Reply #13: I am a television maker. So there.

[Bluenorthwest]

Your point of view is one of an addict, a person who can not control an outside thing. Some have such problems with food, or drugs, or shopping. Many seem to feel that if there is a TV in a room, they are somehow forced to watch FoxNews and commercials. I do not have the problems that you have with media, and frankly, I am happy about that.
I've known a few of the anti TV crowd in my time. It can be very sad what happens. One good friend back in the 80's, I just had to sit him down and get him up to date. He took it upon himself to constantly talk about TV, which he had not seen save for a few hours in childhood. But still he'd talk about it, as you do. I finally had to help him out when a woman he liked walked away from him at a party, because he was talking about TV, and how it is filled with cigarette commercials from doctors, how they do not let black people 'mix' with whites, and how married couples on TV have to be shown in twin beds. This was 86 or so. There had not been a cig commercial for over 20 years. I sat him down for 'In Living Color' and he was simply flummoxed.
You see, he thought he was hip and aware, but what he really was was culturally illiterate and raving about things as timely as whining about crank start automobiles. He sounded crazy to people, when he'd say there are no black people on TV. He sounded, in fact, racist, which he was not at all.
So clearly, moderation and choice is important, but moderation and choice is important. Understand? Just because you turn a TV on and wallow in trash does not mean that others do so. To presume that they do is rude, uninformed, and at the heart of it no different than some Baptist shouting about how sinful the movies are. You are a culture prude. You see 'sin' and it makes you feel superior. Based on assumptions. You are of the opinion that only those who can afford to go to the Met should ever see the Metropolitan Opera. I do not agree. You think that only those who can spend large money should be exposed to the plays of Shakespeare or August Wilson. I do not agree. While it is great to hop a plane and fly to London to see a show, I am always thrilled when HBO or another company takes a great play and makes it widely available to those who can not go to see it. You would prefer that only the elites get to see high culture, or hear news, or simply be entertained. I do not agree.
Television is a medium, and the medium is not the message. Just as 'books' could be said to be awful, because there are awful books, or music could be said to be tripe because of the Jonas Brothers, one could look at FoxNews or According to Jim and say 'that's TV'. But one could also look at Masterpiece Theater or Current Vanguard and say 'that is TV'. Mein Kampf is a book. So, what, books are all bad?
People learn to speak languages via TV, gain degrees, see places in the world they will never visit. To you, all of that is bad. A single mother getting her AA and more pay, that is wrong to you, because she should have to get day care, get in a car, drive to campus, sit in class, pay the day care, go home. God forbid such people have access to education. How awful, it is almost worse than those horrible movie shows that show breasts and have gay people in them!
So, to you, is it worse for a person to watch Hamlet on TV or to attend a public dance where non marrieds touch? Is it worse to watch Keith Olbermann, or for a man to have long hair? Is it more sinnful to watch Rachel or to say 'fuck'?
Is the live theater also a horrible moral failure in your mind? If they ask for donations does that make it wrong? If the program advertises a restaurant next door, is that vile consumerism?
Just hilarious stuff. You feel controlled by inanimate objects, so you probably should avoid them. But just fyi, you could switch the channel or put in a disk or watch what you have recorded, and never see anything but docs, literature and information. It is your choice, not that of an object. You do have the power, not the furniture. Also, the dog is not talking to you.