The Titans Speak

The confessions of the titans of our television culture, offered in a November 1988 broadcast exchange, help to validate the evidence tendered above:

George Will (syndicated columnist): [comment to James Baker] It's November and the election is still this way. Isn't there a danger now that you come to November 9th, . . . and you say that our mandate is not to have furloughs, to pledge allegiance to the flag, to stay out of the American Civil Liberties Union . . . then, how do you govern on the basis of that?

James A. Baker, III (Bush campaign chairman): Well, . . . I really respectfully disagree with you because the fact of the matter is that we have to deal in thirty­second sound­bites. That's not our fault, it's not your fault, it happens to be the fault of the fact that the majority of the American people get their news that way.. . . My point about the thirty­second sound­bite . . . is that this is the way the American public get their news and therefore we in campaigns have to take that into account . . . and plan accordingly.

David Brinkley (moderator): James A. Baker, Bush Chairman, made an interesting point: It is difficult to get a program before the American people because he seems to think that the thirty­second commercial is the only vehicle available to them. I don't think that's true. Is it true?

George Will: . . . A study has been done and it is that ten years ago, the average sound­bite . . . was forty­five seconds. In 1984 it was down to fifteen­seconds. In the preliminary study this year, [it] says it is down to nine­seconds. Why?

Sam Donaldson (ABC news correspondent): I'll tell you, yes, it's true. I was doing some research for a book a couple of years ago and I went back and looked at some of the pieces I did on ABC in 1971. And you're right, I ran sound­bites of George Meany [that] went forty­three­seconds. Now it's something that's called, I call it the Tom Pettit rule. Tom Pettit is a very able NBC correspondent, but somehow he's gotten the sound­bite down to two seconds . . . . There's something like . . . the dancing pig syndrome in which every four or five or six seconds there must be another pig dancing on the street.

Hodding Carter (PBS commentator; former spokesman for Carter State Dept.): The devil made me do it is what I heard Mr. Baker say about why they were doing it. We say in the television business, "well, that's the way it is"' . . . . It's almost impossible to tell the difference today between a political ad and an evening news spot about the campaign. They are both impelled by the same ethos, the same standards, the same techniques. Make it punchy, make it sharp, make it impactful. And if it doesn't have anything to do with real issues, too bad, it's good television. ⁹¹