TV Guide 4/9/1977 VCR Article.
 

Quote from then Vice President of NBC Programming Paul Klein on the new VCR's:

"It's beyond logic-it's the dumbest thing Man has ever conceived. Our research shows that people buy it, show it to their friends, then put it in the closet"

End quote.

Sony's research showed something quite different, namely that people on average bought 12 tapes with the machine and 3 tapes per month after that.
In December of 1976 alone Sony sold 140,000 tapes to fewer than 30,000 owners of Betamax machines.

It doesn't surprise me, as NBC probably tried to get VCR's off the market.

I remember watching Fred Rogers fighting to keep VCR's in our hands.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yXEuEUQIP3Q

When a person knows a device is the biggest threat to his way of life and business model imaginable, I am not surprised he would try to spread nasty rumors about it.

Yup... Fred was quite special in many ways!!

He IS dearly missed :(

The Movie industry wasn't too happy about it either as I recall, turned out to be a boon for them though, they've made billions selling home video.
It also saved a lot of old films from oblivion.