And all without a Richard Chamberlain in sight. A pain in the neck and an I.Q. of 3. You'll get no commercials. But behind these facile complaints lies another set of deeper objections to television, put forward by a chorus of critics who argue that even if individual TV shows are good, the very nature of television itself makes it pernicious to decent, thoughtful human beings. Put another way, no amount of Charlie Rose can detract from TV's corrupting influence.
Television mediates our experience.
That is, the hours we while away in front of the screen are spent absorbing a reality that's been masticated, digested and excreted by others, filtered through editing, camera angles, trick lighting and special effects until it bears very little resemblance to the physical world outside our doors. Of course reality on television is mediated. TV is for the most part a medium for broadcasting narrative storytelling, and the mediation of reality through choosing which images to show or not show has been fundamental to narrative since the Epic of Gilgamesh. And there's no evidence that large doses of mediated reality leaves one unable to appreciate the real thing, either. I've seen the Travel Channel, and I've been to Europe, and believe me, I know the difference.