ROBERT BRUSTEIN
exerci$ed .by the agencies over writers for the media; and educa–
tors, TV reviewers, editorialists, and politicians discovered
in
Madison Avenue a convenient lapel on which to pin juvenile
delinquency, public immorality, manipulated elections, mass con–
formity, national illiteracy, planned obsolescence, and the un–
fortunate image America enjoys abroad. Most of these charges
contained germs of truth as far as they went, but not one of them
took into account the vassalage of Madison Avenue to the Amer–
ican business economy. It was now bad taste to mention the profit
motive. Instead of demanding to know how our communica- .
tions had fallen into the hands of business, critics were content
to dramatize a gratuitous conspiracy perpetrated against
the
public by dark-intentioned hucksters.
This
situation of a year ago remains unchanged today-if
anything, it has been intensified by the election of the Kennedy
administration with its promise (until the air leaked out of
the •
tire) of a Galbraithian neo-radicalism. The Madison Avenue
allegory now has strong support in official government circles,
mostly among consensus liberals with middle-brow tastes, but
it is precisely there, against the background of political power,
that its inadequacy as an explanation of our cultural deteriora–
tion is most depressingly revealed. For if the responsibility for
the condition of the media rests only on the agencies, the pro·
ducers, and the broadcasters, why have they not reformed
in
the face of mounting criticism of their actions?
If
the manipula–
tors of TV are merely lazy or stupid or cynical men who
mis–
judge public taste, why do they always fail to obtain sponsors
and audiences for works of art, educational programs, and public
affairs offerings? Why has Mr. Minow been unable to achieve
even minor changes in the structure of the F.C.C.? And why
have congressmen of both parties refused to support his reforms?
The answers to these questions suggest that the problems of
the
media have not been sufficiently analyzed, and that the pressure
groups blocking a solution are a much more formidable lobby
than an anxious coterie of Madison Avenue organization men.
