DURING THIRTY YEARS OF TUMULtuous social and political change, I was chief censor of entertainment programming for the American Broadcasting Company. From 1960 to 1990, as one of three independent, competitive gatekeepers, my decisions shaped the texture and taste of television programs that eventually reached 90 million homes. In this retrospective of the battles, occasionally waged frame by frame, over program content, I trace the evolving, sometimes accelerating changes in our national life as reflected on the television screen.
What was once sexually daring is now prosaic, and yesterday's blood and gore is now tame, but even in today's freewheeling media environment, familiar issues, with which I once grappled, remain in play: Does violence on the screen, large or small, breed real-life violence? Should children be protected from the influence of the media? And if so, how? Which demands from special-interest groups are valid? What is the role of the censor in a......
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Approximate Word Count: 5985
Approximate Pages: 24 (260 words per double-spaced page) |