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TIME: Almanac of the 20th Century
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<text>
<title>
(1950s) Television & Radio:Opiate of the People
</title>
<history>Time-The Weekly Magazine-1950s Highlights</history>
<article>
<source>Time Magazine</source>
<hdr>
TIME Magazine
July 15, 1957
Television & Radio: "Opiate of the People"
</hdr>
<body>
<p> What is wrong with TV? In an interview last week in the trade
monthly, Television, TV's topflight Edward R. Murrow sounded off
on the question with the kind of gloves-off candor that the
industry resents from outsiders.
</p>
<p> "It might be helpful," said Murrow, "if those who control
television and radio would sit still for a bit and attempt to
discover what it is they care about. If television and radio are
to be used to entertain all of the people all of the time, then we
have come perilously close to discovering the real opiate of the
people.
</p>
<p> "If you sit and talk with executives of big corporations, you
find that as individuals they care about a hell of a lot of things
that are never reflected in the programs they sponsor. There is
often a complete divorcement between the individual and his
corporate personality. I'm not saying that his primary job is to
educate, but the sponsor cannot escape his responsibility...for contributing to the level of taste."
</p>
<p> In hewing to the line of mass appeal, argued Murrow, sponsors
and broadcasters are lowering the prestige of TV to the point where
the viewer is taking it less seriously--and its commercial
credibility has begin to suffer. He added: "Perhaps programming has
got to get better. It must be done with more imagination, and
achieve greater appeal...I don't believe that television has
even begun to tap the possibilities that lie in the field of
reality."
</p>
<p> One way for TV to build its vitality and prestige, said
Murrow, is for the networks and stations to use their neglected
right to editorialize. Last week, in a speech at the National Press
Club in Washington, Murrow's boss, CBS President Frank Stanton,
also upheld the right of broadcasters to editorialize, but
stressed how thorny a right it is. TV, complained Stanton, lacks
the tradition and experience of the press in editorializing;
moreover; "it would be most difficult [for networks] to take
editorial positions acceptable to all our affiliated stations."
Commentator Murrow had a more succinct explanation for the failure
of broadcasters to editorialize. Said he: "They have no guts."
</p>
</body>
</article>
</text>