wnyc.org / 93.9fm / am 820

Comments

• [1] jgarbuz from Queens June 22, 2009 - 11:49AM

  I've simply stopped watching broadcast and cable TV altogether, and get as much as I can from internet sites such as Hulu and the like which come with far less adverts. Commercial TV has become simply maddening and frenzied beyond repair. You simply have to be lobotomized, or born with the IQ of a moron to be able to stand it! Newton Minnow never had a clue as to what was coming. He had no clue how vast the wasteland would become when he coined that phrase.

  
  
• [2] Gary from UWS June 22, 2009 - 11:51AM

  To paraphase Marx: "television is the opium of the masses". Television--which is really an advertising delivery device--is designed to sell you things you don't want and don't need by making you feel badly about yourself and creating the need to buy something to fix what's wrong with you.

  I didn't "upgrade" to HDTV and threw out my old analog TV. I feel like a heroin addict who's gotten off the drug and now doesn't miss it.

  
  
• [3] mc from Brooklyn June 22, 2009 - 11:52AM

  I am increasingly concerned with the number of TV ads by pharmaceutical companies pushing prescription drugs. The ads are aimed at the general public even though doctors' prescriptions are required to obtain these drugs. Then the consumer puts pressure on the docs to write the scrips and, presto! The cost of health care climbs for all of us.

  
  
• [4] ellen from ny June 23, 2009 - 01:45AM

  i agree with comments that tv is almost unwatchable. I put it on channel 555 so the screen has no show on, and then use the guide to see what's on certain favorite channels and then go to them. I spend more time using the remote to avoid commercials than actual watching.BUT WHAT ABOUT ADS IN THE STREET on phone booths and bus shelters. Don't know if mentioned these, as will hear show tonight, but there was a time when we didn't have this. It has ruined the city I want to move to a city without them. It is an abuse of public space. Some of the ads are about tv/movies and are offensive, tasteless, even violent.l

  I feel americans are turning into powerless consumer automotons, and are getting the elected representatives they deserve.

  
  
• [5] Petie Proudhon from Santa Barbara, CA June 23, 2009 - 12:59PM

  I think the worst things about advertisement is the extent to which it not only avoids rationality and perceptiveness, but in so doing (and showing happy results thereby) becomes an _education_ in avoiding rational thought and clear perception.

  This wouldn't be so bad, except these people then go on to vote, at which point the inability to make decisions properly affects all of us, and worse, _me_.