Even the plays of Shakespeare, Marlowe and Ford existed in an environment that also counted bearbaiting and public executions as popular diversions. Television isn't cutting into reading time, either. Book sales in America are higher than ever. What's more, the argument assumes a mythical, pre-television era when Americans happily spent their free time engrossed in Dickens and Baudelaire. Whittling on the porch and thumbing through penny dreadfuls is more like it.
Television gives an otherwise fragmented populace a common frame of experience and references.
Each generation has its own set of guideposts like these, and they all share one thing - they were transmitted to people simultaneously via television. Much has been made of the drift of the TV audience in recent years away from common programs and toward the plethora of niche programmers. But when it comes to truly monumental events, television still delivers, allowing the nation and the world to experience history as one. What's more, TV also creates bonds that provide us with openings to communicate with strangers, even across ethnic, gender or class divides. Added together, these moments are what creates a truly shared American culture, such as it is.