Pope John Paul II Quotes

Television is democracy at its ugliest.

Nothing is really real unless it “happens” on television…Television has brought an inversion of our consciousness. When we take our eyes off the tube, we see things that are not quite authentic – or rather, which gain authenticity only by their resemblance to how things happen on television

Television is something the Russians invented to destroy American education.

Television has tremendous power over our lives.

Television is apparently the enemy of nuance. But nuance is essential for a thoughtful discussion.

The media transforms the great silence of things into its opposite. Formerly constituting a secret, the real now talks constantly. News reports, information, statistics, and surveys are everywhere.

TV serves us most usefully when presenting junk-entertainment; it serves us most ill when it co-opts serious modes of discourse - news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion.

What we watch on television, we approve.

As much as we try to deny it, media plays a huge part in how we view the world.

I am not afraid of mass media.

It is not at all clear how much the media influences public opinion and how much public opinion influences the media.

I only know what I read in the papers.

Television makes so much at its worst that it can't afford to do its best.

There is no dignity in television.

Even when I started in 1970, I knew that television was having a negative effect on our society.

Television is a young person's medium.

I don't read the press, I don't watch endless music TV.

Television isn't inherently good or bad. You go to a bookstore, there are how many thousands of books, but how many of those do you want? Five? Television's the same way. If you're going to show people stuff, television is the way to go. Words and pictures show things.

All you see on television are debased images.

Television enjoys a de facto monopoly on what goes into the heads of a significant part of the population and what they think.

I like television. I still believe that television is the most powerful form of communication on Earth - I just hate what is being done with it.

Television has shortened our political discourse.

Let’s get real. It does make a difference what children see on television.

Sit down in front of your television set when your station goes on the air and stay there without a book, magazine, newspaper, profit-and-loss sheet or rating book to distract you—and keep your eyes glued to that set until the station signs off. I can assure you that you will observe a vast wasteland.

Arab media is market driven like the American media. It does not so much shape public opinion as much as it reflects it.