Time Warner Chairman Urges Nation's Business Leaders to Fight Illiteracy

Posted on December 18, 1997

Time Warner Inc. Chairman and CEO Gerald M. Levin today urged the private sector to recognize its special responsibility in fighting illiteracy in America.

In a speech given today before the Executives' Club of Chicago, entitled Media and Entertainment: Shaping the New Millennium, Mr. Levin said, "I believe very deeply that the social dislocation we now face will only grow more threatening without a broad resolve by the private sector to make illiteracy our problem.....the new millennium will be shaped by our willingness to treat America's children not as objects of holiday charity, but of everyday justice....by our refusal to accept their pain and poverty and ignorance as the result of fate or the price of progress for the rest of us."

Levin began by pointing out the impact digital convergence is already having on determining the shape of the new millennium. "Whether in the form of programming or hard copy whether on your TV or PC or on digital video disk interactivity has left the realm of science fiction and is now entering America's homes," Levin said.

He added, "The devices we use to join this digital dialogue may increasingly converge into a single unit. Or we may well continue to use our TVs and PCs in different ways. The important point is that the real power will reside in the network itself, in the interactive systems that link us together, and in the software that drives them. This is why Bill Gates and Andy Grove are placing their bets with cable. Like most of Silicon Valley, they understand that the hybrid plant which cable companies are rapidly putting in place a mixture of new fiber-optic trunk lines joined with existing coaxial-cable hook-ups is the electronic highway."

Levin pointed out that digital technology was creating a demand for even higher forms of literacy, yet "we have 20 to 25 million adults one tenth of the population who can't comprehend a sixth-grade reader, never mind explore the intricacies of hyper-texts."

While he said he couldn't prescribe the form of involvement that other companies might take, Levin held out the model of one-to-one mentoring programs as an example of what could be achieved. "Our enduring hope for moral meaning and social progress," he concluded, "for peace on earth and good will to all, rests on our willingness as individuals and as a community, to take responsibility for the world's children. Wherever they may be."

Time Warner Inc. consists of four fundamental businesses: entertainment, cable networks, publishing and cable, with interests in filmed entertainment, television production, broadcasting, recorded music, music publishing, cable-television programming, sports franchises, magazines, book publishing and cable-television systems.