Saturday, March 8, 2008

TV Has Desensitized The World

“For the greatest promise betrayed, TV has desensitized the world to violence; reduced political discourse to sound bites; fostered short attention spans, sedentary lifestyles and crass materialism; and demeaned women and fathers.” –Bob Altman

1 comment:

silver dollar said...

Although I totally agree with Mr. Altman's conclusion, I disagree with his focus.
The majority of broadcast TV is owned by corporations. Those corporations, for the most part, are concerned only with generating income and profit. They derive that profit from sponsors who, also for the most part, care only about ratings. Since ratings are determined by the number of viewers, it is the audience that determines which TV shows are aired. You need only compare the number of viewers of PBS TV to commercial TV. In a free society, we get the TV shows we want to see. Mr. Altman is shooting the messenger. TV hasn't betrayed it's promise. It's quite the opposite. Our society has re-focused and turned its back on that promise.