Television is here and its biggest fans are children. Overnight they’ve become instant pundits, immediately recognizing personalities who are still just faces to the rest of us.
It’s the kids who grab the TB guide and plot their viewing with military precision; the kids who know every cop and cowboy and exactly why it could not have been the butler who did it.
Will reading become a forgotten art only necessary to decipher the basic English of the TV guide or the secret message flashed on the screen by Agent X who has seconds to read the scrawl before it self-destructs?
Researchers have established that the young minds of children are readily susceptible to being brainwashed by TV. In America organizations have been formed in scores of cities in order to fight the evil effect of TV on children. The president of the organization, Action For Children’s Television, a Boston-based parents’ organization with branches in 60 cities says:
"At present, from Monday to Friday, children are subjected to 16 minutes of commercials and hour, and 12 minutes an hour on weekends."
"Television advertisers in America are pouring unprecedented millions of dollars into the child slots for the autumn season, despite a storm of public indignation over ‘brainwashing’ on children’s shows."