1 00:00:00,600 --> 00:00:00,840 Speaker 1: You know. 2 00:00:01,240 --> 00:00:08,000 Speaker 2: Thorwell wrote nineteen eighty four and Animal Farm as warnings, 3 00:00:09,160 --> 00:00:11,920 Speaker 2: warnings of what is going to happen if you let 4 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:18,880 Speaker 2: things slide, not as instruction manuals for the left, but 5 00:00:19,079 --> 00:00:23,680 Speaker 2: warnings for the right. The left has used them as instruction. 6 00:00:23,440 --> 00:00:31,840 Speaker 1: Manuals, warnings we're going to end up like all of 7 00:00:31,880 --> 00:00:36,919 Speaker 1: the people in Animal Farm, indistinguishable from the pig. And 8 00:00:37,000 --> 00:00:39,280 Speaker 1: for those that don't like reading, just check out the 9 00:00:39,360 --> 00:00:40,600 Speaker 1: movie Idiocracy. 10 00:00:40,880 --> 00:00:43,760 Speaker 3: Yeah that's pretty close. Yeah, yeah, that'd be a good 11 00:00:43,800 --> 00:00:44,200 Speaker 3: one too. 12 00:00:45,680 --> 00:00:54,800 Speaker 1: Yesterday we talked about the Nancy Guthrie case, but that's 13 00:00:54,840 --> 00:00:58,120 Speaker 1: not the way to put it. Yesterday we discussed how 14 00:00:59,360 --> 00:01:09,720 Speaker 1: podcast's television newscasters others were engaged in game theory and 15 00:01:09,840 --> 00:01:15,880 Speaker 1: game playing and using the case to do that, which 16 00:01:15,920 --> 00:01:21,280 Speaker 1: then led me down another rabbit hole, which I thought 17 00:01:21,280 --> 00:01:24,640 Speaker 1: an awful lot about last night. So I'm want to 18 00:01:24,640 --> 00:01:30,440 Speaker 1: ask you a question. Think about the question, what single invention, 19 00:01:31,840 --> 00:01:34,640 Speaker 1: more than any other than the say, last one hundred years, 20 00:01:36,720 --> 00:01:46,400 Speaker 1: shrank the planet, exposed tyranny, toppled communism, simultaneously gave us 21 00:01:46,440 --> 00:01:54,520 Speaker 1: things like Masterpiece theater and The Bachelor. What's the answer, Well, 22 00:01:54,520 --> 00:01:58,320 Speaker 1: of course it's television, and if you want to understand 23 00:01:58,400 --> 00:02:03,559 Speaker 1: why free markets work, why free markets produced miracles while 24 00:02:03,680 --> 00:02:08,040 Speaker 1: governments produced mediocrity at best. The story of how television 25 00:02:08,120 --> 00:02:10,680 Speaker 1: was born, how it was nearly stolen, and how it 26 00:02:10,720 --> 00:02:13,480 Speaker 1: conquered the world is about good of a case studies 27 00:02:13,520 --> 00:02:18,239 Speaker 1: you're ever going to find. To the beginning, a teenage 28 00:02:18,280 --> 00:02:21,920 Speaker 1: farm boy in Idaho staring at furls in a potato 29 00:02:22,040 --> 00:02:29,760 Speaker 1: field and thinking about electrons. Philip Philo Taylor Farnsworth. He 30 00:02:29,880 --> 00:02:33,600 Speaker 1: was fourteen years old in nineteen twenty one. He was 31 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,440 Speaker 1: powing his family's land in Rigby, Idaho. He looked at 32 00:02:37,480 --> 00:02:41,639 Speaker 1: those long, parallel rows of turned earth, and he had 33 00:02:41,680 --> 00:02:42,440 Speaker 1: an epiphany. 34 00:02:43,760 --> 00:02:44,919 Speaker 3: If you could scan a. 35 00:02:44,919 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: Picture the same way, line by line, he thought, well, 36 00:02:48,760 --> 00:02:52,880 Speaker 1: you might be able to transmit an image electronically, just 37 00:02:53,000 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: like the radio that he listened to was transmitting sound. 38 00:02:57,840 --> 00:03:00,239 Speaker 1: By the time he got to junior high, he was 39 00:03:00,280 --> 00:03:04,160 Speaker 1: sketching that design on his chemistry teacher's blackboard, and the teacher, 40 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:12,240 Speaker 1: Justin Tolman, kept those sketches. That decision to keep those 41 00:03:12,320 --> 00:03:16,639 Speaker 1: sketches from the student would save the invention of television 42 00:03:16,680 --> 00:03:18,519 Speaker 1: for its rightful owner. But we'll get to that in 43 00:03:18,520 --> 00:03:22,920 Speaker 1: a second, So Farnsworth moved fast. He convinced two California 44 00:03:23,000 --> 00:03:26,680 Speaker 1: businessmen to stake him six thousand dollars their entire life savings, 45 00:03:27,120 --> 00:03:29,720 Speaker 1: and by September seventh and nineteen twenty seven, at the 46 00:03:29,760 --> 00:03:33,520 Speaker 1: age of just twenty one, Filo Farnsworth had transmitted the 47 00:03:33,520 --> 00:03:38,720 Speaker 1: world's first all electronic television image in a lab in 48 00:03:38,760 --> 00:03:41,720 Speaker 1: San Francisco with four people working for him. 49 00:03:42,160 --> 00:03:43,280 Speaker 3: This farm kid from. 50 00:03:43,120 --> 00:03:47,240 Speaker 1: Idaho accomplished what the biggest corporations and the most credentialed 51 00:03:47,280 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: engineers in the entire world that was impossible. And here's 52 00:03:51,360 --> 00:03:58,480 Speaker 1: where the story takes its first turn toward a cautionary tale. RCA, 53 00:03:58,560 --> 00:04:01,760 Speaker 1: the Radio Corporation of America at the time, was the 54 00:04:01,760 --> 00:04:05,200 Speaker 1: most powerful comms company of the entire planet. It owned 55 00:04:05,280 --> 00:04:10,360 Speaker 1: radio patents, it owned the broadcasting networks. Its president, David Saranoff, 56 00:04:10,840 --> 00:04:15,040 Speaker 1: was a brilliant yet ruthless and absolutely determined that he 57 00:04:15,160 --> 00:04:17,120 Speaker 1: was going to control television the same way that he 58 00:04:17,160 --> 00:04:21,359 Speaker 1: controlled the radio. So when Sarnoff heard about Farnsworth, he 59 00:04:21,480 --> 00:04:25,320 Speaker 1: sent his chief scientist, who was a Russian immigrant, out 60 00:04:25,360 --> 00:04:28,520 Speaker 1: to San Francisco under false pretenses to find out what 61 00:04:28,600 --> 00:04:32,159 Speaker 1: this kid had built, and Filo, being a generous and 62 00:04:32,320 --> 00:04:37,400 Speaker 1: open soul, showed him everything. So this Russian engineer went 63 00:04:37,440 --> 00:04:41,200 Speaker 1: back to New York. He sent RCA a seven hundred 64 00:04:41,200 --> 00:04:48,920 Speaker 1: word telegram describing Farnsworth's dissector tube in excruciating detail, and 65 00:04:49,000 --> 00:04:53,040 Speaker 1: within days a copy of farnsworth camera had been reconstructed 66 00:04:53,040 --> 00:04:58,279 Speaker 1: in RCA's labs. And then Saranoff offered Farnsworth one hundred 67 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,000 Speaker 1: thousand dollars for his patents, but it came with a 68 00:05:01,080 --> 00:05:05,040 Speaker 1: condition that Farnsworth had to come and work for RCA 69 00:05:05,040 --> 00:05:09,840 Speaker 1: as an employee. Farnsworth turned him down, So Sarnoff did 70 00:05:09,880 --> 00:05:13,160 Speaker 1: what powerful corporations do when they can't buy what they want. 71 00:05:13,520 --> 00:05:13,960 Speaker 3: You sued. 72 00:05:15,360 --> 00:05:17,560 Speaker 1: You think we haven't been in litigious society. We've been 73 00:05:17,600 --> 00:05:20,920 Speaker 1: at ligious society since the early nineteen hundreds, or maybe 74 00:05:20,920 --> 00:05:25,960 Speaker 1: even earlier. In that lawsuit, RCAA claimed that the engineers, 75 00:05:26,480 --> 00:05:31,239 Speaker 1: their engineer, the Russian immigrant engineer, that that nineteen twenty 76 00:05:31,279 --> 00:05:36,240 Speaker 1: three patent had priority over Farnsworth's invention. Now, never mind 77 00:05:36,720 --> 00:05:39,599 Speaker 1: that this Russian engineer never actually built a working system. 78 00:05:39,920 --> 00:05:43,320 Speaker 1: Not a single colleague at Westinghouse or RCA could ever 79 00:05:43,360 --> 00:05:48,720 Speaker 1: recall seeing the engineer's device operate, And meanwhile, Farnsworth lawyers 80 00:05:48,760 --> 00:05:53,320 Speaker 1: produced somebody named Justin Tolman, remember that name. That's the 81 00:05:53,360 --> 00:05:57,240 Speaker 1: old high school chemistry teacher who by that time was retired. 82 00:05:58,880 --> 00:06:02,320 Speaker 1: They walked that with this end, that old chemistry teacher. 83 00:06:02,320 --> 00:06:05,520 Speaker 1: They walked him into the hearing in the Patent office 84 00:06:05,640 --> 00:06:10,200 Speaker 1: and had him present the blackboards sketches from nineteen twenty two. 85 00:06:11,520 --> 00:06:16,919 Speaker 1: Those sketches proved that teenager in Idaho had conceived of 86 00:06:16,960 --> 00:06:21,719 Speaker 1: electronic television way before RCA's best scientists even had a 87 00:06:21,720 --> 00:06:27,640 Speaker 1: working prototype. So back in nineteen thirty five, giuis Patent 88 00:06:27,680 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: Office World and Farnsworth's favor, so for the first time 89 00:06:31,560 --> 00:06:35,599 Speaker 1: in its history, RCA had to pay patent royalties to 90 00:06:35,720 --> 00:06:42,680 Speaker 1: an outside inventor rather than collecting royalties. Farnsworth David had 91 00:06:42,720 --> 00:06:47,320 Speaker 1: beaten Goliath, but winning that battle didn't mean he had 92 00:06:47,320 --> 00:06:50,960 Speaker 1: won the war. In nineteen thirty nine, RCA launched commercial 93 00:06:50,960 --> 00:06:54,000 Speaker 1: television at the New York World's Fair with its famous 94 00:06:54,080 --> 00:06:58,080 Speaker 1: phantom teleor receiver, the TRK twelve. It was a marvel 95 00:06:58,080 --> 00:07:02,960 Speaker 1: of transparent looseight housing a twelve inch screen that became 96 00:07:03,120 --> 00:07:07,680 Speaker 1: the most talked about exhibit at the entire fair. NBC, 97 00:07:07,920 --> 00:07:13,760 Speaker 1: which was RCA's subsidiary, actually began broadcasting. Sarnoff stood before 98 00:07:13,800 --> 00:07:17,760 Speaker 1: the cameras and took credit for inventing television. Reporters, what 99 00:07:17,800 --> 00:07:24,080 Speaker 1: do they do? This is as old as television itself. Saranoff, 100 00:07:24,880 --> 00:07:29,200 Speaker 1: who did not invent it, sad Or, actually stood in 101 00:07:29,240 --> 00:07:32,000 Speaker 1: front of those cameras and took credit for inventing what 102 00:07:32,000 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: people were watching, the television and the reporters that were 103 00:07:35,840 --> 00:07:39,120 Speaker 1: observing all of this. Dutifusley wrote it up just exactly 104 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:45,280 Speaker 1: that way. Meanwhile, Farnsworth patents were ticking down. The price 105 00:07:46,680 --> 00:07:51,040 Speaker 1: of that first television set. Six hundred dollars doesn't sound 106 00:07:51,040 --> 00:07:53,280 Speaker 1: like much, does it. You can buy a big ass 107 00:07:53,320 --> 00:07:56,000 Speaker 1: TV right now for six hundred dollars, but at the 108 00:07:56,080 --> 00:08:01,320 Speaker 1: time that was about half the average American held's annual 109 00:08:01,480 --> 00:08:05,080 Speaker 1: income in nineteen thirty nine, So clearly this was not 110 00:08:05,120 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: a mass market product. Now, in a World War II, 111 00:08:10,320 --> 00:08:13,840 Speaker 1: the government essentially nationalized the electronics industry for the war effort. 112 00:08:14,320 --> 00:08:19,840 Speaker 1: They actually banned civilian television production and the irony. The 113 00:08:19,920 --> 00:08:24,600 Speaker 1: key patents that Farnsworth, the original inventor the kid from Idaho, held, 114 00:08:25,040 --> 00:08:29,040 Speaker 1: expired in nineteen forty five. The very year the war ended. 115 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:32,800 Speaker 1: He had fought a decades long legal battle, he had won, 116 00:08:33,360 --> 00:08:36,440 Speaker 1: and he had watched the clock run out while soldiers 117 00:08:36,440 --> 00:08:39,240 Speaker 1: were dying on Pacific beaches. And then by the time 118 00:08:39,320 --> 00:08:42,160 Speaker 1: that America was ready to put televisions in their living rooms, 119 00:08:42,679 --> 00:08:47,600 Speaker 1: Farnsworth's name was starting to fade from history. The Radio 120 00:08:47,640 --> 00:08:52,839 Speaker 1: and Television Manufacturers Association named David Sarnoff, the man who 121 00:08:52,880 --> 00:08:56,319 Speaker 1: tried to steal the invention, the father of television, back 122 00:08:56,360 --> 00:09:00,319 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty. Farnsworth was forced to sell his company 123 00:09:00,360 --> 00:09:04,319 Speaker 1: in nineteen fifty one. He died in nineteen seventy one, 124 00:09:04,559 --> 00:09:08,120 Speaker 1: probably unknown to the millions of Americans who were by 125 00:09:08,160 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: that time watching his invention every single night. And the 126 00:09:14,559 --> 00:09:18,319 Speaker 1: only reason most people might know his name today is 127 00:09:18,960 --> 00:09:23,000 Speaker 1: because of a group of Utah school children successfully petitioned 128 00:09:23,000 --> 00:09:25,559 Speaker 1: Congress to put a statue of him in the National 129 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:30,400 Speaker 1: Statuary Hall in Washington, Washington, where his invention had been 130 00:09:30,679 --> 00:09:35,480 Speaker 1: conscripted into military service just long enough so his patents expired. 131 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:40,120 Speaker 1: It is one of the great injustices in American history. 132 00:09:40,960 --> 00:09:44,720 Speaker 1: This is also one of the great American stories because 133 00:09:44,720 --> 00:09:48,079 Speaker 1: despite everything done to him by corporate power and government, policy, 134 00:09:48,679 --> 00:09:52,840 Speaker 1: Philo Farnsworth invention survived and conquered. 135 00:09:53,960 --> 00:09:56,000 Speaker 3: So there's the history. 136 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:58,760 Speaker 1: Now I want you to fast forward for a moment, 137 00:09:59,360 --> 00:10:03,600 Speaker 1: because here's where the story becomes not just inspiring, but 138 00:10:03,679 --> 00:10:09,319 Speaker 1: I think it becomes instructive. By nineteen forty eight, probably 139 00:10:09,320 --> 00:10:12,120 Speaker 1: a half dozen companies had jumped into the TV market. 140 00:10:13,240 --> 00:10:16,520 Speaker 1: Competition did what competition always does in the free market. 141 00:10:17,520 --> 00:10:20,920 Speaker 1: A company called the Admiral Corporation put a ten inch 142 00:10:21,000 --> 00:10:23,839 Speaker 1: set on sale for two hundred and fifty dollars. Now, 143 00:10:23,920 --> 00:10:27,320 Speaker 1: I know that sounds cheap until you realize that's the 144 00:10:27,440 --> 00:10:35,200 Speaker 1: equivalent of thirty five hundred dollars today. That's two hundred 145 00:10:35,200 --> 00:10:39,040 Speaker 1: and fifty dollars equided them thirty five hundred dollars nineteen 146 00:10:39,120 --> 00:10:44,080 Speaker 1: forty eight. By mid nineteen forty eight, a little over 147 00:10:44,120 --> 00:10:46,400 Speaker 1: a quarter of a million TV sets had been sold, 148 00:10:46,920 --> 00:10:50,240 Speaker 1: most along the East Coast and cities. And why because 149 00:10:50,240 --> 00:10:55,439 Speaker 1: that's where the broadcast towers were. Within three years, Harry 150 00:10:55,440 --> 00:10:59,760 Speaker 1: Truman President was being watched on an estimated thirteen million 151 00:10:59,760 --> 00:11:05,959 Speaker 1: tell levision sets nationwide during a live broadcast. The market 152 00:11:06,040 --> 00:11:10,760 Speaker 1: was moving at a speed that only a free market. 153 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:16,200 Speaker 1: No government planner could have either anticipated that managed that 154 00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:23,400 Speaker 1: or created that, and then came nineteen fifty four, RCA 155 00:11:23,480 --> 00:11:28,280 Speaker 1: unveiled the CT one hundred, the first mass market color TV, 156 00:11:28,920 --> 00:11:30,400 Speaker 1: twelve and a half inches of screen. 157 00:11:31,120 --> 00:11:32,600 Speaker 3: You've probably seen these a. 158 00:11:32,559 --> 00:11:37,160 Speaker 1: Grandparent of great grandparents house inside a wooden cabinet, weighed 159 00:11:37,200 --> 00:11:41,840 Speaker 1: one hundred and seventy five pounds. It costs one thousand dollars. 160 00:11:42,520 --> 00:11:47,880 Speaker 1: Adjusted for inflation, that nineteen fifty four one thousand dollars 161 00:11:47,920 --> 00:11:52,360 Speaker 1: today is roughly ten thousand dollars. And once you get 162 00:11:52,360 --> 00:11:55,720 Speaker 1: for that ten thousand dollars, you get a tiny, fuzzy 163 00:11:55,800 --> 00:11:57,439 Speaker 1: color picture in a box the. 164 00:11:57,400 --> 00:11:58,679 Speaker 3: Size of a refrigerator. 165 00:11:59,360 --> 00:12:03,800 Speaker 1: And people bought it because the technology was extraordinary, and 166 00:12:03,840 --> 00:12:06,760 Speaker 1: people knew that over time it probably would get better 167 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:08,880 Speaker 1: and it would get cheaper. And indeed, what did it do. 168 00:12:09,400 --> 00:12:12,720 Speaker 1: It got better and it got cheaper. So by nineteen 169 00:12:12,800 --> 00:12:18,040 Speaker 1: fifty five, just a year later, sixty five percent of 170 00:12:18,080 --> 00:12:22,920 Speaker 1: households in this country had a TV. Ten years before, 171 00:12:23,040 --> 00:12:26,920 Speaker 1: it was essentially zero. Think about that trajectory, Think about 172 00:12:26,960 --> 00:12:30,960 Speaker 1: that trend line. That's not a government program, that's not 173 00:12:31,000 --> 00:12:33,280 Speaker 1: a mandate, and this wasn't a subsidy. That was a 174 00:12:33,320 --> 00:12:38,600 Speaker 1: free market that recognized the technology and technology that people wanted, 175 00:12:39,240 --> 00:12:42,120 Speaker 1: and they were competing furioucely to put it in every 176 00:12:42,160 --> 00:12:45,400 Speaker 1: living room. They were all fighting for market share at 177 00:12:45,400 --> 00:12:48,319 Speaker 1: a price that they finally dropped down to so every 178 00:12:48,360 --> 00:12:52,560 Speaker 1: family could afford to buy one. The Cato Institute's Human 179 00:12:52,600 --> 00:12:57,200 Speaker 1: Progress Project has a brilliant way of measuring this. Instead 180 00:12:57,200 --> 00:13:01,600 Speaker 1: of looking at prices and dollars, it in hours of labor. 181 00:13:02,160 --> 00:13:04,840 Speaker 1: In nineteen seventy six, the average American had to work 182 00:13:05,160 --> 00:13:09,000 Speaker 1: sixty hours. This is nineteen seventy six. I know for 183 00:13:09,040 --> 00:13:11,680 Speaker 1: some of you it seems like the Dark Ages. The 184 00:13:11,760 --> 00:13:15,280 Speaker 1: average American had to work sixty hours to afford a 185 00:13:15,320 --> 00:13:19,800 Speaker 1: new TV. Today you have to work fewer than six hours. 186 00:13:20,840 --> 00:13:25,000 Speaker 1: That's a ninety percent reduction in the real costs of 187 00:13:25,080 --> 00:13:28,920 Speaker 1: the one of the if not the most transformative technology 188 00:13:28,960 --> 00:13:32,000 Speaker 1: to ever exist in human history. And it happened not 189 00:13:32,200 --> 00:13:37,120 Speaker 1: because a government agency regulated the price down. It happened 190 00:13:37,160 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: because entrepreneurs competed the price down. That's called commoditization. And 191 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,040 Speaker 1: that's the magic of a free market. And with what 192 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:53,400 Speaker 1: did all that bias? Well, put aside the reality TV shows, 193 00:13:53,800 --> 00:13:58,199 Speaker 1: put aside the blaring table news, shouting matches, for the moment. 194 00:13:59,520 --> 00:14:06,079 Speaker 1: But here's something worth sitting with. There's a sociologist, Todd Gitlin, 195 00:14:07,040 --> 00:14:10,160 Speaker 1: not a right winger by any measure, called what television 196 00:14:10,240 --> 00:14:16,520 Speaker 1: created democratized culture. And he was right, But I don't 197 00:14:16,520 --> 00:14:21,600 Speaker 1: think in ways that he meant. I want to give 198 00:14:21,640 --> 00:14:26,440 Speaker 1: some examples. We keep hearing about the Save Act and 199 00:14:26,520 --> 00:14:29,080 Speaker 1: how the Save Act. You know, we can't get John 200 00:14:29,160 --> 00:14:34,600 Speaker 1: Thune to do a talking bilibuster, We can't get anything 201 00:14:34,600 --> 00:14:38,000 Speaker 1: to happen, and we got humor calling the Save Act 202 00:14:38,120 --> 00:14:41,600 Speaker 1: Jim Crow two point zero. If you're stopping thought about 203 00:14:41,600 --> 00:14:47,480 Speaker 1: the Jim Crow laws. Jim Crow wasn't killed by the 204 00:14:47,520 --> 00:14:49,920 Speaker 1: Civil Rights Act of nineteen sixty four or any other 205 00:14:49,960 --> 00:14:52,360 Speaker 1: civil rights act. Now there was the Jim Crow's. Jim 206 00:14:52,440 --> 00:14:56,640 Speaker 1: Crow laws post Civil War were not killed by Congress 207 00:14:56,720 --> 00:15:02,440 Speaker 1: or legislatures alone. Have you ever thought about Jim Crow 208 00:15:02,840 --> 00:15:08,720 Speaker 1: laws were killed. I believe in large part because Americans 209 00:15:08,840 --> 00:15:13,400 Speaker 1: across the country, not just in the Deep South, but 210 00:15:13,840 --> 00:15:19,880 Speaker 1: people living in Colorado, people living in Oklahoma, Kansas, Oregon, Washington, 211 00:15:20,000 --> 00:15:26,400 Speaker 1: all across the country. They watched their television sets, and 212 00:15:26,440 --> 00:15:30,520 Speaker 1: on those TV sets, they watched police dogs being set 213 00:15:30,560 --> 00:15:34,680 Speaker 1: on kids in Birmingham they watched innocent men being beaten 214 00:15:35,200 --> 00:15:41,880 Speaker 1: on this Selmst. Edmund Pettis Bridge. You cannot sustain institutionalize 215 00:15:42,000 --> 00:15:46,000 Speaker 1: cruelty when the whole country is watching. Television took that 216 00:15:46,080 --> 00:15:48,760 Speaker 1: evil out of the shadows. It put it in everybody's 217 00:15:48,880 --> 00:15:52,760 Speaker 1: living room, and Americans recoiled at what they were watching. 218 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:56,200 Speaker 3: And if you went the single most underrated. 219 00:15:55,760 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 1: Factor in the collapse of Soviet communism, it wasn't Reagan's 220 00:15:59,040 --> 00:16:01,600 Speaker 1: defense build up, as important as that was, and it 221 00:16:01,640 --> 00:16:06,600 Speaker 1: was extremely important. It was the Pope's moral authority, as 222 00:16:06,600 --> 00:16:11,480 Speaker 1: significant as that was, it wasn't it. It was TV. 223 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:15,440 Speaker 1: Francis Fuciama made this case in a book in nineteen 224 00:16:15,520 --> 00:16:18,320 Speaker 1: ninety one in which he argues that the Soviet people 225 00:16:18,360 --> 00:16:21,920 Speaker 1: could be told that America was poor and oppressed, and 226 00:16:22,000 --> 00:16:25,640 Speaker 1: state propaganda in the old Soviet Union could sustain that 227 00:16:25,760 --> 00:16:32,160 Speaker 1: lie indefinitely against the abstract argument. But you can't argue 228 00:16:32,720 --> 00:16:37,560 Speaker 1: with the video footage of an American grocery store. You 229 00:16:37,640 --> 00:16:41,320 Speaker 1: can't tell a Soviet citizen who happened to see Dallas 230 00:16:41,400 --> 00:16:44,440 Speaker 1: or Dynasty or even the love Boat. You can't convince 231 00:16:44,520 --> 00:16:51,080 Speaker 1: that Soviet Union citizen that capitalism produces misery maybe the 232 00:16:51,200 --> 00:16:55,120 Speaker 1: USS argued would stand a nuclear annihilation, but it cannot 233 00:16:55,200 --> 00:17:02,680 Speaker 1: withstand a King Super's produce is on the VHS tape. 234 00:17:02,960 --> 00:17:07,439 Speaker 1: I think that's probably the most extraordinary aspect of the 235 00:17:07,480 --> 00:17:13,040 Speaker 1: Cold War that we ignore and overlook, because I'm surrounded 236 00:17:13,119 --> 00:17:16,760 Speaker 1: right now by well, actually four television screens, three of 237 00:17:16,760 --> 00:17:21,920 Speaker 1: which are turned on right now today. The average American 238 00:17:21,960 --> 00:17:26,359 Speaker 1: television screen fifty inches. It's the turn of the century, 239 00:17:27,080 --> 00:17:31,080 Speaker 1: twenty five inches. It's growing roughly what an inch a year. 240 00:17:32,280 --> 00:17:36,639 Speaker 1: We are literally being designed and built with wider living 241 00:17:36,680 --> 00:17:42,200 Speaker 1: room walls to accommodate bigger screens. The technology that was 242 00:17:42,200 --> 00:17:45,800 Speaker 1: once available only to the wealthiest people in the wealthiest 243 00:17:45,800 --> 00:17:49,480 Speaker 1: country on Earth is now commodity that is so cheap, 244 00:17:50,040 --> 00:17:53,360 Speaker 1: so ubiquitous, that we argue about whether it's even good 245 00:17:53,400 --> 00:17:56,439 Speaker 1: for our children to watch any of it, some of it, 246 00:17:56,760 --> 00:18:02,040 Speaker 1: or too much of it. And I think we ought 247 00:18:02,040 --> 00:18:06,399 Speaker 1: to think about putting a figure on what that is worth. 248 00:18:07,280 --> 00:18:11,080 Speaker 1: What is television worth today? Because go back to Nancy 249 00:18:11,119 --> 00:18:14,280 Speaker 1: Guthrie and how everyone's playing that. 250 00:18:15,480 --> 00:18:18,320 Speaker 3: I'm just checking. Interestingly. 251 00:18:18,840 --> 00:18:22,359 Speaker 1: We got the snow and veil, we got private credit 252 00:18:22,400 --> 00:18:27,280 Speaker 1: on CNBC, and I quite tell what they're doing over 253 00:18:27,320 --> 00:18:30,520 Speaker 1: at Fox right now, but I'm sure during the break 254 00:18:30,920 --> 00:18:32,200 Speaker 1: we'll get some Nancy Guthrie. 255 00:18:32,520 --> 00:18:34,439 Speaker 4: Hey, Michael, this is Steve. I'm going to try to 256 00:18:34,520 --> 00:18:38,920 Speaker 4: use the entire three seconds. So what is this guaranteed 257 00:18:39,080 --> 00:18:43,520 Speaker 4: human bs? Where does that work come from? Anyway? Human? 258 00:18:44,160 --> 00:18:48,640 Speaker 4: I think we created it to use it as a pacifier, 259 00:18:48,680 --> 00:18:52,080 Speaker 4: so we don't ask any more questions. I listen to 260 00:18:53,320 --> 00:18:57,040 Speaker 4: eight fifty koa and sixty kh and seventh ten a lot, 261 00:18:57,840 --> 00:19:01,800 Speaker 4: and I don't like commercials, and you guys are playing. 262 00:19:03,040 --> 00:19:06,040 Speaker 4: Oh I'm not wrong. 263 00:19:06,119 --> 00:19:08,360 Speaker 3: He did fill up the entire thirty seconds. 264 00:19:09,880 --> 00:19:14,200 Speaker 1: Okay, what was his name again? Remember see Steve do 265 00:19:14,359 --> 00:19:17,720 Speaker 1: his favor three three one zero three. Send us a 266 00:19:17,760 --> 00:19:19,600 Speaker 1: text or you can leave another talk back if you 267 00:19:19,640 --> 00:19:25,160 Speaker 1: want to and finish the point about the ads. Now, 268 00:19:25,320 --> 00:19:30,959 Speaker 1: let us be quite honest about commercials. Uh. You know, 269 00:19:31,119 --> 00:19:36,400 Speaker 1: nothing is free. It might be free to you, except 270 00:19:36,920 --> 00:19:41,440 Speaker 1: you do pay to listen. In this sense, you give 271 00:19:41,560 --> 00:19:43,640 Speaker 1: up a little bit of your time unless you're listening 272 00:19:43,640 --> 00:19:46,919 Speaker 1: on the podcast where you can fast forward through a commercial. 273 00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:55,000 Speaker 1: You pay to hear our sponsors. So it's not technically free. 274 00:19:55,119 --> 00:19:58,240 Speaker 1: You just don't pay money. But that's what keeps the 275 00:19:58,280 --> 00:19:58,639 Speaker 1: lights on. 276 00:19:59,560 --> 00:19:59,840 Speaker 3: That's what. 277 00:20:00,160 --> 00:20:01,639 Speaker 1: Here's my salary to come in here and do this. 278 00:20:01,720 --> 00:20:03,600 Speaker 1: You think I do this for free? You think I 279 00:20:03,680 --> 00:20:05,680 Speaker 1: come in here and spend three hours a day plus 280 00:20:05,720 --> 00:20:09,119 Speaker 1: the outside the showtime. You think I'd spend one second 281 00:20:09,160 --> 00:20:17,200 Speaker 1: with Dragon Redbeard without getting paid for it. Silly boy, 282 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:23,040 Speaker 1: silly boy. So back to this TV story. Think about 283 00:20:23,119 --> 00:20:27,680 Speaker 1: Jim crow Laws, think about the fall of communism, think 284 00:20:27,680 --> 00:20:31,200 Speaker 1: about almost anything. Think about Chicago riots in nineteen sixty eight, 285 00:20:31,320 --> 00:20:35,600 Speaker 1: the Democrat National Convention, think about the Watch Riots. 286 00:20:37,600 --> 00:20:39,679 Speaker 3: Almost everything. 287 00:20:40,560 --> 00:20:46,040 Speaker 1: That's of historical significance has been influenced because a narrative 288 00:20:46,160 --> 00:20:53,680 Speaker 1: has been set through television. That's why the Nancy Guthrie 289 00:20:53,760 --> 00:21:00,200 Speaker 1: story has been such a bizarre example of how, Oh, 290 00:21:00,280 --> 00:21:02,960 Speaker 1: let's set a narrative, and the narrative is we don't know, 291 00:21:03,000 --> 00:21:06,360 Speaker 1: we don't know, we don't know. Oh, there's mystery, mystery, mystery. 292 00:21:06,640 --> 00:21:15,520 Speaker 1: It's designed to keep people watching. And I'm not going 293 00:21:15,600 --> 00:21:19,920 Speaker 1: to criticize that except here. And here's what. I don't 294 00:21:19,920 --> 00:21:24,280 Speaker 1: want to be a hypocrite. I present things that I 295 00:21:24,320 --> 00:21:28,080 Speaker 1: hope are interesting. Change your perspective, cause you even if 296 00:21:28,080 --> 00:21:32,000 Speaker 1: you don't change perspective to at least think differently about something, 297 00:21:33,640 --> 00:21:36,480 Speaker 1: and so I'm doing essentially the same thing. I just 298 00:21:36,520 --> 00:21:40,640 Speaker 1: haven't latched onto one thing. And that's the only thing 299 00:21:40,680 --> 00:21:42,560 Speaker 1: that I talked about. By the way, Dragon told me 300 00:21:42,600 --> 00:21:43,879 Speaker 1: that during the break, when I told you what was 301 00:21:43,960 --> 00:21:44,640 Speaker 1: on these screens. 302 00:21:44,840 --> 00:21:48,560 Speaker 3: Sure enough, Fox indeed was talking about Nancy G. Guthrie. 303 00:21:50,640 --> 00:21:56,360 Speaker 1: So think about the history of TV, then think about 304 00:21:57,200 --> 00:21:58,200 Speaker 1: what's TV worth. 305 00:21:59,320 --> 00:22:00,560 Speaker 3: Because the ad whache. 306 00:22:00,280 --> 00:22:08,439 Speaker 1: American spends more leisure time watching TV than doing anything else. 307 00:22:10,320 --> 00:22:14,800 Speaker 1: The average American spends more leisure time watching TV than 308 00:22:14,840 --> 00:22:21,120 Speaker 1: doing anything else. Nearly eighty percent of all Americans are 309 00:22:21,160 --> 00:22:26,960 Speaker 1: watching TV for any length of time at any given moment, 310 00:22:27,480 --> 00:22:32,960 Speaker 1: on any given day. I'm I'm kind of half assed 311 00:22:32,960 --> 00:22:35,119 Speaker 1: watching it right now, because I said, I've got four 312 00:22:35,200 --> 00:22:39,600 Speaker 1: television monitors in the studio. When you ask people what 313 00:22:39,800 --> 00:22:42,720 Speaker 1: they might be paid to give up television. 314 00:22:43,119 --> 00:22:45,720 Speaker 3: The median answer median answer. 315 00:22:45,440 --> 00:22:49,840 Speaker 1: Comes out to about twelve thousand dollars per person per year, 316 00:22:50,200 --> 00:22:52,679 Speaker 1: not one thousand dollars a month. Would you give up 317 00:22:52,720 --> 00:22:58,640 Speaker 1: TV for one thousand dollars a month? Interestingly, total American 318 00:22:58,720 --> 00:23:04,680 Speaker 1: expenditure on television was about thirty five billion dollars yearly 319 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,400 Speaker 1: in the most recent years roughly one hundred and five 320 00:23:08,480 --> 00:23:12,680 Speaker 1: dollars per person. So you're getting something worth twelve thousand 321 00:23:12,720 --> 00:23:14,560 Speaker 1: dollars a year for about one hundred and five dollars 322 00:23:14,600 --> 00:23:18,679 Speaker 1: a year. That is a ratio of value to cost 323 00:23:20,080 --> 00:23:22,840 Speaker 1: that I don't think a single government program in the 324 00:23:22,920 --> 00:23:27,600 Speaker 1: history of civilization has ever come close to achieving. So 325 00:23:27,760 --> 00:23:33,080 Speaker 1: what are the lessons here? I think there are several lessons. First, 326 00:23:33,080 --> 00:23:36,960 Speaker 1: the loan inventor, the kid plowing a potato field in 327 00:23:37,160 --> 00:23:42,960 Speaker 1: Ohio in Idaho can literally change the world. The credential 328 00:23:43,080 --> 00:23:45,520 Speaker 1: experts at the largest corporations in this country said it 329 00:23:45,520 --> 00:23:47,400 Speaker 1: couldn't be done, and a twenty one year old farm 330 00:23:47,440 --> 00:23:51,880 Speaker 1: boy did it. Never underestimate the individual. That is why 331 00:23:51,920 --> 00:23:58,840 Speaker 1: we celebrate individualism in this country. Never count out the outsider. 332 00:23:59,600 --> 00:24:01,880 Speaker 1: Never count out the person who says, oh, you've always 333 00:24:01,920 --> 00:24:03,320 Speaker 1: done it this way, I'd like to try to do 334 00:24:03,359 --> 00:24:07,119 Speaker 1: it this way. There are certain things about how I 335 00:24:07,200 --> 00:24:10,800 Speaker 1: do this program that ten years ago I came to 336 00:24:10,880 --> 00:24:13,159 Speaker 1: management and said I don't want to do X, Y 337 00:24:13,200 --> 00:24:16,040 Speaker 1: and Z. Now you can probably guess what those things are, 338 00:24:16,359 --> 00:24:19,000 Speaker 1: and they were like, oh, oh, everybody does that. I'm like, 339 00:24:19,080 --> 00:24:21,680 Speaker 1: I know that's the problem. Everybody does those other things 340 00:24:21,720 --> 00:24:25,480 Speaker 1: and I don't want to do those other things, and 341 00:24:25,760 --> 00:24:30,560 Speaker 1: it's turned out to be incredibly successful. So never count 342 00:24:30,720 --> 00:24:37,000 Speaker 1: out the outsider. Always remember the loan inventor. Second, corporate power. 343 00:24:37,880 --> 00:24:41,960 Speaker 1: When corporate power is unchecked by real competition and real 344 00:24:42,080 --> 00:24:48,000 Speaker 1: rule of law, corporate power will try to steal what 345 00:24:48,080 --> 00:24:52,040 Speaker 1: it cannot buy. Let's be honest. RCA was not a 346 00:24:52,080 --> 00:24:55,720 Speaker 1: free market actor. It was a market denominator, using litigation 347 00:24:56,200 --> 00:25:00,760 Speaker 1: and their government connections to crush a competitor. Far's worst 348 00:25:00,840 --> 00:25:03,800 Speaker 1: vindication came through the patent system, working as it was 349 00:25:03,840 --> 00:25:09,480 Speaker 1: designed to work. Intellectual property rights exist precisely to protect 350 00:25:09,520 --> 00:25:13,760 Speaker 1: those individual inventors of the world. Found the David Sarnoffs 351 00:25:13,800 --> 00:25:17,439 Speaker 1: of the world the corporate greed that would otherwise steal 352 00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:21,520 Speaker 1: their stuff, something that a lot of countries don't have, 353 00:25:22,240 --> 00:25:24,399 Speaker 1: and certainly a lot of countries like well say, the 354 00:25:24,480 --> 00:25:27,960 Speaker 1: Chinese Communist Party don't respect and therefore want to. They 355 00:25:27,960 --> 00:25:29,280 Speaker 1: don't want to spend the time, they don't have the 356 00:25:29,440 --> 00:25:32,600 Speaker 1: intellectual power, So what do they do. They steal our 357 00:25:32,720 --> 00:25:37,840 Speaker 1: intellectual property. Never forget that that makes them truly an enemy. 358 00:25:38,000 --> 00:25:44,200 Speaker 1: Despite all the other reasons they're an enemy ideologically, militarily, culturally, everything. 359 00:25:44,359 --> 00:25:47,440 Speaker 1: They're an enemy because they don't respect our rule of law, 360 00:25:47,600 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 1: and they don't respect our rights of intellectual property. Third, 361 00:25:53,520 --> 00:25:54,840 Speaker 1: and this is probably the one I want you to 362 00:25:54,840 --> 00:25:59,639 Speaker 1: carry with you the most. A free market over time 363 00:26:00,800 --> 00:26:09,600 Speaker 1: makes all these extraordinary things ordinary. Early adopters Tamer's dad 364 00:26:09,640 --> 00:26:14,119 Speaker 1: was an early adopter. I remember the first flat screen 365 00:26:14,359 --> 00:26:17,520 Speaker 1: TV he had. Now, because it was flat screen doesn't 366 00:26:17,560 --> 00:26:20,760 Speaker 1: mean that behind that flat screen wasn't about two or 367 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:24,000 Speaker 1: three feet of tubes and everything else. And it weighed 368 00:26:24,000 --> 00:26:27,159 Speaker 1: about one thousand pounds. He took like four people to 369 00:26:27,200 --> 00:26:30,520 Speaker 1: move it into the bedroom. He first have a remote 370 00:26:30,520 --> 00:26:33,960 Speaker 1: control tip it wasn't really remote, it was connected by 371 00:26:34,000 --> 00:26:38,639 Speaker 1: a wire. Or the first you know DVR. 372 00:26:38,200 --> 00:26:38,760 Speaker 3: That he got. 373 00:26:39,359 --> 00:26:43,479 Speaker 1: The VHS system about the size of this studio probably 374 00:26:43,480 --> 00:26:44,320 Speaker 1: cost him a couple. 375 00:26:44,119 --> 00:26:45,520 Speaker 3: Of thousand dollars. 376 00:26:49,200 --> 00:26:56,520 Speaker 1: Free markets over time make extraordinary things ordinary. That technology 377 00:26:56,560 --> 00:27:00,479 Speaker 1: that cost it and average Americans half of the annual 378 00:27:00,520 --> 00:27:03,800 Speaker 1: income back in nineteen thirty nine today costs just a 379 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:04,680 Speaker 1: few hours of work. 380 00:27:05,760 --> 00:27:07,440 Speaker 3: The luxury that. 381 00:27:07,560 --> 00:27:12,480 Speaker 1: Our parents experienced in the nineteen fifties are the commodities 382 00:27:12,480 --> 00:27:14,120 Speaker 1: that we buy in the twenty twenties. 383 00:27:14,880 --> 00:27:17,280 Speaker 3: And that's not an accident, and that's not luck. 384 00:27:17,800 --> 00:27:24,560 Speaker 1: It's the compounding miracle of competition, innovation and human ingenuity 385 00:27:25,240 --> 00:27:30,720 Speaker 1: that's operating absent something that's way too often in our 386 00:27:30,880 --> 00:27:34,640 Speaker 1: midst and that's bureaucrats in the room. 387 00:27:36,040 --> 00:27:39,800 Speaker 5: Hey Michael, I think I may be cheating you, guys. 388 00:27:40,119 --> 00:27:43,320 Speaker 5: I'm not paying to listen to your commercials. I know 389 00:27:43,480 --> 00:27:46,440 Speaker 5: your schedule, and I pull my hair budget until they're over. 390 00:27:49,040 --> 00:27:51,360 Speaker 1: I know exactly because I'm you know, we live by 391 00:27:51,359 --> 00:27:53,840 Speaker 1: the clock, bye by the clock. I can do sixty 392 00:27:53,880 --> 00:27:57,199 Speaker 1: seconds very well. So then Cars for Kids comes on, 393 00:27:57,720 --> 00:28:01,200 Speaker 1: I can just hit mute on the beamer and sixty 394 00:28:01,200 --> 00:28:03,520 Speaker 1: seconds later just turn it back on. And I'd say 395 00:28:03,560 --> 00:28:05,720 Speaker 1: about ninety percent of the time, I'm almost spot on. 396 00:28:08,320 --> 00:28:10,359 Speaker 1: And of course I didn't have to force myself not 397 00:28:10,520 --> 00:28:13,359 Speaker 1: to think about what I'm doing, because then I'm playing 398 00:28:13,359 --> 00:28:15,320 Speaker 1: the stupid thing in my head. So I've got to 399 00:28:15,320 --> 00:28:17,399 Speaker 1: look around at the mountains or look at the traffic 400 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:18,919 Speaker 1: or whatever and get my mind off. 401 00:28:19,000 --> 00:28:23,400 Speaker 3: What eight seven seven cars Kids? Now, before you roll 402 00:28:23,440 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 3: your eyes, Cars for Kids, before you roll your eyes. 403 00:28:29,119 --> 00:28:33,679 Speaker 1: Eight your card the Nancy got Ree coverage. And I 404 00:28:33,680 --> 00:28:35,800 Speaker 1: know you've been rolling your eyes. Hear me out for 405 00:28:35,840 --> 00:28:38,080 Speaker 1: just a second. For the last three weeks, you couldn't 406 00:28:38,080 --> 00:28:40,080 Speaker 1: turn on TV. You opened the news app, walk past 407 00:28:40,080 --> 00:28:43,320 Speaker 1: the break room, and somebody's asking, did they find her yet? 408 00:28:43,320 --> 00:28:45,120 Speaker 1: They find her yet? It's an eighty four year old 409 00:28:45,120 --> 00:28:47,680 Speaker 1: woman from Tucson kidnapped from her own own home in 410 00:28:47,680 --> 00:28:50,600 Speaker 1: the middle of the night. Ransom notes into the TMZ, 411 00:28:50,680 --> 00:28:53,400 Speaker 1: the FBI all over the place. You got cryptocurrency, you 412 00:28:53,440 --> 00:28:55,960 Speaker 1: got further investigators, forty fifty thousand tips. 413 00:28:56,040 --> 00:28:57,240 Speaker 3: The whole country's gripped by it. 414 00:28:57,880 --> 00:29:02,120 Speaker 1: Why because you're is Savannah Guthrie of The Today Show, 415 00:29:03,320 --> 00:29:07,240 Speaker 1: as her former co anchor and friend Hodak Covid put it, 416 00:29:07,840 --> 00:29:10,000 Speaker 1: and this is actually the most honest thing, and even. 417 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,640 Speaker 3: Has said about it, she's like all of our moms. 418 00:29:13,120 --> 00:29:13,360 Speaker 4: Ingo. 419 00:29:13,560 --> 00:29:15,480 Speaker 1: I think that's right, the whole thing right there in 420 00:29:15,520 --> 00:29:18,120 Speaker 1: that sentence. She's like all of our moms. She's like 421 00:29:18,160 --> 00:29:21,280 Speaker 1: all of our moms, not because Nancy Guthrie is anyone's 422 00:29:21,360 --> 00:29:25,440 Speaker 1: actual mother other than Savannah, but because television made her 423 00:29:25,560 --> 00:29:29,240 Speaker 1: feel that way. Savannah Guthrie has been in America's living 424 00:29:29,280 --> 00:29:32,640 Speaker 1: room every morning for years. We've watched her laugh, cry, 425 00:29:32,720 --> 00:29:36,640 Speaker 1: cover elections, the Olympics, Pandemics. We've seen her, hugger mom. 426 00:29:37,000 --> 00:29:40,320 Speaker 1: We feel like we know this family because in a 427 00:29:40,360 --> 00:29:45,960 Speaker 1: real sense, television and I also believe radio gives us 428 00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:50,120 Speaker 1: that intimacy. So when something terrible happens to somebody, we 429 00:29:50,240 --> 00:29:53,640 Speaker 1: feel we know. We don't really, but we feel we know, 430 00:29:54,080 --> 00:29:57,640 Speaker 1: then we care. Tens of thousands of tips, two hundred 431 00:29:57,640 --> 00:30:01,360 Speaker 1: thousand dollars reward. Now the nation on on a vigil 432 00:30:01,440 --> 00:30:04,400 Speaker 1: for a woman most of us have. You'd never heard 433 00:30:04,400 --> 00:30:09,440 Speaker 1: of her a few weeks ago. That's the power of television, 434 00:30:09,760 --> 00:30:13,720 Speaker 1: and it cuts in every single direction. And here's the thing, 435 00:30:13,760 --> 00:30:17,080 Speaker 1: that same power, that ability to make strangers feel like neighbors, 436 00:30:17,240 --> 00:30:19,719 Speaker 1: to make the distant feel personal, to put a human 437 00:30:19,800 --> 00:30:24,760 Speaker 1: face on an abstract situation. That power has shaped the 438 00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:27,840 Speaker 1: course of this country's history and ways that go far 439 00:30:27,960 --> 00:30:33,800 Speaker 1: beyond true crime coverage. Jim Crow. Discrimination was only possible 440 00:30:33,840 --> 00:30:38,400 Speaker 1: in small town enclaves, segregation, lensing, the denial of basic 441 00:30:38,480 --> 00:30:42,720 Speaker 1: human dignity is survived for generations precisely because most white 442 00:30:43,000 --> 00:30:44,320 Speaker 1: white Americans couldn't. 443 00:30:44,000 --> 00:30:45,240 Speaker 3: See it, didn't see it. 444 00:30:45,560 --> 00:30:48,360 Speaker 1: They couldn't see innocent children blocked to the schoolhouse doors 445 00:30:48,760 --> 00:30:51,160 Speaker 1: They couldn't see men drive from their homes. They couldn't 446 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:55,040 Speaker 1: see the brutally that the brutality that sustained an entire 447 00:30:55,160 --> 00:30:58,880 Speaker 1: system of oppression. But then they turned on their TVs. 448 00:31:00,760 --> 00:31:04,400 Speaker 1: That's why if you turn on your radio, someone like 449 00:31:04,480 --> 00:31:08,600 Speaker 1: me has to bring it alive. You have to bring 450 00:31:08,640 --> 00:31:13,240 Speaker 1: some animation to it. Not on TV it's just osmosis. 451 00:31:14,280 --> 00:31:17,480 Speaker 1: So on television you watch Selma, they watch Bull Connor's 452 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:21,040 Speaker 1: fire hoses turned on peaceful marchers in Birmingham. They watch children, 453 00:31:21,160 --> 00:31:24,600 Speaker 1: children being denied in education, treated like animals. The same 454 00:31:24,760 --> 00:31:28,680 Speaker 1: mechanism that makes you feel like Nancy Guthrie is someone 455 00:31:28,800 --> 00:31:31,800 Speaker 1: you know, made those victims feel like somebody that you 456 00:31:31,880 --> 00:31:34,400 Speaker 1: know too. And it wasn't just a political argument anymore. 457 00:31:34,680 --> 00:31:38,080 Speaker 1: It's somebody's mother, is somebody's son, it's somebody's child. You 458 00:31:38,280 --> 00:31:46,080 Speaker 1: cannot sustain institutionalize cruelty if the whole country's watching. That 459 00:31:46,200 --> 00:31:51,800 Speaker 1: is television's most extraordinary and I think most dangerous power. 460 00:31:52,880 --> 00:31:56,120 Speaker 1: The same force that has you checking your phone for 461 00:31:56,320 --> 00:31:58,680 Speaker 1: updates on an eighty four year old woman in Tucson 462 00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:02,200 Speaker 1: is the force that helped bring down Jim Crow. And 463 00:32:02,320 --> 00:32:06,800 Speaker 1: it all runs on the same wire all doing the 464 00:32:06,840 --> 00:32:11,880 Speaker 1: same thing. So you have a history of TV that 465 00:32:12,120 --> 00:32:14,960 Speaker 1: now you understand what that history is, and now you 466 00:32:15,080 --> 00:32:18,800 Speaker 1: know that in the long run, what it's done, It 467 00:32:18,840 --> 00:32:24,400 Speaker 1: has shaped us, all of which has been done without 468 00:32:25,720 --> 00:32:32,960 Speaker 1: of bureaucracy, without a government, proving of the free markets, 469 00:32:33,520 --> 00:32:39,360 Speaker 1: the rule of law, Human ingenuity, individualism is what's created 470 00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:43,880 Speaker 1: both that amazing technology and that dangerous technology.