“Television is an invention that permits you to be entertained in your living room by people you wouldn’t have in your home.” Sir David Frost, 1939-2013.

This quote by Sir David Frost landed in my inbox yesterday.  Sir David was an English journalist and television presenter who is best-known outside of the UK for the interviews he had with former US president Richard Nixon.  Sir David passed away on Saturday.

In one of the articles reporting on his death I read that he had had a great love for television as a communication medium.  One easily forgets that that is the purpose for which television (and radio) was originally invented – as a way to quickly spread information among large numbers of people; a way that even the illiterate could easily access.  Entertainment came later, probably as a way to generate funds through marketing.

Today entertainment (with the ever-present advertising) seems to have become the main point of television (if you’re in South Africa, between the shenanigans of our politicians and the incompetence of our two brand-new twenty-four hour news channels, that includes the news as well).  Entertainment, as Sir David said, in our living rooms.  One has to wonder about the people we let in to do that entertainment, though.

There are quite a few people from television (aforementioned politicians included) whom I wouldn’t allow in my living room in person. To find out who, click here