Agreed, although I try awfully hard to avoid being pessimistic. I think that if I were a regular TV viewer, I would eventually become convinced that all people (except for me, of course) were complete idiots and in desperate need of intellectual and economic assistance....in other words, TV would rot my mind to the point of becoming a Democrat! :-)
So much on TV these days is about "stuff." Flashy cars, flashy homes, flashy lifestyles. Much of the offerings have replaced stories of people with stories of "stuff." Though I'm sure some would dispute this, a lot of the images reflect a ghetto attitude.