Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
On last week's edition of the Ricochet podcast, Ben Shapiro hit back at critics of his new book, "Primetime Propaganda: the True Hollywood Story of How the Left Took Over Your TV", who claimed that he must hate the medium he profiled. On the contrary, Shapiro noted, he loves TV. How else, he asked, could he have watched as much of it as was necessary to research his book?
A far different diagnosis of the small screen issues from the pen of National Review's Rich Lowry today, however. And while it's not quite George Will's indictment of blue jeans, I'm guessing Rich will take a fair amount of heat for raining on another entry in the American catechism. For the full measure of his argument, you'll have to read the entirety of Lowry's piece. For the time being, however, I put Lowry's defining paragraph to you, the Ricochetoise, to debate:
Television is the most ubiquitous and insidious force in everyday American life. If it were a drug, it’d be illegal, and federal agents would be raiding the studios of the networks. If it were a foodstuff or tobacco product, New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg would ban it, and other cities would follow suit. It’s none of those things, of course, and its deadening influence steadily spreads.
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Jul '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
"There outta be a law" against Jerry Springer.
May '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
Oops. Sorry, gotta go...my favorite show is on.
May '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
One of the blessings of living in a foreign country is that you can hate the TV without hating yourself. It's someone else's fault.
May '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
It is not how much you watch but what you watch. Furthermore it's also how you watch, whether actively and critically or mindlessly.
Some of the study is bunk and politically skewed. Take this line: Every single U.S. animated feature film produced between 1937 and 1999 contained violence... It presumes that children can not differentiate between Tom & Jerry violence and real violence. And furthermore, "Even 'good guys' beating up 'bad guys' gives a message that violence is normal and okay. Many children will try to be like their 'good guy' heroes in their play." No kidding. My kid wants to be John Wayne? Fine.
Or this: "TV viewing may replace activities that we know help with school performance, such as reading, doing homework, pursuing hobbies, and getting enough sleep." That's not the result of television. That's the result of poor parenting.
Feb '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
If it were war, it would be a tragic part of life, at best a necessary evil.
If it were genocide, it would be condemned by all right-thinking people worldwide.
But it isn’t.
I’m afraid I’m not impressed by the defining paragraph.
Aug '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
Blah, blah, blah, television is bad...yadda, yadda, yadda.
No wonder people think conservatives are lame. I'll have more to say after I read all of Lowry's article, it might have more to offer than the above, but the "vast wastland" crap is just that...crap.
I've spent my past few evenings deeply immersed in "Teen Wolf" as I read "The Rebirth of Classical Political Rationalism." Not quite as easy to do as watching baseball while reading Strauss, two things that seem to go together naturally, but not very difficult either.
Lowry needs to escape from his "Yellow Clearance Black Box Blues."
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
Rich said what?
I guess I'm going to have to really read his column this week. Usually I just skim it, so I can bluff my way through a conversation.
He's sort of right about television -- it is an insidious thing, though no worse (and in some ways better) than video games or surfing the web.
On the other hand, isn't it a question of individual willpower to resist lying on the sofa all day, vegetating? And isn't it a question of individual willpower to resist taking the flickering images, chosen by editors, all of whom have a political bias, as unmitigated fact?
And isn't individual willpower what we conservatives rely on?
Nov '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
I just knew it! I knew it! I knew it! I knew it!
Now to go turn on the T.V. and wait for one of those law firms to start asking me to join their class action law suit.... 1-800-BAD-TELE call now!
Aug '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
I'll vote against the anti-TV resolution. It's always something--the Puritans were worked up over the pernicious influence of the theatre, and London shut down the theaters in 1642 because they were considered too frivolous for such serious times. Society somehow survived alongside the vulgar entertainments.
Apr '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
It's just like the telegraph: just a further degradation of the written (spoken) word, like his column ... or this post.
Jan '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
I saw Network the other night ... always a favorite. Howard Beale (Peter Finch) put it best when he said that TV was in the "boredom killing business."
I've often wondered what makes entertainment? Why do my wife and daughters love to see dancing shows, which make me yawn to the point of jaw pain? And yet, if you put a baseball game on, I'm glued to the set, while they yawn to the point of jaw pain?
That's why I consider popular entertainment to be like sleep. It rescues us from the intensity of life.
Oct '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
When I read the column I assumed Mr Lowry had gone on vacation. When the NRO intern went to his desk to pick a column from the 'pre-written' file they accidentally took it from the 'Hoary Old Tropes to Avoid at Any Cost' file.
I expect an apology any day now.
Nov '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
OK, I'll take Rich's side. We have a TV and pay a lot of money for cable, but we rarely turn the thing on. I'm really glad. I think the lack of TV has made my daughter a more creative, resourceful, and educated person. She has only two friends who watch a significant amount of TV, and they are both less creative and interesting than the majority of her friends; they are also both way behind the rest of her friends in their reading skills.
Could we limit her TV time and still watch it ourselves? I suppose, but I think you really educate a child by example, and so she has learned from us that the TV is the last resort when you are looking for something to do with your time.
As for what people did before TV was so ubiquitous: there was a lot more socializing and a stronger sense of community. And the strength of those relationships made for a healthier society.
Feb '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
Who needs television when there's Netflix?
Oct '10
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
I'd take that route if my wife wasn't a sports fanatic.
To me the problem with TV is that the vast bulk of it is not REAL, so exposing youngsters to massive amounts is bad for their view of reality. Maybe exposing adults to it isn't all that great, either, given the juries who think CSI and Law & Order show the reality of evidence gathering, and who then vote "not guilty" because the evidence and testimony shown to them doesn't measure up to what they've seen for years on TV.
May '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
As a former pediatrician and incorrigble contrarian I usually disagree with the American Academy of Pediatrics on any recommendation for social policy. However, I worry about the effect of electronic visual stimulation on the developing nervous system much for the same reason I worry about the effects of neuroactive drugs.
Edited on Jul 7, 2011 at 9:03amJun '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
Comparing Mr. Lowry's column to George Will's infamous blue jeans column was so right, Troy. Will was totally off base-- men of a certain age in cargo shorts are the real problem, obviously.
Life is so much better in a world where we (and by we I mean, well, me) can watch baseball, football, and hockey in miraculous, massive HD in our modest cottages. Why does Lowry call that wonderfulnous a scourge? As for "ubiquitous"-- hey, I can turn that thing off any time I want. If I can find the remote.
By the way, the Cowboy Stadium HDTV's are no longer the biggest. That distinction didn't last long and the Charlotte Motor Speedway now has the biggest single screen. (It's really cool too.)
Jul '11
Re: Resolved: Television is Bad for Us
"Keeping Up with the Kardashians," "Glee," and any "reality" show: insidious.
"The Killing," "Game of Thrones," "Justified," "The Walking Dead," reruns of "Cheers" and "Seinfeld": super freakin' awesome.
Lowry needs to relax.