It is a division of corporate America in a way it never was before. The economic, bottom-line shareholder pressures have created a medium where no one has a distinctive philosophy of broadcasting. Networks only seek the most lucrative sector of the marketplace and then pander to it. So you begin to see less adventurism in programming and development. Unfortunately, the risk is that imagination becomes vestigial because it doesn't get used.
Writers simply do what they are asked to do.
Hardly anyone sits down and truly originates programs based on what they uniquely want to do. Norman Lear used to do it. I try to do it, and I have for a long time. It's true that few writers have our clout, but I didn't get that clout by playing ball. I got that clout by being belligerent enough to sustain my attempts to swim upstream.