CNN has cancelled The Capital Gang. The last episode airs Saturday night, and that's a shame. Though news channels flood the airwaves, real news, and even discussions about real news, is harder to find. The typical public affairs program has increasingly become a cross between the E Channel and Reader's Digest, mixing trash-TV with human interest stories. Are people getting dumber or is television making them dumber? What came first, the chicken or the egg?

Didn't CNN also cancel Crossfire? (I know it's still on, but I swear I heard it was being canceled.)

Is Tucker's new show on MSNBC any good?

People have gotten intellectually lazy and television has just followed suit to cater to the masses.

asdf,
Clearly you are not open to the subtle iconoclasm of Fear Factor.

"Are people getting dumber or is television making them dumber?" Rather than to say they are dumb, I would say they are uneducated. I think people being uneducated came first. A person's level of education will probably affect what they will choose to watch on TV and corporate decision makers will select their programing accordingly.

I thnk people became less educated. What would be expect? After all we have allowed leftists/liberals to have complete control of public eduation for the last 40 years or so.

I would suggest pushing harder for school choice. I think this is reffered to as "school vouchers" or something to this effect. This would give parents an option to get their kids out of the sorry public schools or at least into a better one. If we do this, I think this would force the public schools to be competitive. This should increase the quality of education all the way around.

Honestly, I continue to try to understand the significance of most of the current programming and try even harder to understand who watches most of the $hite that the networks deem worthy of air time.

At first, I tied my wonder and disinterest to a generational thing. But, nah! It’s crap, plain and simple.

I will admit that the T&A on some of those programs can be sweet, but I can get that on E! without the mindless competitions if I so choose.

With reference to the original topic, the networks provide what society demands. And those demands are low.

So, the Capital Gang goes off and The Real Gilligan’s Island stays on.

yeah, i read about this on drudge. it's quite unfortunate to see one of the most thoughtful political shows being replaced by a show that is essentially a springboard for postmodern feminism. bummer.

I see that ASDF is a demand-sider about trash TV. ("With reference to the original topic, the networks provide what society demands. And those demands are low.") This is only partly true. Supply helps create demand.

There isn't really a "demand" for this crap in general. There's a supply, and as long as it's there most men, such as they are, won't refuse completey. But this has consequences. The stupid crap just makes people stupid, but the vulgar and violent and pornographic crap makes people worse than stupid.

The real "demand" comes from the people who will go out of there way to get trash no matter what. Usually we call those people creeps and pervs and louses. By shoving it down everyone's throat, we increase "demand," that is, we increase the number of creeps and pervs and louses.

Crossfire was cancelled on CNN and then they brought it back, but I think they have taken it off again. I think CNN is getting rid of anything with a Conservative Voice.

Tucker Carlsons The situation is actually good. I think they cover too much too fast however and it takes away from any in depth discussion. But there is no yelling or talking over each other and everyone behaves like a civilized human being. I watch it instead of Hannity and Colmes; which has gotten irrelevant lately. Also ever since Colmes got his talk radio show he has gotten more radicaly "Left"; which just got annoying.

colmes is just radically blind to reason, and always has been. his favorite debate tactie is to wip out the two wrongs make a right argument (if dick cheney did it, why are attacking kerry for doing it blablabla etc). most libs go into convulsions whenever someone points to a moral truth or an instance where someone did something illogical or advocated a silly policy position, and then resort to ad hominem logical fallacies to discredit their enemies and/or accusers (case in point, HoDean saying rush bimbo can't criticize his policy positions because rush did drugs LOL)

Capital Gang's final episode just aired, and they closed with a video montage set to Van Morrison's "Into the Mystic"--as if it were the series finale of Seinfeld or something.

A thoughtful political show airing on television.

Right. Don't make me laugh.

(CSPAN excluded.)

Short,

You are correct and your point is noted . The term ‘demand’ was probably not the right one as people really aren’t out there jumping up and down for the type of programming that is currently available.

But I think that the ‘if you build it, they will come’ mentality applies here and this goes to the main point of the topic. It’s what people turn off that does not make it and people aren’t turning this junk off. And, although some polling would indicate that the viewing public has a desire to see this crap, I think that initially they may be in the minority. However, if it’s available, people who would otherwise not be seeking out this kind of ‘entertainment’ will watch and voila, a new audience is born.

People who aren’t interested just turn it off. Personally, I go to the History Channel, watch a lot of sports and rent videos.

But it seems that the market for this stuff is growing and I’m surprised to hear conversations between people who I would normally consider on top of their game referring to this kind of programming.

Scary.