The Three-Legged Stool
When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better. But when television is bad, nothing is worse.-Newton N. Minow, Chairman, FCC, 1961
In his farewell address to the nation in 1960, Dwight D. Eisenhower coined the term “military-industrial complex.” While Pres. Eisenhower did not necessarily disapprove of this post-WW2 development, he did raise cautions about allowing this situation to have too much influence on American society. Right on his heels, Newton Minow made his famous “vast wasteland” speech, from which the above quote is taken. The two ideas may be seemingly unrelated, but I submit that, in many ways, the 21st century has produced a situation where the military-industrial complex has met the vast wasteland of television to produce the “military-industrial-entertainment” complex. I’m not in a position to prove any conspiracy in this matter, but it’s perfectly clear that one of the reasons the United States has been able to pursue an aggressive foreign policy and run roughshod over American and international law and society is because the entertainment industry has so thoroughly pacified the American people.
