"The Menace Everyone Loves To Hate"
From its inception, television has been the subject of steady criticism. Now researchers from the University of Washington have provided evidence that the damage that has been alleged to happen actually does. They found that popular baby videos such as Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby not only fail to create the hoped-for geniuses; they actually appear to hinder development. In the first two years of life, more hours of watching videos are associated with lower vocabulary scores.
Predictably, the report has provoked strong reactions from the producers of these programs. The Walt Disney Company has called on the university to retract their news release on the grounds that it is "misleading, irresponsible and derogatory."
Inevitably, these fights will continue. As Paddy Chayevsky, the playwright, said, “It's the menace that everyone loves to hate but can't seem to live without.â€
Of course, lots of other comments have been made that are fun to mull over such as
If you read a lot of books you are considered well read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well viewed. Lily Tomlin
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book. Groucho Marx
If it weren't for the fact that the TV set and the refrigerator are so far apart, some of us wouldn't get any exercise at all. Joey Adams
In general my children refuse to eat anything that hasn't danced on television. Erma Bombeck
All television is educational television. The question is: what is it teaching? Nicholas Johnson
Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn't have in your home. David Frost
In Beverly Hills... they don't throw their garbage away. They make it into television shows. Woody Allen
Television is the bland leading the bland. Murray Schumach
I hate television. I hate it as much as peanuts. But I can't stop eating peanuts. Orson Welles
TV is chewing gum for the eyes. Frank Lloyd Wright
Television is like the American toaster, you push the button and the same thing pops up everytime. Alfred Hitchcock
Radio is the theater of the mind; television is the theater of the mindless. Steve Allen
Television: A medium - so called because it is neither rare nor well done. Ernie Kovacs
Today, watching television often means fighting, violence and foul language - and that's just deciding who gets to hold the remote control. Donna Gephart
We can put it in its proper perspective by supposing that Gutenberg's great invention had been directed at printing only comic books. Robert M. Hutchins
Do you realize if it weren't for Edison we'd be watching TV by candlelight? Al Boliska
I could have been a doctor, but there were too many good shows on TV. ~Jason Love
I have had my television aerials removed. It is the moral equivalent of a prostate operation. Malcolm Muggeridge
And then there is the comment of the comedian Jack Paar. He showed us that we really have the ultimate power when he said "I have never seen a bad television program, because I refuse to. God gave me a mind, and a wrist that turns things off."
