Television's Great Failing

In the area of local news and public service, as well as the area of entertainment programming, it seems to me that the one great failing of television is its complete in attentiveness to attempt to inspire the viewer to take action and become involved in making their city, their country, their environment, and sometimes even their own lives better. Television dwells on negativity, violence and the exploitation of people, misery and rarely, if ever, seeks to inspire and ennoble the viewer. Mind you, it isn't that all television should do this all the time, but it seems as if in all quarters of the medium, with rare exceptions, television does not aim to make our lives better and that is a great failing.

-- Gerald I. Isenberg