If you haven't been surfing the interwebs lately you might have missed a recent
LA Weekly article on Ray Bradbury where the writer points out that Fahrenheit 451 wasn't about government censorship, ala '84, but rather about the dangers of the boob tube:
Most Americans did not have televisions when Bradbury wrote Fahrenheit 451, and those who did watched 7-inch screens in black and white. Interestingly, his book imagined a future of giant color sets — flat panels that hung on walls like moving paintings. And television was used to broadcast meaningless drivel to divert attention, and thought, away from an impending war.
A regular ol' H.G. Wells, this one.