The Tube Is Flickering Now

Edward R. Murrow's speech to the Radio and Television News Directors Association in 1958 conveyed a simple yet haunting message. At the time, the television was rapidly evolving from a new and unpredictable piece of technology into a beacon with connections into the lives of millions and the potential to impact those millions through the programming it displayed. Yet television, Murrow believed, was at the risk of becoming nothing more than a source of light-hearted entertainment devoid of honest and in-depth journalism--the type of journalism he sought to embody on CBS' See It Now while fighting Sen. McCarthy's anti-communist stance. In Murrow's eyes, television programming was dictated not by intellectuals striving to improve the public but rather by advertisers seeking to reach as many potential clients as possible, and programming was suffering as a result. His speech at the RTNDA conveyed this analysis and the fear that we as Americans were "currently wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent. We have currently a built-in allergy to unpleasant or disturbing information. Our mass media reflect this." He expressed his concern that the images broadcast across the airwaves had become so diluted and monetized that their message was being lost in the quest; instead of news being broadcast brightly across Farnsworth's cathode ray tubes, the information--like the vessel it appeared on--was beginning to flicker and dim. For Murrow, "the tube [was] flickering."

The tube is flickering now.

We live in an era of twenty-four-seven news coverage. At any point, we can turn on CNN, Fox, MSNBC, or any one of the many full day news networks that seek to provide as much watchable content over the course of the day as possible; networks stretch shows--reairing them with frequency to fill hours without programming--and wrap snippets of questionable reporting around increasingly frequent, increasingly loud advertisements. These networks all more or less have the same source stories to work with, so they persist in a constant struggle to become the most watched by the public. This, after all, leads to higher ad revenue and the ultimate goal of private television: higher profits. As a result, Murrow's great fear of broadcast news--that the public would be so "complacent, indifferent and insulated" that they would reject knowledgable programming for entertaining shows--has become increasingly valid.

Television, Murrow believed, could "teach, it can illuminate; yes, and it can even inspire." I believe this is true. I also believe that this sentiment holds true for radio, newspaper, and internet publications that seek to provide legitimate intellectual information to the public. But I also believe that these same sources for potential good are at risk of drowning themselves in a sea of misinformation and entertainment news. Today's internet has joined modern television on the precipice upon which Murrow's era of programming once stood.

Yet, I believe there is hope for modern news. I believe that there are journalists--on television, at newspapers, on the internet--that still seek to embody the intellectual realism that Murrow sought to encourage at the RTNDA gathering fifty-three years ago. I see what Murrow saw when he claimed there was "considerable evidence" against the idea that society is completely "wealthy, fat, comfortable and complacent." Modern media has evolved and has taken many steps in the direction Murrow sought to discourage, a direction controlled by advertisers, fearmongerers, and hyper-partisans. Considerable Evidence seeks to join those sources that strive to step away from this path and instead begin charting a new course for public information, a course dedicated to intellectualism, professionalism, and journalistic integrity. The tube Murrow spoke of has changed. The flickering he warned of has not. We have the opportunity to bring back clarity and illumination to the news. But, in the words of Edward R. Murrow, this will only occur "to the extent that humans are willing to use [media] to those ends."

The tube is flickering now.