At the dawn of television in the early 1950s, a broad range of powerful groups and individuals--from prominent liberal intellectuals to massive corporations--saw in TV a unique capacity to influence the American masses, shaping (in the words of the American philosopher Mortimer Adler) -the ideas that should be in every citizen's mind.- Formed in the shadow of the Cold War--amid the stirrings of the early civil rights movement--the potential of television as a form of unofficial government inspired corporate executives, foundation officers, and other influential leaders to approach TV...