The more disturing influence, that I made note of some years ago, is that "reality TV" is essentially nothing but "communal bullying." The gossip shows this morning have been citing some recent report (they don't identify sources on TV - ever) that found that girls who watch lots of the "reality shows" are significantly more "accepting of (demeaning) gossip and aggresive conduct" than those who don't.

Big surprise.

Since I don't bother with cable or satellite stuff, I get only 6 channels (most of the time - often fewer) and it's not uncommon at any given time to find three channels with "judge shows" (everybody likes to watch someone be abused, and I've counted NINE of them regularly broadcast even in my tiny local area) with one or two of the others doing inane football (games or "talking heads talking about football" -- it takes three hours to tell everybody what happened in the two hour game just over). Any remaining channels will be running "paid commercial announcements" some of which now give their con-job pitches "names" so they'll look like something else.

I'm about down to "Ellen" and the morning Ag Shows (04:00 AM to 6:00 AM when there's only me and those three farmers awake) that are really "watchable" if brutality ain't yer bag.

John