Primetime Propaganda

by Ben Shapiro

  35. Interview with Allan Burns, May 26, 2009.

  36. Grant Tinker, Tinker in Television (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 118.

  37. Pete Hamill, “What Does Lou Grant Know About El Salvador?” New York, Mar. 15, 1982.

  38. Kubey, Creating Television, 307.

  39. Interview with Fred Silverman, May 11, 2009.

  40. Todd Gitlin, Inside Prime Time (New York: Pantheon, 1983), 308.

  41. Ibid., 306–10.

  42. Steven Bochco, “Producer Offers a Prescription for What Ails Network Television,” Los Angeles Times, Sept. 8, 1992.

  43. Interview with Fred Silverman, May 11, 2009.

  44. Interview with Joshua Brand, May 11, 2009.

  45. Interview with Tom Fontana, Aug. 6, 2009.

  46. Goldenson, Beating the Odds, 447.

  47. Interview with Brandon Stoddard, May 28, 2009.

  48. Beth A. Fischer, The Reagan Reversal: Foreign Policy and the End of the Cold War (Columbia: University of Missouri Press, 1997), 115–16.

  49. Interview with Robert Papazian, June 8, 2010.

  50. Interview with Lionel Chetwynd, May 28, 2009.

  51. Interview with Nicholas Meyer, June 17, 2010.

  52. Fischer, Reagan Reversal, 119–20.

  53. Jon Niccum, “Fallout from The Day After,” Lawrence.com, Nov. 19, 2003.

  54. Interview with Brandon Stoddard, May 28, 2009.

  55. “The Man Behind MacGyver: Swiss Army Knife or Duct Tape?” Lifehacker.com, http://lifehacker.com/5480477/the-man-behind-macgyver-swiss-army-knife-or-duct-tape.

  56. Interview with Vin DiBona, June 11, 2009.

  57. Ibid.

  58. Kubey, Creating Television, 155.

  59. “Thirtysomething,” Playboy, June 1990.

  60. Lynette Rice, “David E. Kelley Talks Life After ‘Boston Legal,’ ” Hollywoodinsider.ew.com, Oct. 29, 2008.

  61. Malinda Lo, “Back in the Day: The Kiss Heard Around the World,” AfterEllen.com, Mar. 2005.

  62. Interview with Sandy Grushow, Sept. 9, 2009.

  63. Interview with Larry Gelbart, Apr. 20, 2009.

  64. Interview with Allan Burns, May 26, 2009.

  65. Interview with Vin DiBona, June 11, 2009.

  66. Rob Owen, “Boston Legal’s Kelley Delivers Parting Shots,” Post-Gazette.com, Dec. 7, 2008.

  67. Jim Halterman, “Interview: Dick Wolf, Sam Waterston on Law & Order Turning 19,” TheFutonCritic.com, Nov. 5, 2008.

  68. Interview with Michael Moriarty, May 6, 2010.

  69. Rebecca Dana, “Law and Disorder,” Wall Street Journal, July 12, 2008.

  70. James Hibberd, “O’Reilly Slams ‘Law & Order,’ Calls Wolf ‘Despicable,’ ” HollywoodReporter.com, Dec. 11, 2009.

  71. John Nolte, “dun DUN; Rene Balcer Murdered Law & Order,” BigHollywood .breitbart.com, Oct. 1, 2010.

  72. Adam Serwer, “The Television Justice System,” Prospect.org, May 28, 2010.

  73. Larry O’Connor, “Teaching the Pig to Dance: Fred Thompson Opens Up About Life, Politics, and Law and Order,” BigGovernment.com, May 27, 2010.

  74. Interview with Michael Moriarty, May 6, 2010.

  75. Noel Sheppard, “Laura Ingraham Takes On CSI Creator over Tea Party Bashing Episode,” Newsbusters.org, Oct. 14, 2010, www.newsbusters.org/blogs/noel-sheppard/2010/10/14/laura-ingraham-takes-csi-creator-over-tea-party-bashing-episode.

  76. Interview with John Langley, May 8, 2009.

  77. Interview with Doug Herzog, June 22, 2009.

  78. George J. Annas, “Sex, Money, and Bioethics: Watching ER and Chicago Hope,” Hastings Center Report 25, no. 5 (1995): 40–43.

  79. Ben Feller, “Obama Pleads to Voters: ‘Don’t Give in to Fear,’ ” Associated Press, Aug. 16, 2010.

  80. Interview with Chris Chulack, May 21, 2009.

  81. John Levasque, “Aaron Sorkin Is a Man of Many Words,” Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Mar. 7, 2000.

  82. Peter C. Rollins, John E. O’Connor, The West Wing: The American Presidency as Television Drama (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2003), 225.

  83. Matthew Miller, “The Real White House,” Brill’s Content, Mar. 2000.

  84. “Aaron Sorkin,” NewsHour with Jim Lehrer transcript, Sept. 27, 2000.

  85. Mark Sachleben and Kevan M. Yenerall, Seeing the Bigger Picture (New York: Peter Lang, 2008), 26.

  86. Interview with Marc Cherry, Aug. 9, 2009.

  87. “Laura Bush: First Lady of Comedy?,” USAToday.com, May 1, 2005, www.usatoday.com/life/people/2005-05-01-laura-bush-comments_x.htm.

  88. Mikey O’Connor, “The Humanist: Shonda Rhimes Hones In on Ethical, Moral Grey Areas,” TVGuide.com, Dec. 7, 2009.

  89. Aldore Collier, “Shonda Rhimes: The Force Behind Grey’s Anatomy,” Ebony, Oct. 2005.

  90. Jackie Tithof Steere, “QA with Ian Brennan, Creator of the Hit TV Series Glee,” Chicagonow.com, May 5, 2010.

  91. Charles Winecoff, “Dear Ryan Murphy: Does the ‘T’ in LGBT Stand for ‘Typecast’ or ‘Totalitarian’?” Bighollywood.breitbart.com, June 18, 2010.

  92. “Glee Creator Ryan Murphy Q&A,” StarPulse.com, Aug. 4, 2010.

  “SHUT UP AND CHANGE THE CHANNEL”

  1. Interview with George Schlatter, Apr. 21, 2009.

  2. Interview with Larry Gelbart, Apr. 20, 2009.

  3. Interview with Susan Harris, May 4, 2009.

  4. Interview with Gary David Goldberg, May 19, 2009.

  5. Interview with Fred Pierce, May 11, 2009.

  6. Interview with Brandon Stoddard, May 28, 2009.

  7. Interview with Larry Gelbart, Apr. 20, 2009.

  8. Interview with Joshua Brand, May 11, 2009.

  9. Interview with Larry Gelbart, Apr. 20, 2009.

  10. Robert Kubey, Creating Television (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), 102.

  11. Interview with Marta Kauffman, June 23, 2009.

  12. Jim Halterman, “Interview: ‘Secret Diary of a Call Girl’ Star Billie Piper,” TheFutonCritic.com, Feb. 1, 2010.

  13. Norman Lear, “Statement to the Senate Subcommittee on Constitutional Rights,” Feb. 8, 1972, www.normanlear.com/backstory_speeches.html.

  14. Lisa Robinson, “Mr. MTV,” Spin, Jan. 1992.

  15. Interview with Sandy Grushow, Dec. 9, 2009.

  16. Interview with George Schlatter, Apr. 21, 2009.

  17. Interview with Larry Gelbart, Apr. 20, 2009.

  18. Interview with Gene Reynolds, May 7, 2009.

  19. Interview with Susan Harris, May 4, 2009.

  20. Interview with Peter Mehlman, May 12, 2009.

  21. Interview with Joshua Brand, May 11, 2009.

  22. Interview with Gary David Goldberg, May 19, 2009.

  23. Interview with Chris Chulack, May 21, 2009.

  24. Todd Gitlin, Inside Prime Time (New York: Pantheon, 1983), 22–23.

  25. Grant Tinker, Tinker in Television (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 181.

  26. Ibid., 198.

  27. Josef Adalian, “Nielsen Failure Foretold by Disco-Era Tactics,” TVWeek.com, May 8, 2009.

  28. “News FAQs,” Nielsen.com, http://en-us.nielsen.com/main/news/news_faqs.

  29. Bill Carter, “Who Needs the Sweeps?” New York Times, Apr. 24, 2000.

  30. Michael Malone, “Media Rating Council Yanks Accreditation for Nielsen Diary Markets,” Broadcasting & Cable, Nov. 18, 2010, www.broadcastingcable.com/article/460058-Media_Rating_Council_Yanks_Accreditation_for_Nielsen_Diary_Markets.php.

  31. Carter, “Who Needs the Sweeps?”

  32. “Case Study: Nielsen’s People Meter Technology Brings Miami More Accurate Picture of TV Viewers,” Nielsen.com, May 29, 2009, http://blog.nielsen.com
/nielsenwire/media_entertainment/people-meter-technology-brings-miami-more-accurate-ratings.

  33. Paul Donato, letter to the editor, Mediaweek, Jan. 20, 2003.

  34. Gitlin, Inside Prime Time, 51.

  35. Andy Pearch, N. Phillips, and John Terris, “Economy with the Truth—16 Common Agency TV Buying ‘Crimes,’ ” Admap, Apr. 1992.

  36. James L. Baughman, Same Time, Same Station (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 87.

  37. Darrell Y. Hamamoto, Nervous Laughter (New York: Praeger, 1989), 1.

  38. Sally Bedell Smith, In All His Glory (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1990).

  39. Leonard H. Goldenson, Beating the Odds (New York: Scribner’s, 1991), 148.

  40. Herman P. Miller, “An Appraisal of the 1950 Census Income Data,” Journal of the American Statistical Association 48, no. 261 (Mar. 1953): 28–43.

  41. Robert Halpern, Rebuilding the Inner City (New York: Columbia University Press, 1995), 60.

  42. “Historical Census of Housing Tables: Ownership Rates,” Census.gov, www.census.gov/hhes/www/housing/census/historic/ownrate.html.

  43. M. K. Dychtwald, “Marketplace 2000: Riding the Wave of Population Change,” Journal of Consumer Marketing 14, no. 4–5 (1997): 771–85.

  44. Isabelle Szmigin and Marylyn Carrigan, “Learning to Love the Older Consumer,” Journal of Consumer Behavior 1, no. 1 (Mar. 9, 2001): 22–34.

  45. Mary C. Gilly, Valarie A. Zeithaml, “The Elderly Consumer and Adoption of Technologies,” Journal of Consumer Research 12, no. 3 (Dec. 1985): 353–57.

  46. Ibid.

  47. Sharon Shavitt, Pamela Lowrey, James Haefner, “Public Attitudes Toward Advertising: More Favorable Than You Might Think,” Journal of Advertising Research (July–Aug. 1998): 7–22.

  48. Michael Pollak, “Paul F. Lazarsfeld: A Sociointellectual Biography,” Knowledge: Creation, Diffusion, Utilization 2, no. 2 (Dec. 1980): 157–77.

  49. Ibid.

  50. Paul F. Lazarsfeld, “A Researcher Looks at Television,” Public Opinion Quarterly 24, Spring, 1960: 24–31.

  51. Paul F. Lazarsfeld and Robert K. Merton, “Mass Communication, Popular Taste, and Organized Social Action,” (1948) in John Durham Peters and Peter Simonson, eds., Mass Communication and American Social Thought (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), 230–31.

  52. Sofie Lazarsfeld, Woman’s Experience of the Male (London: Francis Aldor, 1940).

  53. Interview with Leonard Goldberg, May 20, 2009.

  54. Szmigin and Carrigan, “Learning to Love the Older Consumer,” 22–34.

  55. Interview with Mike Dann, May 21, 2009.

  56. Ibid.

  57. Ibid.

  58. Ibid.

  59. Interview with Leonard Stern, May 21, 2009.

  60. Gitlin, Inside Prime Time, 207–8.

  61. Interview with Fred Silverman, May 11, 2009.

  62. Ibid.

  63. Interview with Marty Ransohoff, May 19, 2009.

  64. Allan Neuwirth, They’ll Never Put That on the Air (New York: Allworth Press, 2006), 143.

  65. Lawrence Grossman, “Aging Viewers: The Best Is Yet to Be,” Columbia Journalism Review 36, no 5 (1998): 68–69.

  66. Interview with Burt Prelutsky, Jan. 26, 2010.

  67. Interview with Leonard Goldberg, May 20, 2009.

  68. Steve Sternberg, “Broadcast Networks Are Aging but Time-Shifters Are Younger,” BaselineIntel.com, July 12, 2010, www.baselineintel.com/research-wrap?detail/C8/broadcast_networks_are_aging_but_time-shifters_are_younger.

  69. Clint Bolick, “Cable Television: An Unnatural Monopoly,” Cato.org, Mar. 13, 1984.

  70. James Bovard, “Needed: The Separation of Cable and State,” Future of Freedom Foundation, May 1998.

  71. “Free Press, Consumer Groups Call on Antitrust Authorities and Congress to Investigate ‘TV Everywhere,’ ” FreePress.net, Jan. 4, 2010, www.freepress.net/node/75731.

  72. Roger Cheng, “Telcos, Satellite Join Cable’s Push to Build Pay Wall on Web,” Wall Street Journal, Apr. 20, 2009.

  73. Grant Tinker, Tinker in Television (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1994), 169.

  74. Brandon Tartikoff with Charles Leerhsen, The Last Great Ride (New York: Turtle Bay Books, 1992), 161.

  75. Mark Crispin Miller, Boxed In: The Culture of TV (Evanston, IL: Northwestern University Press, 1988), 61.

  76. Tartikoff with Leerhsen, Last Great Ride, 165.

  77. Gitlin, Inside Prime Time, 306.

  78. Tartikoff with Leerhsen, Last Great Ride, 165.

  79. Tinker, Tinker in Television, 172–73.

  80. Interview with Marcy Carsey, July 1, 2009.

  81. Louis Chunovic, One Foot on the Floor (New York: TV Books, 2000), 112.

  82. Interview with Brandon Stoddard, May 28, 2009.

  83. Interview with Doug Herzog, June 22, 2009.

  84. “South Park Takes On Own Network over Ban,” Associated Press, Apr. 18, 2006.

  85. Interview with Doug Herzog, June 22, 2009.

  86. Ben Shapiro, “Exclusive: Comedy Central Head in 2009: We’ll Let South Park Do Mohammed,” BigHollywood.breitbart.com, Apr. 23, 2010.

  87. Neuwirth, They’ll Never Put That on the Air, 195.

  88. Interview with Doug Herzog, June 22, 2009.

  89. Interview with Fred Silverman, May 11, 2009.

  90. Interview with Brandon Stoddard, May 28, 2009.

  91. Interview with Marcy Carsey, July 1, 2009.

  92. Interview with Barbara Fisher, July 6, 2009.

  93. Interview with Mike Dann, May 21, 2009.

  94. Larry Gelbart, Laughing Matters (New York: Random House, 1998), 109.

  95. Interview with Michelle Ganeless, July 6, 2009.

  96. James Hibberd, “The Reign of Right-Wing Primetime,” Hollywood Reporter, Nov. 10, 2010, www.hollywoodreporter.com/blogs/live-feed/right-wing-tv-43558.

  THE CELLULOID TRIANGLE

  1. James L. Baughman, Same Time, Same Station (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007), 9.

  2. Ibid.

  3. Ibid., 25.

  4. Robert Kubey, Creating Television (Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 2004), 82–83.

  5. Baughman, Same Time, Same Station, 26–28.

  6. Ibid., 26.

  7. Alfred R. Schneider with Kaye Pullen, The Gatekeeper (Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press, 2001), xiv.

  8. “ ‘The Shadow of Incipient Censorship’: The Creation of the Television Code of 1952,” GMU.edu, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6558.

  9. Leonard B. Stern and Diane L. Robison, eds., A Martian Wouldn’t Say That! (New York: Price Stern Sloan, 1994), 32.

  10. Theodor W. Adorno, “How to Look at Television,” Quarterly of Film, Radio and Television 8, no. 3 (Spring 1954): 213–35; and Paul F. Lazarsfeld, “A Researcher Looks at Television,” Public Opinion Quarterly 24 (1960): 24–31.

  11. Newton N. Minow, “Television and the Public Interest,” National Association of Broadcasters, May 9, 1961.

  12. Ibid.

  13. Tim Brooks, Earle Marsh, The Complete Directory to Prime Time Network and Cable TV Shows (New York: Ballantine, 2007), 1256.

  14. Leonard H. Goldenson, Beating the Odds (New York: Scribner’s, 1991), 173–74.

  15. Ibid., 174.

  16. Allan Neuwirth, They’ll Never Put That on the Air (New York: Allworth Press, 2006), 210.

  17. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, xiv.

  18. Ibid., 94–95.

  19. Todd Gitlin, Inside Prime Time (New York: Pantheon, 1983), 260–61.

  20. Kathryn C. Montgomery, Target: Prime Time (New York: Oxford University Press, 1989), 111.

  21. Gitlin, Inside Prime Time, 43–44.

  22.
James Hibberd, “CBS Adding Three Gay Characters to Shows,” HollywoodReporter.com, July 28, 2010.

  23. Bill Gorman, “It’s Official! CBS Wins the 2009–10 Season in Viewers,” TVByThe Numbers.com, May 27, 2010.

  24. Henry Mark Holzer, “CAIR KOs 24,” FrontPageMagazine.com, Dec. 4, 2006.

  25. Andrew McCarthy, “CAIR’s Well-Deserved Expulsion,” NationalReview.com, Mar. 24, 2009.

  26. Interview with George Schlatter, Apr. 21, 2009.

  27. Goldenson, Beating the Odds, 322.

  28. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 97–98.

  29. “Celebrating 68 Years of Giving,” EIFoundation.org, www.eifoundation.org/content/celebrating-68-years-giving.

  30. “Showrunner Document: Play Your Part America,” Entertainment Industry Foundation, Sept. 25, 2009.

  31. Larry O’Connor, “Part II: Obama Controls Your Television Set—Search and Ye Shall Find . . . Left-Wing Advocacy,” BigHollywood.breitbart.com, Oct. 15, 2009, http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/sright/2009/10/15/part-ii-search-and-ye-shall-find-left-wing-advocacy.

  32. Press Release, “Entertainment Industry Foundation, Mayors From All Over the US Kick Off Two Major Initiatives Encouraging Volunteerism,” IParticipate and CitiesOfService.org, September 10, 2009.

  33. Deborah Netburn, “NBC’s Green Week Gets Overshadowed,” Los Angeles Times, Nov. 9, 2007.

  34. John Davis, “Biodiesel Part of NBC’s Green Week,” DomesticFuel.com, Apr. 19, 2010.

  35. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 12–14.

  36. Ibid., 14–15.

  37. Elana Levine, Wallowing in Sex (Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 2007), 54.

  38. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 30–33.

  39. Ibid., 37, 40, 45.

  40. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 17, 21, 29.

  41. Larry Gelbart, Laughing Matters (New York: Random House, 1998), 44.

  42. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 101–2.

  43. Ibid., 102–3.

  44. Ibid., 109–10.

  45. Geoffrey Cowan, See No Evil: The Backstage Battle over Sex and Violence on Television (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1978), 40–41.

  46. Schneider with Pullen, Gatekeeper, 113.

  47. Writers Guild of America v. Federal Communications Commission, 423 F.Supp. 1064 (C.D. Cal. 1976).

  48. Barry S. Sapolsky and Joseph O. Taberlet, “Sex in Primetime Television: 1979 Versus 1989,” Journal of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 35, no. 4 (Fall 1991): 505–16.