientific and mental health communities is that children are profoundly
influenced by the violent images they see on television and in films. Constant exposure to media violence
can result in aggressive, anti-social behavior, and even violent outbursts.
Sex Loses its
Appeal. For years conventional wisdom in Hollywood has been that "sex sells," and the more, the
better. That mantra has been reflected in increasingly frequent and increasingly graphic depictions of
sex on television. But does sex really attract more viewers? In recent years, countless surveys
have shown that not only are parents increasingly concerned about how exposure to sexual content is affecting
their children, but even adults are turned-off by the rampant sex on TV.
This might be a case of over-analysis... The Use of Offensive Language by
Men and Women in Prime Time Television Entertainment. A content analysis examined prime-time
television entertainment programs aired on 7 broadcast networks during the 2001 season. Profanity use
within inter-sex and intra-sex interactions was explored. Swearing occurred most often in man-to-man
interactions, followed by women-to-men. Men and women tended to use mild curse words more when talking
to the opposite sex. Unmarried women more often directed expletives at both men and women; unmarried men
cursed more at other men. Offensive language was most often met by a neutral response; men and women were
equally likely to respond positively and negatively to cursing. Men in feature roles, as compared to
minor roles, used more profanity when speaking to men and women.
The Disappearing Family Hour
Former
'Saturday Night Live' star Victoria Jackson blasts 'Glee'. Comedian Victoria Jackson, who
attended this year's Conservative Political Action Conference, made headlines over the weekend for her
Friday column, "The Muslims Next Door," in which she criticized the television program "Glee" for
continuously promoting a socially liberal lifestyle. ... "Did you see 'Glee' this week?
Sickening!" Jackson, a former "Saturday Night Live" star, wrote.
The Toxic Tube Made Them Do It. A
recent study published in Pediatrics, the journal of the American Pediatric Association, points to a
strong link between [teen-targeted television] and teen pregnancy. ... Dr. Nancy Snyderman noted on
NBC's Today that 80 percent of entertainment programs targeting teens contain sexual themes.
Turn
off, tune out, cancel the cable. There's a brand-new poll out called "American Attitudes on Religion,
Moral Values and Hollywood." Its main findings, according to a press release, are that a majority of Americans
(61 percent) believes that their religious values are "under attack." A similar majority (59 percent)
believes the people who run TV and the movies "do not share the religious and moral values of most Americans."
If that's all I told you about the poll, you might have assumed it was commissioned by Focus on the Family or a
similar Christian "family values" group and that its leadership was feeling validated by the findings. In fact,
its sponsor is the Anti-Defamation League. And as a Jewish defense organization, the ADL is worried.
Americans
feel religious values attacked. A majority of the American people believes that religious values
are "under attack," and that Hollywood does not share the religious and moral values of most Americans, according
to a survey issued Sunday by the Anti-Defamation League (ADL). ... The poll also found that 59% of Americans
agree that "the people who run the TV networks and the major movie studios do not share the religious and
moral values of most Americans."
No cussin' allowed. The federal law known as
the indecency ban proscribes the utterance of "any obscene, indecent or profane language" over the airwaves.
Congress has set the enforcement times between 6 a.m. and 10 p.m., and authorized fines, license revocations
and denials of license renewals as possible punishments for infractions.
Hollywood's
Ridiculous Lawyers. When Justice Stevens asked if there were changes in community standards over
the last 30 years, if society had grown more tolerant of curse words, Carter Phillips, the profanity-favoring
attorney for Fox, proclaimed: "I believe that society is significantly more tolerant of these words today
than it was 30 years ago." Justice Scalia replied: "Do you think your clients have had
anything to do with that?" The answer is, of course, self-evident. There is no greater cultural
influence on impressionable youth than the entertainment industry.
Racy TV shows linked to higher
teenage pregnancy rates. Groundbreaking research suggests that pregnancy rates are much
higher among teens who watch a lot of TV with sexual dialogue and behavior than among those who have
tamer viewing tastes. "Sex and the City" ... was one of the shows used in the research.
The
Frustrated Family Hour. Since 2000-2001, violent content during the family hour has increased
52 percent. Sexual content is up 22 percent. Foul language is down 25 percent
since 2000-2001. But wait. The decrease is almost entirely due to the drop in less objectionable
words…. The major curse words have hardly declined at all, just 3 percent.
The Editor says...
Television (and radio, for that matter) can only provide inexpensive family entertainment in a country where
either (a) the producers of broadcast programs have the self-control and common decency to present only
G-rated shows and (b) the viewing public tolerates only the most benign material. These conditions
have not been met in the U.S. since the 1960's. There is no "Family Hour." Prime-time television,
with rare exceptions, is a cesspool of tawdry and salacious pap that would have been considered "unfit for
broadcast" as recently as the 1970s.
As you might expect, there is offensive language throughout this article. More Than Ever, You Can Say That on
Television. Ever since George Carlin laid out the "Seven Words You Can Never Say on Television" in 1972,
television writers and broadcasters have been digging more deeply into the thesaurus, seizing on new ways to titillate,
if not offend.
Parents
group criticizes heavy sexual content on TV. On a recent episode of the CBS comedy "Two and a Half
Men," it is implied that Jake, the teenage son of Alan's character, is having threesomes with some of his female
classmates. Like everything else in the raunchy sitcom, it is played for laughs and no actual sexual acts
are depicted. Not laughing, though, is the Parents Television Council.
The Coax Straightjacket: Stopping Cable Copy-Protection
Abuse. The Supreme Court "Betamax" decision decades ago established the fair use rights of consumers to
make copies of television programs, and save them on videocassettes. But with the demise of VHS, the newly ascendant
technology is Digital Video Recorders (DVRs), such as the TiVo and its various cruder generic cousins (the latter typically
cable company supplied).
On the other hand... DVR is TV's New BFF. Digital
Video Recorders, once considered a mortal threat by the entertainment industry, have now become its new best
friend. It's just the latest example of how the industry's constant warnings of the dangers of "piracy"
frequently turn out to be baseless hysteria.
TV
commercials can literally be a pain, German experts say. If you have mysterious back pains which
your doctor cannot explain, the cause may be partly due to watching TV commercials about pain-relief medication,
according to findings of a revolutionary new study in Germany. The German researchers said incidence of
back pain among people living behind the Berlin Wall increased dramatically after German unification as East
Germans became inundated by West German commercial television networks.
Wake-up
call to a.m. news: moms tuning out. Several years ago, the 34-year-old mother of three
stopped watching the morning shows. After getting TiVo, she had no patience to sit through multiple
commercial breaks during a live newscast. On top of that, the segments began to seem more and more
frivolous. "Watching morning television for me is the equivalent of reading People magazine in the
dentist's office," said Lauck, who writes for websites from her home in Santa Rosa, Calif. "They don't
have anything new or particularly relevant to my life. It seems like a lot of fluff. I feel like
I can get information faster and cleaner on the Internet."
Reporting from inside the media vacuum.
With industry-wide belt-tightening, news organizations are dispatching fewer reporters to the trail, and
[Mark] Halperin added that "some major candidates, some for whole days, don't have reporters from major news
organizations with them." Predictably, lower-tier candidates have only a handful of reporters with them
at this point.
US
news chiefs warn of evening TV news demise. Paul Slavin, senior vice president
of ABC News Gathering told a House of Lords Select Committee on Communications that while the
network's evening news audience is growing, its audience in the 25-54 demographic is
declining. He stated that if this group continues to turn away from the evening news,
then it is not inconceivable that evening news will disappear across the networks.
Anchor Away:
Katie Couric's ill-fated voyage with CBS. The viewership of nightly national news began to decline more than
two decades ago, before the Internet and before cable news became a big deal. The erosion that has occurred on all
fronts of all the news divisions, beginning in the mid-eighties, when Capital Cities bought ABC and G.E. bought NBC, is well
documented, all the more fastidiously because it not only combines business and human interest but also involves media
people's favorite subject: media people.
Viewcrime: TV
dealers [in Great Britain] are required by law to collect the names and addresses of people who buy
televisions. This info then goes into a giant database. Let me be perfectly clear. This is
mandatory. This is about watching television.
Global Taxes and Global TV Now on the
Agenda. [Scroll down slowly] In addition to global taxes, "The Global Agenda 2009" report
urges creation of a global television channel. ... The report doesn't explain how this new global TV channel
will be financed. But global taxes cannot be ruled out. Perhaps this new era of transparency and
disclosure can start with disclosing details about media sponsorship and backing of the World Economic Forum
and its plans for "global governance."
Interesting
new invention: The advert enforcer. If a new idea from Philips catches on, the company
may not be very popular with TV viewers. The company's labs in Eindhoven, The Netherlands, has been
cooking up a way to stop people changing channels to avoid adverts or fast forwarding through ads they
have recorded along with their target programme.
The Editor says..
My recommendation is to abandon television altogether. It has been rendered obsolete by
the internet (for news) and DVD's (for entertainment). It takes a lot of effort and
imagination to raise children without television. Fortunately, many books have been written,
such as the following:
Alternatives
To TV Handbook: A sweet and practical guide to raising children with little to no TV, with very
workable solutions for children of all ages. Marie McClendon has an MA in Early Childhood Education, and
is a mother of four resourceful children, raised with the methods outlined in this book. 61 pages.
TV-B-Gone:
A small universal remote control for all makes of television sets, with only one
button: POWER OFF.
This comes in handy in waiting rooms and other places where the TV is left on continuously even though
nobody is watching it.
Interesting web site: The Television Project: We help parents understand how
television affects their families and community, and propose alternatives that foster positive emotional,
cognitive, and spiritual development within families and communities.
The Fairness Doctrine
All the material about the Fairness Doctrine has moved
here.
