Vischer: kid's media values

By the mid-1990s, the media industry had consolidated so aggressively that the vast majority of children's entertainment was controlled by just three companies - Viacom, Time Warner, and Disney. Each employing more than 50,000 people, these companies were now so large that one industry analyst described working with them as more like working with nation-states than companies. The problem with these giant, publicly traded goliaths isn't that they are immoral, but rather that they are profoundly amoral. They are valueless. They are simply too big to focus on any specific value system or moral code, and instead must be all things to all people. So Warner Brothers sells Bugs Bunny with one hand and Snoop Doggy Dog with the other. Viacom sells Blue's Clues with one hand and MTV with the other. Disney sells Mickey Mouse with one hand and Desperate Housewives with the other. We're not talking about companies in the business of selling blenders or farm implements here; we're talking about companies in the business of selling images and ideas - the business of influencing beliefs. And each is valueless! Why do they sell good values to preschoolers? Because there is money in it. Why do they sell lousy values to the same kids ten years later? Because there is money in it. When faced with the choice between doing what is beneficial and doing what is profitable, these companies choose profitable every time. Their shareholders require it.

I sat at a media conference in New York and listened to Viacom chairman Sumner Redstone explain to a roomful of Wall Street analysts how he intended to hook kids with Blue's Clues, then lead them through Nikelodeon straight to MTV. When I passed the eighty-year-old billionaire in the men's room a few minutes after his speech, I noticed how small he was. I could take him, I thought to myself. not for the fun of it of course, but for the sake of America's kids. The world's kids.

I decided that probably wasn't the solution God had in mind.

Phil Vischer, Me, Myself and Bob, p.144-145