What if a respected person had a "glitch" on TV? Chayefsky predicted the current situation. [View all]

[usonian]

From Telegraph:
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/films/0/mad-close-comfort-network-predicted-furious-future-tv-news/

He (Chayefsky) began entertaining an idea of a news anchorman, think a Walter Cronkite type, who “snaps” live on air. The outburst would lead to a ratings surge, which would convince his bosses to exploit his health further, and lead rival networks to pursue equal extremes of behaviour.

“What would happen if he started inventing news?” Chayefsky wrote in his diaries. “The basic joke is that the networks are so powerful they can make true what isn’t true and never even existed.”

And the gist of the movie "Network" is:
This was the story of Howard Beale the first known instance of a man who was killed because he had lousy ratings.
(used on Jeopardy)

Media want this tale to fester
and give a pass
to the molester