Which has been worse for America - cable TV or the Internet?

The Something Awful Forums > Main > General Bullshit > Which has been worse for America - cable TV or the Internet?

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

Personally, while the Internet has clearly done terrible things to this country (e.g., millennials), I think that cable TV is what really nosedived the country into a cultural dumpster fire. Every once in a while I call up the "Vast Wasteland" speech and just shake my drat head at how unfortunately prescient it was.

quote:

This is an edited version of Newton Minow's speech to the National Association of Broadcasters on May 9, 1961:

Thank you for this opportunity to meet with you today. This is my first public address since I took over my new job. It may also come as a surprise to some of you, but I want you to know that you have my admiration and respect.

I admire your courage--but that doesn't mean I would make life any easier for you. Your license lets you use the public's airwaves as trustees for 180 million Americans. The public is your beneficiary. If you want to stay on as trustees, you must deliver a decent return to the public--not only to your stockholders. So, as a representative of the public, your health and your product are among my chief concerns.

I have confidence in your health. But not in your product. I am here to uphold and protect the public interest. What do we mean by "the public interest?" Some say the public interest is merely what interests the public. I disagree.

When television is good, nothing--not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers--nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you--and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, violence, audience-participation shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western badmen, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence and cartoons. And, endlessly, commercials--many screaming, cajoling and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you will see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, try it.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Television_and_the_Public_Interest

I think reality TV and corporate news media have done more damage than the Internet has, although of course the Internet is also terrible. Where does nuGBS fall on the question of which has been more responsible for the sad state of current affairs?

Full disclosure: I do own a TV, but do not have cable.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 21:34

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# ? May 13, 2024 14:22

Mumpy Puffinz: Aug 11, 2008; Can't post for 13 hours!; Nap Ghost

CaptainSarcastic posted:

Full disclosure: I do own a TV, but do not have cable.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 21:55

Decebal: Jan 6, 2010

Nah, Internet is way worse. The 80's and 90's look really good by comparison now

# ? Oct 1, 2016 21:55

CaptainSarcastic: Jul 6, 2013

Mumpy Puffinz posted:

Netflix.

Decebal posted:

Nah, Internet is way worse. The 80's and 90's look really good by comparison now

But it was a false promise. Yeah, there was a narrow window of time when channels like Discovery and TLC actually served a positive purpose, but it didn't last long and when they turned bad they turned real bad.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:02

FactsAreUseless: Feb 16, 2011

Well, then, those who think they can leave written instructions for an art, as well as those who accept them, thinking that writing can yield results that are clear or certain, must be quite naive and truly ignorant of [Thamos�] prophetic judgment: otherwise, how could they possibly think that words that have been written down can do more than remind those who already know what the writing is about? You know, Phaedrus, writing shares a strange feature with painting. The offsprings of painting stand there as if they are alive, but if anyone asks them anything, they remain most solemnly silent. The same is true of written words. You�d think they were speaking as if they had some understanding, but if you question anything that has been said because you want to learn more, it continues to signify just that very same thing forever. When it has once been written down, every discourse roams about everywhere, reaching indiscriminately those with understanding no less than those who have no business with it, and it doesn�t know to whom it should speak and to whom it should not. And when it is faulted and attacked unfairly, it always needs its father�s support; alone, it can neither defend itself nor come to its own support.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:03

Ein cooler Typ: Nov 26, 2013; by FactsAreUseless

the internet because it creates racist hate speech like pepe

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:05

Decebal: Jan 6, 2010

Internet should have stayed a nerd only thing. Apple really hosed us over

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:07

GoonGPT: May 26, 2006; Posting for a better future, today!

Talk radio

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:08

redm: Feb 20, 2016; Sugartime Jones

reality tv removed all need for thought about television programming by giving producers the impression they could adlib plots and fart out a seasons worth of glowtube food in the same amount of time it would take a studio to write a 20 minute sitcom script. I don't think the internet is really bad, it only makes people brain dead if they ignore current events being broadcast. I get most of my information from the radio because I haven't been able to stand how over the top the news networks on tv have become since college.

The Virginia tech shooting happened and there was this giant obnoxious bumper on CNN that sailed across the screen trumpeting in a celebratory manner with WORLDS DEADLIEST SCHOOL SHOOTING and a couple days later, Anna Nicole Smith died and the coverage on that lasted 6 months so I gave up caring.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:08

Stexils: Jun 5, 2008

its all been downhill since cave paintings

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:08

gimme the GOD DAMN candy: Jul 1, 2007

i think that the worst thing that ever happened to america was the existence of humans. humans need to be wiped from the face of the earth. if they can leave for some other planet that's fine too, but they need to get the gently caress out of here.

# ? Oct 1, 2016 22:09

Mumpy Puffinz: Aug 11, 2008; Can't post for 13 hours!; Nap Ghost