682
ROBERT BRUSTEIN
relief from these gadflies, was quick to provide its rewards: the
media began to beckon invitingly; the mass magazines became
more hospitable to highbrow writers; psychologists, sociologists,
and economists by the hundreds left the university to take up
lucrative "advisory" positions with industry and research organi–
~ations;
and the Democratic party even ran an egghead candi–
date twice. In this benevolent climate, liberal consensus complete–
ly triumphed over radical non-conformity, and the old allegory
went up in smoke. The epitaph of the 'fifties might have been
the First Player's smug reply to Hamlet: "We have reformed
that indifferently with us."
It was during these transitional years that the personality
of the Madison Avenue villain was most rigorously explored,
the bland personification of a period of cultural narcissism dur–
ing which America stopped to examine its image in a statistical
looking glass. This period of cultural normalcy-so similar to
the years presided over by President Harding-lasted through
the doldrums of the Eisenhower administration, but even towards
the end of that dreary interregnum one could sense that nor–
malcy was coming to an end. A series of scandalous exposures,
chief .among them the TV scandals, began to usher out the era
with a chorus of raspberries.
As
a result of these scandals, a
limited form of muckraking came back into fashion, focusing
attention mainly on the villainies of Madison Avenue. The
nation's uneasiness over Madison Avenue techniques had already
been exposed after the subliminal advertising scare. Now
it
was
exacerbated by revelations that the mass media were rigged:
quiz shows were fixed, commercials were fraudulent, TV in–
comes were supplemented by gifts, plugs, and bribes, and the
F.C.C.-designed to regulate the industry-was itself hamstrung
by corrupt officials and the political power of the networks.
The Teapot Dome affair had called attention to illegal business
practices; the media' revelations, though unimportant in them–
selves, fixed our eyes on the corruption of our communications. ,
But although these scandals suggested that the piGkings in
