Television and Politics
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The media in the time of the writing of the Constitution was a much smaller and more timid institution. Today, the media has become dominated by the electronic media, and especially by television, which has become powerful in ways not envisioned by the Founding Fathers. Television has become the conduit of choice for political candidates, and this has altered the style of the political debate, leading to the sound-bites and attack ads that have been so criticized in recent years. Television did not set out to shape the political debate and did not intend to cheapen that debate as seems to have occurred. It might be argued that the media lacks power because it does not seem to be in control of the capabilities it wields, but those capabilities are themselves considerable and have had a massive influence on how Americans conduct themselves in elections and between elections. Political parties are something of a problem in any analysis of the American political system because in a way the parties have been grafted onto the underlying political structure. Political parties are not mentioned at all in the Constitution and may not have been intended at all by the Founding Fathers. They did institute constitutional constraints and institutional reforms that have produced a weak party system in the United States. Political parties are already subject to a form of direct democracy as candidates are hired and fired by the constituent and not by the national party.
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ency that year, and a debate on that scale would be impossible. Congress yielded to reality and permitted television debates between the two major candidates alone. This first televised debate defined the way debates would serve the interests of the candidates thereafter and would also indicate what elements appealed most to the public, making image more important than ever and substance less vital:
. . . in the image-issue junction of the debates, Kennedy won. He had been portrayed by the Republicans as a rich, callow, inexperienced youth. . . He was, on the platform, easily the equal in maturity, wisdom, and presence of Vice-President Nixon. Kennedy had won the debates, if not on issue points, on personality.
Immediately after these debates, however, Section 315 was put back in force, and it would be 16 years before there would be another televised debate. Presidents Johnson and Nixon could refuse to debate on the ground that the law would not sanction individual encounters, but a way around the law was found by making the debates not a television show but a news event which the television networks could decide to cover. There was no law restraining any citizens group from inviting candidates to debate. The Benton Foun
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Some common words found in the essay are:
United Political, CNN Headline, Fathers Television, Herman Chomsky, Act Section, Nixon Nixon, Manufacturing Consent, Women Voters, Kennedy Nixon, Noam Chomsky, political parties, mass media, television television, political campaigns, nixon kennedy, manufacturing consent, televised debate, public opinion, noam chomsky, leaders media,
Approximate Word count = 1934
Approximate Pages = 8 (250 words per page)
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