Vast Wasteland

I complained to a fellow writer that lately I’ve had nothing to blog about. Actually, that’s been true for as long as I’ve been blogging, but until now, having nothing to write about hasn’t stopped me from writing. But now, for some reason, I feel my blog posts must really pop or I don’t publish them.

Having no writing ideas, I turned on the television for some mindless distraction. A talk show was airing. It featured several women sitting at a table and discussing the most mundane subjects. After a few minutes it occurred to me, “These women have nothing interesting to talk about, yet despite that they’re talking, and they’re on television and earning big bucks for blathering about nothing of consequence.” Then I turned off the television. Suddenly, I felt better about my blog.

In a 1961 speech to a convention of the National Association of Broadcasters, FCC chairman Newton Minow referred to American commercial television programming as a “vast wasteland.”

"When television is good, nothing — not the theater, not the magazines or newspapers — nothing is better.

But when television is bad, nothing is worse. I invite each of you to sit down in front of your own television set when your station goes on the air and stay there, for a day, without a book, without a magazine, without a newspaper, without a profit and loss sheet or a rating book to distract you. Keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that what you will observe is a vast wasteland.

You will see a procession of game shows, formula comedies about totally unbelievable families, blood and thunder, mayhem, violence, sadism, murder, western bad men, western good men, private eyes, gangsters, more violence, and cartoons. And endlessly commercials — many screaming, cajoling, and offending. And most of all, boredom. True, you'll see a few things you will enjoy. But they will be very, very few. And if you think I exaggerate, I only ask you to try it."

There were three networks in 1961. How many cable and satellite channels are there now? Hundreds. But I would say that not a lot has changed except the “vast wasteland” is more vast than ever. And yet there is still a large audience. People complain, “I get 150 channels on my TV and there’s nothing to watch.” But they turn on their televisions and watch anyway.

Television shows aren’t written by Hemingway and Faulkner, and neither are blogs. No one wants to be a part of a vast wasteland even if that’s how it ends up. So I can leave this page blank or I can put words on it. And my words may make some people yawn, but maybe a few will think, “I could write a more interesting blog/novel/short story/screenplay/children’s book than the stuff I’m reading.” And among those few, maybe one person will decide to try. To that person, I say, “Go for it.” Worst case, you end up a part of the vast wasteland and you discover you have a lot of company. Best case … who knows where that road will take you, but it will be an interesting ride.