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Spurred by such criticisms, Congress in 1967 established the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and, in 1969, the Public Broadcasting System (PBS), which received some federal money to support noncommercial and educational programs. But PBS must still rely on viewer support and corporate sponsorship to survive.
Criticism of the medium has intensified, and many of the nation's problems, from widespread illiteracy to political apathy, have been attributed to television. Critics on the right charge that television news is infused with a liberal bias and that programming contains too much sex. Critics on the left counter that news programs serve to legitimize the status quo and marginalize any proposals for far-reaching social change. Cultural critics lament the privatization of American life, with viewers staying home glued to the tube instead of participating in political or social activities. And though television continues to provide viewers with common stories and scenes of events that help construct a sense of national unity, the ideology of television programming, especially the message that limitless consumerism is the most important freedom, has alarming political and cultural implications.
Television has intensified the commodification of people's deeply felt aspirations and fears, and has turned private matters, from reproductive decisions to mourning the loss of loved ones, into public spectacles. And as the networks confront the competition from cable and VCRS that is making inroads in their audiences, their executives resort to conflating nonfiction television with entertainment, producing "infotainment" like tabloid television. Although there is still much debate over whether television contributes to violent behavior, low educational attainment, or political corruption, there seems to be common agreement among most people that the enormous potential of this medium is yet to be realized.
Erik Barnouw, A History of Broadcasting in the United States, 3 vols. (1966, 1968, 1970); Christopher Sterling and John Kittross, Stay Tuned: A Concise History of American Broadcasting (1990).
SUSAN J. DOUGLAS
See also Advertising; Federal Communications Commission.
Railroads
In the optimistic years following the Treaty of Ghent (1814) major eastern cities sought to capture the trade of the expanding West. Taverns across the country heard the arguments of merchants, politicians, and farmers as they voiced the rival claims of turnpikes and canals, of steamboats and railroads. Businesspeople in New York City and Philadelphia favored canals and river steamboats, but the merchants of Baltimore, Charleston, and Boston sought to reach expanded western markets with railroads, which first appeared in America in the 1820s. The Baltimore & Ohio Railroad by 1831 had completed a line to Frederick, Maryland, and replaced horses with steam locomotives.
The acceptance of railroads came quickly in the 1830s, although there was some opposition: divines preached against the "iron horse," doctors warned of the excessive speed, and canal, turnpike, and coaching companies, of course, were hostile. But most Americans agreed with the French economist Michel Chevalier, who wrote, "The Americans have a perfect passion for railroads." By 1840 the New England and Mid-Atlantic states had 2,083 miles of track, seven southern states had a total of 636 miles, and the Old Northwest had 89 miles. The nation had almost 3,000 miles of railway, whereas all of Europe had only 1,800 miles. In 1847, Daniel Webster claimed the railroad "towers above all other inventions of this or the preceding age."
The iron network expanded quickly during the 1840s. Trackage increased over 150 percent in the Northeast, more than tripled in the South, and grew a dozenfold in the Old Northwest. In the 1830s many lines had more passenger revenue than freight, but the next decade saw freight traffic dominate. By 1850 the typical freight train consisted of a dozen cars, each of about ten-ton capacity. The double truck eight-wheel passenger coach had long since replaced the original stagecoach design. The typical locomotive was a wood-burning American type (a swiveled four-wheeled truck ahead of four drivers),
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