. . . Americans Are

Our Politics, Religion, News, Athletics, Education And Commerce Have Been Transformed Into Congenial Adjuncts Of Show Business, Largely Without Protest Or Even Much Popular Notice. The Result Is That We Are A People On The Verge Of Amusing Ourselves To Death.

Americans No Longer Talk To Each Other, They Entertain Each Other. They Do Not Exchange Ideas, They Exchange Images. They Do Not Argue With Propositions; They Argue With Good Looks, Celebrities And Comercials.

I Do Not Mean To Imply That Television News Deliberately Aims To Deprive Americans Of A Coherent, Contextual Understanding Of Their World. I Mean To Say That When News Is Packaged As Entertainment, That Is The Inevitable Result. And In Saying That The Television News Show Entertains But Does Not Inform, I Am Saying Something Far More Serious Than That We Are Being Deprived Of Authentic Information. I Am Saying We Are Losing Our Sense Of What It Means To Be Well Informed.

The Whole Problem With News On Television Comes Down To This: All The Words Uttered In An Hour Of News Coverage Could Be Printed On A Page Of A Newspaper. And The World Cannot Be Understood In One Page.

I Am Not A Luddite. I Am Suspicious Of Technology. I Am Perfectly Aware Of Its Benefits, But I Also Try To Pay Attention To Some Of The Negative Effects.