Television will do anything for a rating... anything!
Interpretation
The quote highlights how television prioritizes ratings over ethical standards or integrity.
Paddy Chayefsky's quote reflects the often ruthless nature of the television industry, where the pursuit of viewership and ratings can lead to sensationalism and a disregard for moral considerations. It suggests that broadcasters may compromise their values and integrity in order to attract a larger audience, illustrating a critique of how media can manipulate content for popularity rather than substance.
In practice
A commentary on media ethics during a journalism seminar.
We no longer live in a world of nations and ideologies. The world is a college of corporations, inexorably determined by the immutable bylaws of business...There is no America. There is no democracy. There is only IBM, and ITT, and AT&T, and DuPont, Dow, Union Carbide, and Exxon. Those are the nations of the world today.
It's always the generals with the bloodiest records who are the first to shout what a hell it is. And it's always the war widows who lead the Memorial Day parades.
Television is democracy at its ugliest.
We've established the most enormous medical entity ever conceived... and people are sicker than ever. We cure nothing! We heal nothing!
The reporting of news has to be understood as propaganda for commodities, and events by images.
The idea of a news broadcast once was to find someone with information and broadcast it. The idea now is to find someone with ignorance and spread it around.
Media outlets that are exploiting Ebola because they want a sensational story and politicians using it to their own ends ought to be ashamed.
There's plenty to criticize about the mass media, but they are the source of regular information about a wide range of topics. You can't duplicate that on blogs.
Even the reporting of news has to be understood not as propaganda for any particular ideology, liberal or conservative, but as propaganda for commodities β for the replacement of things by commodities, use values by exchange values, and events by images.
I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television.
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