Marshall McLuhan on the TODAY Show

Interviewed by Tom Brokaw and Edwin Newman the morning after the Carter/Ford Debate, September 24, 1976.

[@drfallon]

"Press the pants barrel": 4.bp.blogspot.com/_h0SQqY8ocp4/S7C3iADxkZI/AAAAAAAAPQ0/OSbgyS4Er1k/s1600/1936+19.jpg

[@doughelms558]

So it's a barrel you wear while your pants are being pressed. (I tried looking it up, too, but yours was the better explanation.)

[@edwardcumpstey9061]

I could only imagine what he'd say about Biden v. Trump debate.

[@StevenErnest]

Thanks for posting this! It's fun to see two journalists so perplexed. The video screen is the retina of the mind's eye.

[@guinnesstrail]

McLuhan is Toto pulling the curtain aside to reveal the great Wizard of Oz. Amazing insight into politics.

[@PraetorClaudius]

"You're assuming what these people say is important." We miss you, Marshall.

[@CamKiosoglous]

Thank you for posting this video. MCLuhan had a vision that is probably more relevant today than most leaders today!

[@DataWaveTaGo]

“And this is the old myth of Narcissus. The word Narcissus means narcosis, numbness and drugged; and Narcissus was drugged into thinking that that image outside himself was somebody else. Narcissus did not fall in love with his own image, he thought it was somebody else. And the same with us, in our technology and gadgetry and gimmickry and so on, we don’t think that is merely a part of our own physical organism extended out there, we’re like Narcissus, completely numb. Now when we put out a new part of ourselves, extend a new part of ourselves by technology into the environment we protect ourselves by numbing that area. The more I looked at this the more I had difficulty explaining why people ignored it.” M. McLuhan

[@ulfnowotny01]

Very good insight!

[@drfallon]

It is an understandable reaction. I have been reading McLuhan for more nearly thirty-five years and he still often confounds me. You're absolutely right about the non-linear thinking. McLuhan exhibited impressive use of his right brain, his presentational structures of thought. Thanks for your responses.

[@bulafritz]

Wow. Look what has become of the Today show 30 years later. It makes you want to cry.

[@TheTTBT]

McLuhan's sitting position is hot. His legs are wide open. Newman and Brokaw are both playing it cool. Legs crossed.

[@drfallon]

This is actually the only one that I have that I think you cannot find anywhere else. One of the first things I did when I worked at NBC was to get a copy of this, and I don't think there are many in circulation. But there are quite a few up on KZbin. Do a seach under "McLuhan."

[@theradiatorlady]

that is why you are a superior human.

[@djlain]

Love it, thanks for posting.

[@DataWaveTaGo]

"Electric information comes from all directions at once and when your information comes from all directions simultaneously you're living in an acoustic world. The acoustic world has no continuity, no homogeneity, no connections and no stasis; everything is changing. Our ancestors lived in a mythic world because they had none of the means of literate classification. A myth is a speeded up following of a process. We live mythically ourselves so that we understand their myths for the first time. You should know the stakes are; the stakes are our civilization versus tribalism and it's a considerable revolution to have been through twenty-five hundred years of phonetic literacy, only to encounter the end of that road." - Marshall McLuhan

[@drfallon]

It's ironic that it was McLuhan (in this interview) who talked about the television person not being able to sustain interest in long pieces. It was only a few years later that Steve Friedman, the producer of the Today Show decreed that no segment would be longfer than seven minutes, "because Americans have a short attention span."

[@kakaok]

Dialogues with Mcluhan look always like talking between dolls on the one side and AI on LSD on the other

[@GaryW48]

The interview was from September 1976. The only people who had computers then were NASA, the IRS and the Defense Department, sarcasticly. Who had PCs then? KZbin was not even around 10 years ago. McLuhan is indeed relevant!

[@ThePolAlberti]

now more than ever bro

[@jtatsiue]

@caisediab, that's great stuff, the "medium is message" is perfectly defined, that the message is speed, always, regardless of the content, is brilliant. That there's no time to reflect on anything is absolutely a dictator's dream and everyone talks about the democratizing powers of the Internet, what a deception!

[@OaklandGriller]

Marshall McLuhan Masters "In His Own words" 1972- USC Lecture-Never Released

[@twocentsCanada]

A funny & observant Canadian. MM quote "Television is a potent drug."

[@JohnGoodman909]

I got bored after around 4 or 5 minutes.

[@drfallon]

Yes. This is the TODAY I used to watch before I worked there. The producer during the 1980s, Steve Friedman, apparently took McLuhan at his word. He decreed that no segment of the show -- interview or feature -- would be longer than 7 minutes. This interview actually ran about 12 minutes. I had to edit it down to get it into KZbin. I only took out what I considered to be Tom Brokaw's most egregiously stupid questions/comments. ;-)

[@SeaTac411]

Marshall McLuhan was ahead of his time on the way politicians look at T.V. & recorded media. Politicians sound so rehearsed and hollow because they don't want to make any mistakes; the internet has made them even more afraid. He had a great observation on how Carter's accent helped him in the south; I am sure W. got help with his phony accent to.

[@Tuning_Spork]

He didn't say "keeps his mouth shut". He said "keeps his foot out of his mouth". Big difference, Ironhills.

[@drfallon]

My pleasure.

[@drfallon]

McLuhan was fascinating for a number of reasons, least of which is the fact that he can be confounding. If you're going to read him, be prepared. He was not a "scientist" in many senses of the word, and he prognosticated rather than theorized. He considered his aphoristic pronouncements "probes" rather than theories.

[@drfallon]

He had a matter-of-fact way with ideas. He would say to intense questioners, "Oh, you don't like that idea? Well, I've got more. How about this one?" He is also to have said (something like), "I may not always be right, but I'm never uncertain." Yet so many of his insights, we can see now, were right on the money, so to speak.

[@michaelbillypec]

he stated in understanding media that with each passing minute we are getting closer to the ability to download the entire "show" (read the matrix) to the memory of a computer; imagine how close we are now....

[@Shaneanagins]

Everything McLuhan said should have been adopted by the presidential debate has been. That's crazy how ahead of his time he was.

[@chokewholeddotcom]

If everyone listened to what Mcluhan was expressing in this interview, then we wouldn't have the same political enterprise as we do now.

[@turquoise770]

with a laser focus on the dynamics of power and image, he was able to distinguish content (requiring the "discussion" of important issues) and context ( how the idea of importance, and thus power, becomes an attribute or remains a defecit in the mind of the viewer regarding the person televised) and how more than often than not in t.v., content is simply superficial and context is everything.

[@radiodj1520]

I Believe This Was A Video Clip Of NBC News' Today's Report On Marshall McLuhan On Friday Morning, September 24, 1976.

[@drfallon]

Yes. It is unfortunate but true that McLuhan may have influenced a whole generation of television producers (like the TODAY Show's Steve Friedman in the 1980s) to keep the interviews light and short, because TV viewers could not attend to dialogue involving complex concepts for more than six minutes. Ironic.

[@PaulLevinson]

@CocteauDalighari Right, but as I said, "the medium is the message" is not the title of any of McLuhan's books.

[@headybomb]

yay metaphor and this message on the medium does matter. The Today Show doing journalism????? This debate over the debate is great TV and shows the message on the medium can be meaningful and the medium, itself, a time spanning luxury providing a window into philosophical analysis.

[@yoseph89]

wow what truth.

[@poder80]

hahahaha he owned that reporter.

[@Aivottaja]

I don't get what made some people oppose McLuhan so strongly. Obviously he knew what he was talking about when he presented the idea of a global village. Just look at the world now. We're practically hooked to a computer.

[@johnparadise3134]

"His accent is corporate not private"

[@fntime]

John, may the bird of paradise fly up your nose. Accent? Corporate, no. But academic, yes and that was what he was. He was a 'teacher' like you're an old Handbag. :)

[@ConstantContext]

after McLuhan explains the obscure fact that he is in fact a professor of Literature, 09:48 Brokaw mentions the title of a book McLuhan never wrote. There's an essay called 'the medium is the message' and there's a book called the 'medium is the massage' as well as an album with the same name, there's no book called the medium is the message.

[@ironhills]

"Carter has a huge advantage. If only he manages to keep his mouth shut."

[@OaklandGriller]

Go to Ebay and type in the above to hear broadcast quality clip of a full lecture.

[@PaulLevinson]

In addition to being way out of his league, Brokaw also got the name of McLuhan's book wrong, at least twice - it's The Medium is the Massage ("the medium is the message" is McLuhan's most famous aphorism, but was not the title of any of his books).

[@resonant.interval]

THIS right here is the technology that has surrounded TV to catch it as an art form. what shall surround the internet to make it an art form? the philosophers stone...?

[@rayjr62]

Tom Brokaw is such an insufferable boor.

[@TheTTBT]

Amazing, eh? When he talks about the nature of charisma in politics, charisma amounts to something that is invariably identifiable as being "corporate" (as in a group or body/populist), as opposed to being individual (private/ Western civilization) as an identity. That's Ralph Klein (hot - HD) versus Trudeau (cool - LD).

[@davidschantz5363]

Spot on. Another week and Carter would have lost the election to Ford.

[@CamKiosoglous]

Dr. F. do you have any additional clips that show McLuhan in his glory?

[@johnparadise3134]

"Press the pants Barrels?"

[@PraetorClaudius]

Google image search the carter/ford debate and look at the boxes they are standing in. Press-the-pants would mean they were so tight, they would press your pants flat.

[@aaronartale]

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bankruptcy_barrel Poor people wore these while their only pair of pants was being pressed or washed

[@drfallon]

I hope you wouldn't be disappointed. McLuhan was actually far more conservative than most people realize. I do think he'd be fascinated with Obama, who is a super-cool image. That is the reason why the right and the Clintonistas are trying to "hot him up."

[@marcio_souza007]

@MaryOMackie Yeah, now they´re not allowed anymore.

[@ChrisVadnais]

@Georgie2500 lol "this marshall guy" Holy cow.

[@sammitchell77]

and what does tom say at the end? "and now for this 'message'"

[@wilband]

OK, but by "corporate" he doesn't mean 'corporations' in the often-used contemporary sense of the term (i.e. he's not referring to an 'occupational standpoint' or class, necessarily). It refers to an orientation that doesn't depend primarily on an individual (in Mcluhan's words, "hot") point of view, but is rather "cool", collective and fully involving. His point here is more complicated -- you really need to read his work to see it spelled out.

[@Mashdom]

magnificient

[@iwaithere]

When he was talking about the drunk who clings onto a lightpost more for support than illumination, I thought that is the incisive image for our civilization currently. "Time now for this massage"....haha

[@neurochris]

lol exactly what i was thinking

[@drfallon]

LOL. Yes. I think, however, that Edwin Newman was somewhat less perplexed than Brokaw...

[@bodhidarma1]

haha. yeah I was going to point that out.

[@drfallon]

Okay. That's fine too.

[@MoeGreensRightEye]

When was 1976?

[@sochify]

Go Canada! McLuhan!

[@hcgazoo]

I wonder what Mr.McLuhan would think about the advent of the internet and on going saturation of our various cultures and the resulting effects by digital media. I wonder if he would see it as an advanced user controlled version of television or an entirely different animal?

[@kurt11110]

i think you'd have to admit that ford sounded ill informed, or at best , starry eyed when he made that proclamation. strangely enough, ford had picked up momentum just before the election, and had he had another day or two many politicos feel he would have won the electoral votes ! amazing in the light of watergate and for a president who had presided over the first war america had lost at that at that time.

[@jtatsiue]

@hcgazoo, my guess is that he'd consider it the Global Village finally realized. One of his ideas was that electronic media was retribalizing humanity. The Internet is not a "mass" medium; the information isn't disseminated from a singular source to an undifferentiated, "mass". The Internet is millions of private, semi-private discussions aimed at the relative few. The once mass audience is now split into tiny micro-niches or "tribes" each with their own customs, lingo or catch "memes".

[@givethanks420]

Look towards the end of the interview how shakey the two are getting.(interviewers)

[@drkthms7]

can you explain this deeper

[@hcgazoo]

@caisediab Of course one of the problems now is that information is exchanged so immediately that we often find ourselves commenting on thing before they are substantiated leading us to often be prone to knee jerk reactions before we know the facts.

[@hcgazoo]

@jtatsiue The only major issue of course being that these comments are made anonymously allowing anyone to say anything about anyone else without fear of repercussion. I would expect in a tribe if you spoke ill of another tribe member and the basis of your discussion turned out to be false then the consequences would be swift and unpleasant. I wish MM were still alive I would love to hear his take on our "modern" world.

[@patrickstewart6394]

I notice Paul Levinson is here. Paul Levinson provides little Massage - that's the rub.

[@drfallon]

Paul Levinson is where?

[@randirkumar1254]

Beaf

[@drfallon]

Have you read any of his works?

[@JohnKater1971]

And boy have we moved on since .....not.

[@ConstantContext]

09:46 to hear the mistake

[@TheTTBT]

Chomsky and McLuhan are bi-polar on syntax. McLuhan is with Joyce. Chomsky likes universals in syntax - ie. not much room for figural metaphor.

[@drfallon]

LOL. Yeah. I know. Poor Tom. Way out of his league.

[@rebalancelf1]

Yup the "debates" are still a joke..a laugh riot..and the ones that actually want to debate and have something to actually say don't even get into the medium anyway. The ones i want to hear from aren't even welcome to the Friggin debate!

[@drfallon]

LOL!

[@Georgie2500]

It seems to me that this marshall guy just doesn't understand new technology. Teaching him how to use a computer will be harder than when I had to teach my dad!

[@kurt11110]

i understand you want to protect the honor of a fellow canadian, but there really wasn't much substance to mcluhan's argument, it was mostly just complaining.

[@jackrowet1234]

McLuhan schools people.

[@jtatsiue]

@hcgazoo, I wonder if he'd consider modern civilization to be significantly more savage

[@kurt11110]

mcluhan doth protest too much, and does so in a cryptic way. if there was any issue with the debate, it should have been concerning ford's pronouncement that the soviet bloc countries were not under soviet domination, not whether or not he had a private sector voice or cam across better in black and white. mcluhan intellectualizes his critique to the point of meaninglessness.

[@huntertristan]

brokaw got pwnd

[@guinnesstrail]

@sentunim Better than being a flirty canard.

[@brajtnerinjo]

E moj maršale...

[@bowerbjo]

@2:02

[@JimB667]

right eh? freaky

[@buewgewstmeiers]

HAHAHA yea i know who he is!!!!

[@drfallon]

See: (after the h t t p : / / of course) faculty(dot)roosevelt(dot)edu/Fallon

[@particleplease]

house hold world

[@drfallon]

(~~satire~~)

[@drfallon]

My pleasure.