Modern TV

Grant McCracken looks at the latest lowlight of "reality television":

But ABC seems to be implying that this is an experiment out of the political philosophy handbook. It's an attempt to see if kids can do what adults cannot, build a peaceable world.

And this makes Kid Nation a kind of latter day equivalent of the Children's Crusades of medieval Europe. Will children, protected by their innocence, triumph where adults have failed? Will they help save network TV from falling numbers? Can children convert the infidel, those godless creatures who now watch cable and visit the internet?

This is a measure of the desperation and panic induced in the old media by the new. Sending children into the brink. I mean, really. Even for a network executive, this is low.

This show's trailer reminded me that I hadn't missed much by giving up on network TV several years ago . . .