Brian Eshleman’s Reviews > The Columbia History of American Television > Status Update

"Even today, CNN employees are not permitted to use the word 'foreign' to describe international viewers, guests, or issues."

The American Church could use some of that outlook and discipline.

Apparently Pres. Kennedy didn't miss much with the blistering pace he maintained in buzzing through newspapers. An ad he saw for Volkswagen urging consumers to "Think small," prompted the president to reach out to the company behind it for help with his ads.

Pres. Kennedy was so professionally engaged in how he came across on the medium that, when the lighting of the press conference gave him the appearance of a double chin, he actually asked a reporter to sit in his place while he looked through the camera, then actually accepted an invitation to go into the production truck to view the impact while technicians adjusted various lights.

"An enormous number of people had bought TV sets just to watch the (1952 presidential nominating) conventions."

The primary advertising spokesperson at the time, reflecting back on the influence of politics and the media on each other.

Almost round-the-clock coverage from the Friday after JFK's assassination through Monday cost the networks nearly $100 million in lost ad revenue, but The Columbia History of American Television points out that the gesture increased the medium's credibility and centrality in American life.

"Television specializes in odd juxtapositions."

Columbia History of American Television, particularly drawing from the example of the highbrow Charles Van Doren with the seemingly lowbrow environment of the game show

"The key to television drama is intimacy."

The Columbia History of Television paraphrasing the perception of Rod Sterling, who knew that prioritizing facial close-ups meant more on the small screen.

Newsweek described putting Elvis Presley in a tuxedo to serenade a real hound dog in order to somehow fit them into the sedate, dying variety show format and subdue his sex appeal as "trying to embalm a firecracker."

"By 1955, the (US) birth rate was 30 percent higher than during the depths of the Depression."

I'm not sure what difference I expected, but it wasn't that vast.

"Biography matters. Personal agency can be underestimated, just as easily as it can be overestimated."