Skip to main content

Wealth & Money Quote by Tom Petty

"I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television"

About this Quote

Petty isn’t clutching pearls about screen time; he’s calling out an industry that sells intimacy while operating like a vending machine. “Dangerous” lands because it frames television not as a harmless backdrop but as a force that shapes appetites, attention, and values with zero accountability. The sting is in “no moral barometer whatsoever”: he’s not arguing TV is immoral, but amoral - a medium calibrated to ratings, not consequences. It’s a musician’s complaint, too: the idea that art and identity get filtered through a system that doesn’t care what it elevates, only what it can move.

The line “If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television” turns the viewer into a witness. You don’t need insider knowledge; the proof is on the surface: ads stitched into narratives, news packaged as entertainment, “reality” engineered as conflict. Petty’s subtext is that television trains people to confuse being marketed to with being spoken to. It’s not simply commerce; it’s commerce posing as culture.

Context matters: Petty came up when MTV and corporate radio were reshaping music into a visual, brand-driven product. His career unfolded alongside media consolidation, where a few gatekeepers could decide what “the public” wanted. The quote reads like a warning from someone who’s watched authenticity get flattened into content - and then sold back to you as a lifestyle.

Quote Details

TopicEthics & Morality
SourceHelp us find the source
Cite

Citation Formats

APA Style (7th ed.)
Petty, Tom. (2026, January 16). I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-televisions-become-a-downright-dangerous-117150/

Chicago Style
Petty, Tom. "I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television." FixQuotes. January 16, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-televisions-become-a-downright-dangerous-117150/.

MLA Style (9th ed.)
"I think television's become a downright dangerous thing. It has no moral barometer whatsoever. If you want to talk about something that is all about money, just watch the television." FixQuotes, 16 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/i-think-televisions-become-a-downright-dangerous-117150/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.

More Quotes by Tom Add to List
Tom Petty on Television and Society: No Moral Barometer, All About Money
Click to enlarge Portrait | Landscape

About the Author

USA Flag

Tom Petty (October 20, 1953 - October 2, 2017) was a Musician from USA.

11 more quotes available

View Profile

Similar Quotes

Adam Savage, Entertainer
Julie Nixon Eisenhower, Celebrity