Television trumps education

I'm glad to see the focus of everyday life for most of us beginning to shift away from consuming mass quantities of U.S. election coverage. Now that we're no longer occupied by Bush vs. Kerry comparos, we're free to return to our usual, mundane, day-to-day lives.

For most of us, this means shifting our mass consumption engines from politics to entertainment. You Entertainment Tonight, E! and Access Holloywood junkies know who you are. As much as I despise the fawning emptiness of all of them, I'll admit their production values are so sophisticated that my senses are always piqued if I flip past them late at night while in search of more enlightening fare like, say, Seinfeld reruns and Discovery Channel's How It Is Made.

As my mind contemplated the meaninglessness of the entire entertainment-as-journalism masquerade ball, and the erosion of media - notably television - that we've witnessed in its wake, I happened across a frightening example of this trend. It represents yet another pathetic example of how the formerly lofty world of academia is being eroded at its very roots by the insidious influence of television. The Associated Press story, University to offer 'American Idol' course, is all you need to be convinced that television is truly the dark satan of our time.

By definition, then, Mary Hart would qualify as the horn-headed being on your left shoulder.