Quotes about Television

Described the Public Broadcasting System as "an entity designed to create an informed citizenry rather than to deliver consumers to advertisers."

"Jesus was the consummate scientist. He knew the omnipresence of Light which we have expressed in radio, radar and television, but all He could say in His day was: ”I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot bear them now.“

Watching television is like taking black spray paint to your third eye.

Dingoes, jackals, skunks, vipers and weasel are now illegal in New York City. Well great, who's going to run CBS?

A computer terminal is not some clunky old television with a typewriter in front of it. It is an interface where the mind and body can connect with the universe and move bits of it about.

The mood state Americans are in, on average, when watching television is mildly depressed.

Our government has become too responsive to trivial or ephemeral concerns, often at the expense of more important concerns or an erosion of our liberty, and it has made policy priorities more dependent on where TV journalists happen to point their cameras. . . . As a nation we have lost our sense of tragedy, a recognition that bad things happen to good people. A nation that expects the government to prevent churches from burning, to control the price of bread or gasoline, to secure every job, and to find some villain for every dramatic accident, risks an even larger loss of life and liberty.

Radio wasn't outside our lives. It coincided with and helped to shape our childhood and adolescence. As we slogged toward maturity, it also grew up and turned into television, leaving behind, like dead skin, transistorized talk-radio and nonstop music. . . .

What's really important in life? Sitting on a beach? Looking at television eight hours a day? I think we have to appreciate that we're alive for only a limited period of time, and we'll spend most of our lives working. That being the case, I believe one of the most important priorities is to do whatever we do as well as we can. We should take pride in that.

The human race is faced with a cruel choice: work or daytime television.

Young people view an estimated 10,000 violent acts each year. A recent National Television Violence Study examined nearly 10,000 hours of television programming over a three-year period and found that 51 percent contained violence, with children's programming being the most violent. Each year, teenagers view nearly 15,000 sexual references, innuendoes, and jokes of which less than 70 will deal with abstinence, birth control, sexually-transmitted diseases, or pregnancy. The so-called family hour of prime time television (8 to 9 pm) contain eight sexual incidents per hour, more than four times as much as in 1976. Alcohol, tobacco, or illicit drugs are present in 70 percent of prime time network dramatic programs, 38 out of 40 top grossing movies, and half of all music videos. For every "just say no" or "know when to say when" public service announcements, teens will view 25 to 50 beer and wine advertisements. American Academy of Pediatrics, "Article Underscores Media Impact on Children and Adolescents," press release, 5 January 1999.

Young people view an average of 16 to 17 hours of television weekly, beginning as early as age 2. When video games and video cassette movies are added, some teens may be spending as many as 35 to 55 per week. More families own a television than a telephone.

Television brings us the political races, So candidates can show us both of their faces.

The mind is like a TV set - when it goes blank, it's a good idea to turn off the sound.

Cable is not a luxury, since many areas have poor TV reception.

I wish TV had a knob so you could turn up the intelligence. The one marked Brightness doesn't seem to work.

If it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight.

Chocolate is good for three things. Two of 'em cannot be mentioned on public television.

Back [in pre-Revolutionary America] "cruel and unusual punishment" meant the rack and burning at the stake . . . in more recent rulings [it has] been taken to mean the absence of cable television and denial of sex-change operations, or just overcrowding in the prisons.

Quoting Oprah Winfrey, TV personality, regarding the women pioneers: I have crossed over on the backs of Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman and Fannie Lou Hamer and Madame C.J. Walker. Because of them I can now live the dream. I am the seed of the free, and I know it. I intend to bear great fruit.

You sit around watching all this stuff happen on TV. . . and the TV sits and watches us do nothing! The TV must think we're all pretty lame.

Above all, train hard, eat light, and avoid TV and people with negative attitudes.

Television has raised writing to a new low.

Television was the most revolutionary event of the century. Its importance was in a class with the discovery of gunpowder and the invention of the printing press, which changed the human condition for centuries afterward.

ENJOY YOUR LIFE: TURN OFF THE TV The image of America that comes to us in daily news broadcasts is a grim one, problems (real and faked), heartache, dysfunction and hardship. That is simply the nature of television news: crisis after crisis, a drumbeat of constant negativism. Millions upon millions of people in "real" America are enjoying the good things the nation has to offer have come to feel that their positive experiences are somehow the exception. The vast majority enjoy the best country in the history of the world. As an experiment, try going a month without watching any news. Don't watch the evening news, don't watch local news, don't watch political discussions. You will have a much more positive outlook about yourself and about America!

In some cultures, the sight of a woman's nose and mouth are considered irresistibly seductive. In others, the soles of a person's feet are perceived as disgusting beyond comprehension. In mainstream American culture, sex is obscene but violence is television fare for preschoolers. What is acceptable in swimwear is unacceptable in a restaurant. In an elevator we condone contact that would otherwise be actionable incriminal court. Rules of behavior are not absolute; we negotiate them constantly. . . . Immodesty, indecency, obscenity are cultural factors, mutually agreed upon and negotiable. We are enjoined to "cover our nakedness," but there's considerable disagreement about what our nakedness is. Our noses and mouths? The bottoms of our feet? A lack of trust or mutual respect?

[Alan Berg's] memory haunts many people, even those who never heard him on the radio, because his death could be read as a message: Be cautious, be prudent, be bland, never push anybody, never say what you really think, offer yourself as a hostage to the weirdos even before they make the first move. These days, a lot of people are opposed to the newfound popularity of 'trash television,' and no doubt they are right, and the hosts of these shows are shameless controversy-mongers. But at least they are not intimidated. Of what use is freedom of speech to those who fear to offend?

It is true that we have not deliberately or wholly abandoned the Christian element in our tradition, but does that element count with us as it once did? Is the moral tone of the nation - its politics, its business life, its literature, its theatre, its movies, its radio networks, its television stations - Christian?

Criticizing TV is second only to watching TV as an American pastime.

Moral passion without entertainment is propaganda, and entertainment without moral passion is television.