Backwoods Blog

QUIZ SHOW SCANDAL

Backwoods Blog;

in the woods and on the road…

To a nation since grown accustomed to public deception it may be difficult to understand the public outrage provoked by the television quiz show scandals. But we were more innocent then. The deception violated our misplaced trust in the guardians of the swelling electronic media and mocked our libidinous urge to believe in their newly revealed breed of intellectual heroes. We had been mind-f***ed on an enormous scale. And we didn’t like it. Some writers later reflected that the quiz show scandals marked the beginning of our loss of innocence. But it was not so. The intensity of indignation, the extent of public outrage, was testimony to an American innocence of belief strong enough to survive this and graver challenges to come; an innocence that was to quicken the public movements and private rebellions of the sixties until it dissolved in the futilities of Vietnam. For innocence is a strength. It supports the animating will to believe which nourishes protest against deception and injustice, gives courage to the oppressed and discontented. The hopeless do not revolt. The cynical do not march. Only when what we call “innocence” is also reality – success a seeming possibility – are we strong or courageous enough to assault the ramparts of established order.

We are nearing such a time. The assault on television deception was only a trivial, early fissure in the foundation of complacency and apathy which seemed to have hardened its hold on American life…Although we didn’t know it in the fall of 1959, “the sixties” were already stirring. And I was going to be a part of it. The quiz show investigation, so heady and dazzling an experience for a young man who had never before even read his name in a major newspaper, was only an overture. I was to begin working for John F. Kennedy as a speech writer as soon as the quiz show investigation was completed and my desk was waiting for me…Years later, Robert Kennedy told me, “I was a little worried about hiring you. I thought you might write about us. And, in fact, you were the only one who never did.” True enough, Bobby. I never did. Not until now.

– Richard Goodwin from his book “Remembering America”  (1988)

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“No matter how cynical you become, it’s never enough to keep up…”

– Lily Tomlin,  American comedian and Laugh In switchboard operator

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The quiz show scandals from the late fifties were one of the first instances where the confidence of Americans in their own institutions and societal integrity were shaken. When viewers realized the popular quiz shows were scripted and correct answers supplied to contestants, it undermined the general public’s trust in the television networks and planted doubt questioning the reliability of other trusted cultural sources. (I remember the ruckus created years later when professional wrestling organizations revealed their matches were scripted entertainment and not sporting events.) Charles Van Doren, a professor of literature at Columbia University, likable and quite photogenic, was one of the most popular of the quiz show contestants. His role in the quiz show scandal was portrayed in the 1994 film “Quiz Show” directed by Robert Redford and based on Goodwin’s book “Remembering America.”  

Goodwin remarks that “American innocence” took a hard shot during the ten year span from the quiz show scandals to Vietnam, but he was still convinced that innocence can endure even in the most disillusioning of times. Richard Goodwin was the congressional investigator during the quiz show scandal and went on to become one of the primary speechwriters for the Kennedy and Johnson administrations in the 1960s, penning such famous speeches as Johnson’s “The Great Society,” Robert Kennedy’s “Ripple of Hope” speech in South Africa in 1966, (and later) Al Gore’s presidential concession speech in 2000. For more on Goodwin and the “one buck book” ($1) of his that I purchased in a department store discount bin check out Backwoods Blog #8. I’m not sure what Goodwin would think of our current day news and media environment with its backwash of “fake news,” “alternate facts,” and proliferation of conspiracy considerations, but I think he would refer to innocence. With the sheer volume and numbing effect of its content, how do we maintain a quota of critical thinking and hopeful optimism? Goodwin asserts that innocence is a strength of the will –  firmly convinced that “success is a seeming possibility.” In order to remain hopeful of positive outcomes, even when complexity and contradictions raise the bar of difficulty, one needs an innocence that remains true and determined to do what needs to be done. It is an innocence clearly aware of the inconsistencies of our human efforts, yet unfazed. The challenges ahead of us require no less. 

In the woods,

Dave

March 15, 2023