THE
·MADISON
AVENUE VILLAIN
58]
communications were just as big as thbse in oil, munitions, or
government contracts, they provoked little criticism of the pro–
fit system which had caused them-partly because the voice
of radicalism had been muted, partly because many critics were
now involved in this system themselves and feared endangering
their interests, but mainly because the corruption in the media
was never traced to its source. Congressional committees are
notoriously reluctant to push their investigations too far, but
the House unit investigating the quiz scandals was even more
. reticent than usual. After throwing Charles Van Doren and a
few TV producers to a public hungry for scapegoats, it closed
up its investigations as quickly as a surgeon sews up the body
of a patient when his exploratory reveals cancer in the entire
system-and turned to more harmless matters like disc jockey
payola.
As
a result of the little that was revealed, only the con–
testants suffered any real damage (they are still being mercilessly
hounded in the courts), though the networks and agencies, des–
pite their readiness to betray their employees,S could not escape
without tarnished reputations. As for the sponsors--who had
profited the most and who undoubtedly controlled the fix–
they remained completely unscathed. Left to stew over perjured
TV
idols and dishonest organization men, the public satisfied
itself with blaming the whole affair on "Madison Avenue"
whose policies, nevertheless, remained substantially unchanged.
The case against the Madison Avenue villain was further
strengthened by other developments: former ad-men began to
produce best-selling
mea culpas,
promising sensational disclosures
'1
about waste-making and hidden persuasion; the Ford Founda–
( tion issued a report publicizing the stringent censorial powers
3. It is now a fixed practice to let the organization men take the rap
for the actions of the company
(c/.
the recent electrical equipment
scandals). When the heat is off, however, the employees generally re–
turn to the company, quite often in their old positions. Many of the
quiz show producers, for example, are now back in television-some
of them again producing qui; ,hOWl.
