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Letter: The 'vast wasteland' has not faded away

IslandPacket newsroom@islandpacket.com
Hilton Head IslandA wonderful recent article by Wall Street Journal critic Terry Teachout spoke about Leonard Bernstein's "Young People's Concerts" that aired on CBS from 1958 to 1972. Essentially one-man shows -- Mr. Bernstein wrote the scripts, selected the pieces and guest artists, narrated, conducted and performed -- many of the programs were pitted against popular TV dramas and got decent Nielsen ratings. All 53 episodes have been uploaded to YouTube and are fabulous.

According to Teachout, in May 1961 the FCC's powerful chairman Newton Minow gave a speech called "Television and the Public Interest" in which he proclaimed TV "a vast wasteland of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, Western bad men and good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. ... Is there no room on television to teach, to inform, to uplift, to stretch, to enlarge the capacities of our children?"

In the 55 intervening years, it seems that, except for PBS, we have made little room to teach, inform, uplift, stretch or enlarge the capacities of anyone.

He concluded with a quote from Edward R. Murrow: "This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it's nothing but wires and lights in a box."

Food for thought.

Mary Woodmansee Green

This story was originally published February 6, 2016 at 9:56 PM with the headline "Letter: The 'vast wasteland' has not faded away ."

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