GBH Openvault
Press And The People, The: An Inquiry Into The Work Of The American Press In Informing The American People; Television News Commentator, The
Part of Press and the People.
01/24/1959
Louis Lyons moderates a discussion between Eric Sevareid, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News; Martin Agronsky, Commentator, NBC News. _-_ _-_ Quote from Eric Sevareid The bigger our information media, the less courage and freedom of expression they allow. Bigness means weakness. _-_ _-_ Quote from Martin Agronsky The special story, the report in depth, becomes more and more difficult to keep on the air because of the tremendous rising costs of TV production. _-_ _-_ They discuss the state of television broadcasting in America in the late 1950s - networks are more likely to fund the types of programs that are cheaper to produce, and are less likely to produce content with controversial topics because of regional sensitivities and sponsor concerns; networks are guided entirely by return on investment; the effect of politicians bringing pressure to bear on sponsors to limit and hamper broadcast of material; the differences between radio, television and newspaper coverage of events.
License Clip
More material may be available from this program at the GBH Archives. If you would like research access to the collection at GBH, please email archive_requests@wgbh.org.
- Series
- Press And The People, The: An Inquiry Into The Work Of The American Press In Informing The American People
- Program
- Television News Commentator, The
- Program Number
7
- Series Description
Louis Lyons hosts this series of programs that discuss the problems and performance of the American Press in reporting leading questions of the day. Series release date: 1958
- Program Description
Louis Lyons moderates a discussion between Eric Sevareid, Chief Washington Correspondent, CBS News; Martin Agronsky, Commentator, NBC News.
Quote from Eric Sevareid “The bigger our information media, the less courage and freedom of expression they allow. Bigness means weakness”.
Quote from Martin Agronsky “The special story, the report in depth, becomes more and more difficult to keep on the air because of the tremendous rising costs of TV production”.
They discuss the state of television broadcasting in America in the late 1950’s - networks are more likely to fund the types of programs that are cheaper to produce, and are less likely to produce content with controversial topics because of regional sensitivities and sponsor concerns; networks are guided entirely by return on investment; the effect of politicians bringing pressure to bear on sponsors to limit and hamper broadcast of material; the differences between radio, television and newspaper coverage of events.
Keywords: Television broadcasting Media and society History Journalism American society and culture Television broadcasting of news
Subject heading: Historical television programs
Proper names: Lyons, Louis Martin, 1897- Sevareid, Eric, 1912-1992 Agronsky, Martin Lyford, Joseph Brydon, Loyd
- Asset Type
Broadcast program
- Media Type
Video
- Subjects
- American society and culture
- Journalism
- Historical television programs
- Television broadcasting
- Media and society
- Television broadcasting of news
- History
- Locations
- Boston, MA
- Genres
- Talk Show
- Topics
- Public Affairs
- Contributors
- Lyford, Joseph (Producer)
- Lyons, Louis Martin, 1897- (Presenter)
- Brydon, Loyd (Director)
- Sevareid, Eric, 1912-1992 (Guest)
- Agronsky, Martin (Guest)
- Citation
- Chicago: “Press And The People, The: An Inquiry Into The Work Of The American Press In Informing The American People; Television News Commentator, The,” 01/24/1959, GBH Archives, accessed October 14, 2024, http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_2813BB34FCEA48DAA6A8BF2EDEF7707D.
- MLA: “Press And The People, The: An Inquiry Into The Work Of The American Press In Informing The American People; Television News Commentator, The.” 01/24/1959. GBH Archives. Web. October 14, 2024. <http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_2813BB34FCEA48DAA6A8BF2EDEF7707D>.
- APA: Press And The People, The: An Inquiry Into The Work Of The American Press In Informing The American People; Television News Commentator, The. Boston, MA: GBH Archives. Retrieved from http://openvault.wgbh.org/catalog/V_2813BB34FCEA48DAA6A8BF2EDEF7707D