○  spiro theodore agnew: television news coverage  ○

40 million americans receive each night is determined by a handful of men responsible only to their corporate employers and is filtered through a handful of commentators who admit to their own set of biases.

the question i’m raising here tonight should have been raised by others long ago. they should have been raised by those americans who have traditionally considered the preservation of freedom of speech and freedom of the press their special provinces of responsibility. they should have been raised by those americans who share the view of the late justice learned hand that right conclusions are more likely to be gathered out of a multitude of tongues than through any kind of authoritative selection. advocates for the networks have claimed a first amendment right to the same unlimited freedoms held by the great newspapers of america.

but the situations are not identical. where the new york times reaches 800,000 people, n.b.c. reaches 20 times that number on its evening news. [the average weekday circulation of the times in october was 1,012,367; the average sunday circulation was 1,523,558.] nor can the tremendous impact of seeing television film and hearing commentary be compared with reading the printed page.

a decade ago, before the network news acquired such dominance over public opinion, walter lippman spoke to the issue. he said there’s an essential and radical difference between television and printing. the three or four competing television stations control virtually all that can be received over the air by ordinary television sets. but besides the mass circulation dailies, there are weeklies, monthlies, out-of-town newspapers and books. if a man doesn’t like his newspaper, he can read another from out of town or wait for a weekly news magazine. it’s not ideal, but it’s infinitely better than the situation in television.

there, if a man doesn’t like what the networks are showing, all he can do is turn them off and listen to a phono

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