Radio age research, manufacturing, communications, broadcasting, television (1941)

system has been built on the principle of providing a source of entertainment and information without charge to the public. The provision of this service is costly and we have had to work out new and ingenious sales devices in order to take in the money to support it, and to insure to the public programs of high quality and wide variety. These efforts to protect the public's stake in our free system of broadcasting must not and will never cease. Values of Television All of these technical and economic problems can and will be solved. We have in television a medium whose impact on people and influence on our society will be unparalleled in the history of communications. The fundamental question we must face is how we can best direct this power so that it will reach its full potential as a social force for good in America. I believe broadcasters have accepted this challenge and are learning step by step how to meet it. I do not mean to pretend that we have found complete answers to all of the questions presented by the growth of an industry so young, so strong, so alive, and so dynamic. But one thing is certain: Television is not simply a living room toy which offers amusement to people when they do not want to go out. Television is a medium of complete and instantaneous communication for the whole population. All of us who have been trained in the discipline of the law have had drilled into us, ever since we started to study, the importance of the facts. We have learned, by study and experience, the rule that the facts come first, and when the facts are established, the judgments and interpretations can follow. 'Television should be a free ticket of admission to oil Americans, wherever a single spectator is permitted." Television presents the facts. It presents them with complete accuracy, without exaggeration, without re- striction, without prejudice, without personal views, and with complete impartiality. This is not done by words which reflect someone else's eyes, someone else's ears, someone else's opinion, someone else's impres- sions, perhaps someone else's background. In television, nothing stands between the event and the viewer. It is the instrument of reality, putting the people in touch with the real world. Those of us who have regularly experienced tele- vision can see its effects in our own homes. My children are learning science from such programs as "Zoo Parade," "The Nature of Things," and "Mr. Wizard" —• and they are enjoying the process. They ate seeing American history dramatized. They watched the signing of the Japanese peace treaty in San Francisco. They are becoming familiar with grand opera through television. They have seen Toscanini conduct the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and they have witnessed one of the great musical events of the year — "Amahl and the Night Visitors" — an opera about the Nativity, especially commissioned by NBC for television. They have watched the World Series from their living room, and they have sat in on the Notth Carolina- Notre Dame football game. They have seen the political candidates and the leaders of our country. They have heard great poetry and seen great dramas enacted. They have watched current issues and events unfold on the screen — from General MacArthur's re- turn, to the explosion of an atomic bomb at Yucca Flats. They have seen Milton Berle and Bob Hope and Red Skelton and Sid Caesar and Jimmy Durante and Howdy Doody. Every week, they have at their finger- tips entertainment which kings could not command even twenty years ago. At times, they have also seen the pursuit of crimi- nals, lady wrestlers, roller derbies, and other things that are as real a part of our life as the political conventions and the World Series. Today, television is bringing to our children in- formation and culture and the great entertainment our own country can offer. Tomorrow, they will iiave a window on the whole world. They will see the great cathedrals of Europe — in color — and the paintings in the museums overseas. They will become familiar with London, Paris, and Rome — and maybe some day with Moscow. They will know the statesmen, the people, and the customs of other countries — because they will have seen them. 10 RADIO AGE