The Clinton victory does not prove that television advertising is of negligible consequence in less drastic times or that voters are as smart and independent as Davis portrays them just because they chose his preferred candidate last year. The Clintonians, after all, also used commercials. And his hurrahs for the 1992 upsurge of call-in shows is a touch unsophisticated. In flocking to the call-ins, the polls were avoiding the Sunday morning talkies, where they would be pressed on the issues. It looks as though we shall be seeing more of that sort of pretense of populism, and I can't share Davis's joy at the prospect.
Every chapter suffers from similar effusions.
Just as you're getting interested in his description, say, of the way video games test children's abilities, he flies off into Peter Panland. Common sense is with him when he argues that if used in imaginative ways,television can help youngsters to learn. And amid his rejoicings over whoopee interactiveness, Davis also comes out in favor of books that do not pop or sizzle, noting that despite the bleak predictions of critics, more people seem to be reading these days. That's encouraging, but it hardly exhausts the question of television's influence on what is being read or how it is being absorbed. Even at its most sensible, Five Myths is off-putting.