○  英语演讲：television news coverage  ○

ion stations control virtually all that can be received over the air by ordinary television sets. but besides the mass circulation dailies, there are weeklies, monthlies, out-of-town newspapers and books. if a man doesn’t like his newspaper, he can read another from out of town or wait for a weekly news magazine. it’s not ideal, but it’s infinitely better than the situation in television.

there, if a man doesn’t like what the networks are showing, all he can do is turn them off and listen to a phonograph. "networks," he stated "which are few in number have a virtual monopoly of a whole media of communications." the newspaper of mass circulation have no monopoly on the medium of print.

now a virtual monopoly of a whole medium of communication is not something that democratic people should blindly ignore. and we are not going to cut off our television sets and listen to the phonograph just because the airways belong to the networks. they don’t. they belong to the people. as justice byron wrote in his landmark opinion six months ago, "it’s the right of the viewers and listeners, not the right of the broadcasters, which is paramount."

now it’s argued that this power presents no danger in the hands of those who have used it responsibly. but as to whether or not the networks have abused the power they enjoy, let us call as our first witness, former vice president humphrey and the city of chicago. according to theodore white, television’s intercutting of the film from the streets of chicago with the "current proceedings on the floor of the convention created the most striking and false political picture of 1968 -- the nomination of a man for the american presidency by the brutality and violence of merciless police."

if we are to believe a recent report of the house of representative commerce committee, then television’s presentation of the violence in the streets worked an injustice on the reputation of the chicago police. accord

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