Eisner says strike is over

church and state
reality and fiction

dangerous concoctions......

You're right about that uroborus8, but I sure miss "New Rules" with Bill Maher.

stephenthomson,
You are certainly highlighting an important point, that entertainment is treated with more respect in this culture, than reality (and I don't mean reality television). Just look at CNN's Headline News channel. Most of the time we are asked to choke down celebrity news, ripe with pundits and b.s. artists. We are also force fed Nancy Grace and her grossly exaggerated attention to detail. I can not remember the last time I saw real news on the Headline News Channel.

The sad explanation for this is that news is not profitable, at least not the way it should be done. Profit margins are a corporate news organization's soul responsibility under current law. Make sure the share holders make money, and the rest is inconsequential.

sgwhites, I'm not saying we should eliminate the fantasical, or even the absurd. i'm just saying let's not bake it into the same pie. i'm saying let's not put America's Next Top Model on at the same time as Jim Lehrer or Charlie Rose, cause you know most people, given the option, will opt for ANTM.

uroborus, no doubt! And I personally loved the show SIX FEET UNDER, which I also thought adressed many real social issues. But why must we escape into fiction to face them?

There's nothing to say that TV can't provide information and entertainment. Some channels are informative, some are entertaining.

The fact that people seem so bent on eliminating anything that is fantastical is, in my opinion, one of the reasons that so many people today seem to be suffering from a deplorable lack of creativity. Which, let's face it, is necessary for society to function.

TV is where you should get your information about what's going on in the world.

Movies, theatre, etc are where you should go to escape.

I'd like to see the statistics for people who watch West Wing, or Law and Order, how many of them voted. Or people who watch the Sci Fi channel, how many of them voted.

yes it may get you thinking, but the nature of the fiction beast is such that you suspend disbelief. When you're done watching, you change gears back into reality.

While there is a lot on TV that lacks for quality, the fact that something is fictitious or fantasy doesn't mean it inherently lacks value. Often fiction (particularly science fiction and fantasy) are used as vehicles to tackle controversial ideas that are deemed to sensitive by other media.

It's still crap, all of it.

I propose that the medium of television no longer be allowed to screen fictitious drama. There should be theatres and other venues for it, but not television, least of all public television. TV is too ubiquitous to be dabbling in fantasies. This is why people don't vote - they love West Wing but it serves only to distract them from the real West Wing.

SHOOT! I was just starting to get a life again!

*fingers crossed*

Let it be true...please!

For the sake of Gossip Girl on The CW...
Oh my...
Did I...just say that...out...loud?

*awkwardly walks away*

at LEAST for the sake of battlestar galactica.

Oh, please let it be true. If only for the sake of Lost and Battlestar Galactica.