Author of Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television, present in the series as Bob Dobbs' example of the knee-jerk media ecology he is arguing against. Bob traces him to Howard Gossage's advertising shop — the same operation that made McLuhan famous — which makes the book an early misreading from inside the circle rather than an outside attack. New to him — dialogue 65.
Across the dialogues
Enters as the case study in bad McLuhan — the Four Arguments author traced back to Gossage''s shop, and his elimination thesis set against McLuhan''s turn-it-on-and-off tactility
The verdict is put in McLuhan's mouth to mark the distance between diagnosing a medium and demanding its removal.
"four arguments for the elimination of television. McLuhan hated that book."
The alternative to elimination stated as a practice — modulation by collective agreement, which is the only political programme the session offers.
"McLuhan was tactile with it. Turn it on and turn it off. And somehow have a collective consensus about how much to do that."
Connections
Mander was a young employee of the ad man who made McLuhan famous.
McLuhan is said to have hated Four Arguments for the Elimination of Television.