TV's push towards what have been dubbed as "reality shows" has led me to believe that what TV needs is more REALITY...in its programming, in its scriptwriting, and, most importantly, in its newscasting.
As I watch prime time TV series, it is clear that each is written with an agenda. One show will focus on a young child being viciously attacked by a pit bull, and, not coincidentally, people will be fired up to support proposed bans. One show will focus on a paranoid mother who homeschools her children because she fears the government...and her children end up dead, and people will push for more stringent regulations on homeschools. Another will focus on a horrendous child abuse case, and BOOM! A bill giving Child Protective Services and more unconstitutional oversight is waiting for the governor's pen on the desk of the state legislature.
In all of these cases, TV producers are counting on Americans' difficulty separating fiction from reality. In the minds of all too many people, there really IS a Wysteria Lane, and the cast members of the TV show "Friends" were really their friends. Don't believe me? Why did Gary Coleman get over 25,000 votes for California governor despite having no political experience and ultimately throwing over his support to eventual winner Arnold Schwarzennegger? Simply because there are a few (hopefully not the FULL number that voted for him) Californians who thought that his TV show character of 2 decades ago would be a charismatic and understanding leader.
All of the cases I cited above are examples of where producers focus on problems that exist in a MINORITY of cases. In the case of pit bulls, there are far more responsible pit bull owners than irresponsible ones; in the case of homeschoolers, homeschool families that fit that particular profile don't even comprise a full % of homeschool families overall, and in the CPS case, the extreme cases that they underscore represent less than 3% of actual CPS cases; the majority are actually the side effects of rather nasty divorce proceedings (CPS is involved in some way in 60 to 80% of divorce proceedings).
TV producers are not oblivious to their influence; on the contrary, they are DEPENDING on it. Prime examples of this reliance on their influence can be seen in 80's sitcoms, where drug issues (Nancy Reagan on "Different Strokes"), alcoholism (Tom Hanks on "Family Ties") and various other social issues were "sold" (admittedly, in THOSE examples, to the betterment of society), and even as far back as the 1940's, when the concepts of Victory Gardens, War Bonds, Civic Duty and patriotism heavily infected cartoon programming, most notably in Warner Brothers cartoons.
Producers, then, should have their programming more closely reflect reality and stop trying to use their influence to create a utopia. While I would never for a moment suggest that McCarthyism was proper, it is quite possible that if they continue using their resources to sell their ideas contrary to the values of the American public, they will find a new wave of blacklisting making the Hollywood circuits. I pray that isn't the case, but I also pray they stop using entertainment for such programming purposes.