The notion of trying to be literate about an illiterate culture strikes me as doomed from the get-go. In an obvious effort to broaden his viewership, Keith Olbermann (sheepishly) devotes about half his show to chronicling and even analyzing the latest developments re Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, American Idol, etc. It is painful to watch. Though Britney, for one, does indeed bestride today's world like a Colossus (being described by Wikipedia, e.g., as a true Renaissance woman -- "pop music singer, songwriter, dancer, actress, and author") pondering today's pop culture at length yields sharply diminishing returns. While it's useful occasionally to cast a canister into the turbid waters of contemporary culture -- in order to get a sample and measure the increasing E. coli count -- I definitely wouldn't recommend swimming there.
But I'll say this much for TV: Due to illness and fatigue I've logged a lot of boob-tube time this summer. Since the regular network fare is execrable, I have for the first time in my life sought refuge in sportscasts. And I have finally gained a grasp of what all the excitement about Major League Baseball is about. For the first time I see MLB stars not as pampered multi-millionaires but as performers with really tough jobs who face extraordinary psychological and physical stress. I can also see that winning the game depends on *genuine* one-for-all-and-all-for-one team spirit -- not the bullshit "teamwork" I'm used to in the corporate world, where folks evince all the camaraderie of galley slaves.
So in conclusion: Go Yankees!
Carl