The american people were shocked and disgraced to discover that the quiz shows of the 1950’s were fixed. The american people trusted this new medium, and felt conned by the actions of these shows. As the film shows, the contestants were all very intelligent, but still needed coaching to correctly answer these questions. This sets unattainable expectations for the american people. The film amplifies the fact that Van Doren was promoting education and literature, all while cheating, which helped enhance the feeling of betrayel by the american people. The public, for the first time, began to distrust the television. As Katie Vananzi notes cleverly notes in her examination of the scandals, “By 1958, no one was laughing anymore. Grabbing the attention