Extra Credit--Counts as TWO Blog Posts:
View one of the following films: Quiz Show (1994) OR Good Night, and Good Luck (2005). Both are available at Askwith Media Center or on reserve at the Donald Hall Collection.
Keeping in mind that both of these films offer fictionalized renderings of historical circumstances, write a minimum of 400 words explaining how either the quiz show scandals (as depicted by Quiz Show) or Edward R. Murrow’s exposé of McCarthyism (as portrayed in Good Night, and Good Luck) had political results during the 1950s and shifted ideas about the medium of television and its specific genres (quiz shows or news programs).
In Good Night, and Good Luck, the character Edward R. Murrow tries to criticize and expose the Wisconsin senator Joseph McCarthy, his practices of McCarthyism, and his making false or over exaggerated claims about people being involved with the communist party without any evidence. In the film, a famous television broadcast called “A Report on Senator Joseph McCarthy,” is made by Murrow. Murrow uses passages from McCarthy’s own speeches to criticize him and try to make the public aware of the absurdity of his accusations. A resounding quote from the broadcast is, “It is necessary to investigate before you legislate but the line between investigating and persecuting is a fine one and the junior Senator from Wisconsin has stepped over it many times.” This quote and the rest Murrow’s broadcast, in the film and in real life, caused an uproar and contributed to a nationwide backlash against Joseph McCarthy. This event can be seen as a major turning point in the history of television. The positive response that Murrow received from other broadcast stations and from the public helped to restore some of the faith in media that was lost during the war.
ReplyDeleteDuring World War II propaganda was used to increase support for the war and the media played an extensive role in the portrayal of it to the American public. The media is supposed to be watchdogs and report the truth to the public about what is happening in the war and with other important topics. When the government started influencing and censuring the media to promote patriotism and reduce the grotesque images, the public was not getting the truth about what was going on in the world and the media was not accomplishing their duties.
Once Murrow came on the air and truly defended the citizens of America and made it known that it was not proper for McCarthy to make unfair accusations and investigative techniques about communism when he did not have legitimate evidence, the public turned against the senator. Another result of the broadcast and response from the public was the investigation of McCarthy and his practices.
Edward R. Murrow helped change television history when he gave his national broadcast criticizing Senator McCarthy. Not only did he help restore some faith into the news media that was lost during the war, he helped “free” the American public from McCarthy’s bullying. Although the media today still partakes in some forms of propaganda, I believe that Murrow’s broadcast gives the media some courage to speak out and be the watchdogs that they are supposed to be all while they investigate what they are being told to announce to the public.
Also a side note: I thought it was really interesting to hear at the end of the film when Ed Murrow tells George Clooney’s character, Fred, that the most trusted man in the world is Milton Berle. This shows me that the American public trusted figures like Milton Berle in entertainment media more than they trusted politicians and people in news media during this period of time.
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ReplyDeleteThe scandalous events surrounding Twenty-One in the 1950’s gave a cold exposition that distinguished the essential from negligible organs of the television institution in the United States. It came apparent to me as I watched that the specific structure of the game show itself, lacking the stability and consistence of a cast of actors, allows more than any other program for the parasitic nature of the studio system. The game show, as anyone would argue, lacks order. The outcome of any day’s episode could reveal substantial gain or crippling loss. It’s the epitome of the capitalist rollercoaster, displaced from the risk of everyday commerce. It’s the romanticized dance of money and chaos, evoking the Viva las Vegas frontiersman in each American. Playing for money makes capitalism a game, because games are fair, it’s nature.
ReplyDeleteHowever, looking at the winners of the film: Van Doren, NBC, and its sponsors, it became clear to me that the quiz show and capitalism are not games – they are institutions of chaos that evoke the propensity to idolize. Everyone in the capitalist system wants it to pay out. The reality of this, granting each and every individual’s wish, would look more like socialism than anything else. But that’s not what people want; they want to be the special one. This is why monopolies and economic propheticism exist. Instead of giving everyone umbrellas for the sun we built one monolith for people to seek shade in. Big networks allow for expensive and exciting entertainment. Big business sponsors this entertainment and allows for cheap and readily available products. Big game show winners accentuate this excitement and embody the “magic” of capitalism. But there is no magic, just sorcery. People need to see success that they can’t attain so that they’ll keep trying their luck as a romantic. This can be seen in the people’s preference of Van Doren over Herbie Stemple. The masses crave perfect heroes amidst the entropy of capitalism. Even a Jewish underdog isn’t good enough – it has to be the, so painfully often privileged, white, wealthy, academic, mathematically predicted archetype of a victor – whom everyone knows if given the variable opportunity will allow idyllic glory to glow for the people brighter than any other candidate. An unjust system is inherently benefactor to a certain group; therefore the logic goes that the privileged group possesses the greatest number of enviable qualities. Such privilege differential is susceptible to being manipulated into qualities of heroism.
After Twenty-One, the practices of quiz show changed. Programs such as Queen for Day did not make any attempts to idolize. In fact, in rewarded the severeness of the contestants’ sorrows. It faced the chaos of the world head-on, and explored the “magic” of capitalism in a much more beneficiary sense.
I do feel, though, that the absence of justice in the Van Doren trial must have allowed for the continued dishonest of television networks, which is still an issue today. It was made very clear in the film Quiz Show that the important organs of television are the network and the sponsors. The more money being made, the more is circulated and, “people wanna watch the money.”
The film Quiz Show illustrates the controversy surrounding the popular television show Twenty One. Though in today’s world it is public knowledge that reality television is not exactly “reality,” in the 1950’s that was simply not the case. The American public looked up to the contestants on the quiz shows as prominent role models who were able to use knowledge to become rich and famous. The popular late 1950s quiz shows burred together the concepts of entertainment, politics, and capitalism.
ReplyDeleteAt the end of the day television is a business. The goal of the business is to increase ratings in order to make money. In the film Quiz Show, after pressure from the network and sponsors to boost the television show’s ratings, the studio producer Dan Enright decides to rig the quiz show. Completely in the dark to the budding manipulation television has on it’s audience, the American public hangs on to their seats as they continue to fall for the tricks of the television production.
In today’s society, one would never imagine Congress getting involved in an issue like the quiz show scandals. Though in the late 1950s television was still a new and potentially dangerous concept. The medium of television is extremely powerful for the mere fact that it possesses the capability to influence a majority of the general public. In the film, the hearings before the House Committee for Legislative Oversight, although did not result in the ultimate take down of the network and Geritol as Goodwin hoped for, it concluded in a much-needed awakening for the American People. It opened the public’s eye that television can be deceitful. Also that viewers should more weary of the line between what is the truth and what is a façade put on for the sake of entertainment.
The quiz show scandals as depicted in the film Quiz Show let the network and sponsor off without a scratch. The inability to convict the companies at large, allows the potential for television to continue to manipulate the general public. Though the scandals did change the fate of quiz shows for the future. After the scandals, quiz shows took a huge hit and most networks chose to cancel the productions. In society today, the public is genuinely aware of the concept that television is an industry that relies on various techniques, including manipulating the viewers, to succeed as a business.
The fictional rendition of the quiz show scandals in the 1950s called Quiz Show follows the illegitimacy surrounding the early 1950s new medium of television broadcasting. Early television was, for the most part, unregulated except in terms of advertising, fair competition, and labeling of broadcast stations (The Federal Communications Act of 1934). This negligence was due to the rapid growing medium of Television.
ReplyDeleteQuiz Show follows Herb Stempel as he goes on a winning streak on the quiz show Twenty One all the while being coached by the show’s producer Dan Enright. As the show’s ratings levelled off and fell behind popular quiz shows, the producers resorted to seek a new face that can be the embodiment of the show. Enright found his talent in an English professor at the prestigious Columbia University in New York. Charles Van Doran, coached by producer Enright, took over Stempel’s reigns and boosted the show’s ratings. Stempel’s lack of air time lead to bitterness and an eventual leak about the scandalous nature of quiz shows.
After recovering indisputable evidence from Twenty One as well as other quiz shows, testimonies about the manipulative nature of supposedly fair quiz shows came to fluorishion. Television, as a new form of entertainment, was not viewed as a medium for exploitation, manipulation, and deceit. The act of rigging quiz shows was viewed as “terrible thing to do to the American people”. This lead to skepticism in television shows and caused several networks to shift their lineup.
The dangers of game show rigging became apparent in the way the executives of the show Twenty One have dealt with the situation. As matters took a turn for the worst with the onslaught of confession, the producers tried to cover up the situation (even without having initial influence on scandal). Although the act of deceiving the audience might have been legal, the very act of covering up the evidence lead to persecution.
This wronging of the American people has lead to damaged reputations and a more corrupt America. Van Doran, the face of corruption, lost his stable job as a professor and revenue from The Today Show. He is forced to work a 9-5 until his retirement. This lead to more network control over programs.
All in all, with the advancement in technology television as a medium became popular faster than it can be regulated. Producers have seen a way to deceive the American people for personal gain and forced the government to take action.