Profile September 28, 1992 Issue

The world according to television

with contributions from David M. Sacks, Kim Shippey

Is there a discipline to being a discriminating television viewer? How can we best analyze the information we see broadcast? Recently, two Christian Scientists who have extensive television backgrounds agreed to share some of their thoughts on this topic—a topic of interest to almost everyone. They are David M. Sacks, a retired vice-president of the American Broadcasting Company and general manager of Station KGO-TV in San Francisco, California, and Kim Shippey, a former BBC Television anchor who spent ten years as a Senior executive with SABC Television in Johannesburg. He is now executive producer of The World Service of The Christian Science Monitor (shortwave radio).

Kim: David, there can be no doubt that television is here to stay. But whether it's settled into its right place in our lives needs closer examination. I feel we need to be careful that television isn't using us, or even at times manipulating us.

David: I'm glad that we're starting in this vein because most people forget that American television stations operate on a license issued by the government and granted for the transmission of information in the "public interest, convenience and necessity." What's happened, in my view, is that television has become so powerful that most stations have lost sight of those stipulations. And I suspect that if managers haven't forgotten about them, they often don't take them too seriously.

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