1、美国历史上最经典演讲Television and the Public InterestNewton N. MinowTelevision and the Public Interestdelivered 9 May 1961, National Association of Broadcasters, Washington, DCGovernor Collins, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen. Governor Collins youre much too kind, as all of you have been to me the
2、 last few days. Its been a great pleasure and an honor for me to meet so many of you. And I want to thank you for this opportunity to meet with you today.As you know, this is my first public address since I took over my new job. When the New Frontiersmen rode into town, I locked myself in my office
3、to do my homework and get my feet wet. But apparently I havent managed yet to stay out of hot water. I seem to have detected a very nervous apprehension about what I might say or do when I emerged from that locked office for this, my maiden station break.So first let me begin by dispelling a rumor.
4、I was not picked for this job because I regard myself as the fastest draw on the New Frontier. Second, let me start a rumor. Like you, I have carefully read President Kennedys messages about the regulatory agencies, conflict of interest, and the dangers of ex parte contacts. And, of course, we at th
5、e Federal Communications Commission will do our part. Indeed, I may even suggest that we change the name of the FCC to The Seven Untouchables.It may also come as a surprise to some of you, but I want you to know that you have my admiration and my respect. Yours is a most honorable profession. Anyone
6、 who is in the broadcasting business has a tough row to hoe. You earn your bread by using public property. When you work in broadcasting you volunteer for public service, public pressure, and public regulation. You must compete with other attractions and other investments, and the only way you can d
7、o it is to prove to us every three years that you should have been in business in the first place.I can think of easier ways to make a living.But I cannot think of more satisfying ways.I admire your courage - but that doesnt mean that I would make life any easier for you. Your license lets you use t
8、he publics airwaves as trustees for 180 million Americans. The public is your beneficiary. If you want to stay on as trustees, you must deliver a decent return to the public - not only to your stockholders. So, as a representative of the public, your health and your product are among my chief concer
9、ns.Now as to your health, lets talk only of television today. 1960 gross broadcast revenues of the television industry were over 1,268,000,000 dollars. Profit before taxes was 243,900,000 dollars, an average return on revenue of 19.2 per cent. Compare these with 1959, when gross broadcast revenues w
10、ere 1,163,900,000 dollars, and profit before taxes was 222,300,000, an average return on revenue of 19.1 per cent. So the percentage increase of total revenues from 59 to 60 was 9 per cent, and the percentage increase of profit was 9.7 per cent. This, despite a recession throughout the country. For
11、your investors, the price has indeed been right.So I have confidence in your health, but not in your product. It is with this and much more in mind that I come before you today.One editorialist in the trade press wrote that the FCC of the New Frontier is going to be one of the toughest FCCs in the h
12、istory of broadcast regulation. If he meant that we intend to enforce the law in the public interest, let me make it perfectly clear that he is right: We do. If he meant that we intend to muzzle or censor broadcasting, he is dead wrong. It wouldnt surprise me if some of you had expected me to come h
13、ere today and say to you in effect, Clean up your own house or the government will do it for you. Well, in a limited sense, you would be right because Ive just said it.But I want to say to you as earnestly as I can that it is not in that spirit that I come before you today, nor is it in that spirit
14、that I intend to serve the FCC. I am in Washington to help broadcasting, not to harm it; to strengthen it, not weaken it; to reward it, not to punish it; to encourage it, not threaten it; and to stimulate it, not censor it. Above all, I am here to uphold and protect the public interest.Now what do w
15、e mean by the public interest? Some say the public interest is merely what interests the public. I disagree. And so does your distinguished president, Governor Collins. In a recent speech - and of course as I also told you yesterday - In a recent speech he said,Broadcasting to serve the public inter
16、est, must have a soul and a conscience, a burning desire to excel, as well as to sell; the urge to build the character, citizenship, and intellectual stature of people, as well as to expand the gross national product. .By no means do I imply that broadcasters disregard the public interest. .But a mu
17、ch better job can be done, and should be done.I could not agree more with Governor Collins. And I would add that in todays world, with chaos in Laos and the Congo aflame, with Communist tyranny on our Caribbean doorstep, relentless pressures on our Atlantic alliance, with social and economic problem
18、s at home of the gravest nature, yes, and with the technological knowledge that makes it possible, as our President has said, not only to destroy our world but to destroy poverty around the world - in a time of peril and opportunity, the old complacent, unbalanced fare of action-adventure and situat
19、ion comedies is simply not good enough.Your industry possesses the most powerful voice in America. It has an inescapable duty to make that voice ring with intelligence and with leadership. In a few years, this exciting industry has grown from a novelty to an instrument of overwhelming impact on the
20、American people. It should be making ready for the kind of leadership that newspapers and magazines assumed years ago, to make our people aware of their world.Ours has been called the jet age, the atomic age, the space age. It is also, I submit, the television age. And just as history will decide wh
21、ether the leaders of todays world employed the atom to destroy the world or rebuild it for mankinds benefit, so will history decide whether todays broadcasters employed their powerful voice to enrich the people or to debase them.If I seem today to address myself chiefly to the problems of television
22、, I dont want any of you radio broadcasters to think that weve gone to sleep at your switch. We havent. We still listen. But in recent years most of the controversies and cross-currents in broadcast programming have swirled around television. And so my subject today is the television industry and th
23、e public interest.Like everybody, I wear more than one hat. I am the chairman of the FCC. But I am also a television viewer and the husband and father of other television viewers. I have seen a great many television programs that seemed to me eminently worthwhile and I am not talking about the much
24、bemoaned good old days of Playhouse 90 and Studio One.Im talking about this past season. Some were wonderfully entertaining, such as The Fabulous Fifties, The Fred Astaire Show, and The Bing Crosby Special; some were dramatic and moving, such as Conrads Victory and Twilight Zone; some were marvelous
25、ly informative, such as The Nations Future, CBS Reports, The Valiant Years. I could list many more - programs that I am sure everyone here felt enriched his own life and that of his family. When television is good, nothing - not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers - nothing is better.But wh
26、en television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your e
27、yes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, pr
28、ivate eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials - many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, youll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it.Is there one person
29、 in this room who claims that broadcasting cant do better? Well a glance at next seasons proposed programming can give us little heart. Of 73 and 1/2 hours of prime evening time, the networks have tentatively scheduled 59 hours of categories of action-adventure, situation comedy, variety, quiz, and
30、movies. Is there one network president in this room who claims he cant do better? Well, is there at least one network president who believes that the other networks can do better? Gentlemen, your trust accounting with your beneficiaries is long overdue. Never have so few owed so much to so many.Why
31、is so much of television so bad? Ive heard many answers: demands of your advertisers; competition for ever higher ratings; the need always to attract a mass audience; the high cost of television programs; the insatiable appetite for programming material. These are some of the reasons. Unquestionably
32、, these are tough problems not susceptible to easy answers. But I am not convinced that you have tried hard enough to solve them.I do not accept the idea that the present over-all programming is aimed accurately at the public taste. The ratings tell us only that some people have their television sets turned on and of that number, so many are tuned to one channel and so many to another. They dont tell us what the public might watch if they were offered half-a-dozen additional choices. A rating, at best, is an indication of how many people saw what you gave them. Unfortunate
