Television has been king for a long time, a very long time.

That is why I was recently amazed by a report I read which indicated that in a recent survey, internet use has become the first activity in 40 years that has clearly been documented as something that causes people to spend less time watching Television.

Of course this does not mean that Television is on the way out. Far from it. Just like radio did not die when television came along. And newspapers did not go out the moment radio arrived. The arrival of a new medium so far in history has never caused the demise of the previously dominant one. Only an adjustment and repositioning to accommodate the new king. In fact even as you read this, television is busy trying to do just that.

In fact despite the current heavy assault by the internet on television, there is no doubt that television will remain in the center stage for many more years to come.

This amazing box that sits in living rooms the world over. Looking so harmless and yet innocently encroaching on the privacy of our homes to bring us pictures of gory violence and other events from all over the world. But mostly the violence, the ratings depend on blood, the more the better. Everybody knows that.

This box that won John F. Kennedy the Presidency over the much older and more experienced Richard Nixon, but almost lost President George W. Bush his bid for a second term as Senator John Kerry scored resounding victories in the eyes of the public over him.

Television really is powerful, make no mistake about that. Analysts credit the tube for being responsible for the fall of the infamous Berlin wall that separated west and east and the two major ideologies that they represented and that dominated the world in that cold war era. The same analysts also credit Television for the dramatic fall of communism.

When TV pictures from the free western world arrived in communist Russia, the experts say, the masses were able to see for them and for the first time what life really was like in the West. No propaganda, just plain TV pictures and images of the truth. Well, at least the truth according to the major TV networks.

The Russian masses decided then and there that they were sick of communism and that they wanted the lifestyle that they saw on television.

Yep, that box is pretty influential. And responsible too, for all those prejudices and opinions that you and I hold dear.

Yet despite everything we know and everything that people say about television, we can't seem to have enough of it. And even if the net is dragging us away from the tube it is only for short moments and then we all inevitably get back to man's real best friend.

Oh what the heck, let's cut out the pretence and hypocrisy. To tell you the truth, I really want to know what's on
the tube tonight.