ABSTRACT
Use of Western broadcasting techniques and the consideration of viewers' interests transformed Soviet television. It acquired an uncharacteristically dynamic, topical, and aggressive style that was particularly noticeable in news programs–watched by some 90 percent of the viewers– and in telebridges with the West. In the Moscow-Vladivostok-Tokyo telebridge, the Soviet audience answered general questions by focusing on details and questions about specifics with generalizations. The first Soviet-US telebridges organized by US television figure Phil Donahue and Soviet television commentator Vladimir Pozner, were regarded as a triumph for the Soviet Union: In telebridges as well as in other broadcasts with foreign audience participation, our arguments always look more solid. V. Bochevarov wrote of the Soviet patriots' "burning hatred" for "the political provocateur Phil Donahue" and his collaborator Vladimir Pozner. Most of the questions posed by Phil Donahue were either "not offensive" to the Soviet audience or the subject of private or public discussion in the Soviet Union anyway.
