IN HIS WORDS | MacNeil on television Conclusions that Robert MacNeil drew in his 1968 book "The People Machine: The Influence of Television on American Politics":

"There is evidence that the television industry, for its own commercial purposes and in unwarranted fear for the safety of its licenses to operate, has at times forced its news departments to adopt a craven and accommodating attitude to Congress and the White House."
"Since 1952, the television industry has engulfed the national conventions, not only covering them and interpreting them to the rest of the country, but [with the active cooperation of the parties] reshaping them, molding them into happenings more appropriate to television." (Ironic, given that networks have severely minimized their convention coverage based on the claim the gatherings are merely dog-and-pony shows -- an approach MacNeil considers misguided: Although conventions are "full of all sorts of contrived symbolism and manipulated imagery, they do nevertheless give the country a sense of how that party wants to be thought of," he said.)
"Seldom does a candidate seem the same at the end [of a campaign] as he did at the beginning. His image takes form, and television itself has much to do with the transformation."
Commenting on the explosion in media technology coming to American homes, MacNeil wrote: "None of these innovations poses any particular danger to society, if certain values and standards are respected by the people originating the information, journalistic or political. What each new development does increase, however, is the possibility of control over the minds of Americans if those values are not respected. The technology should not be exploited simply for commercial gain or political persuasion."