Not So Prime Time: Chasing the Trivial on American Television

In this witty and candid perspective on American television, the Pulitzer Prize-winning critic Howard Rosenberg traces a disturbing pattern: TV's relentless pursuit of the mundane in its seeming quest to dumb-down America. And, he writes, it may be succeeding. Many of his essays in Not So Prime Time consider television news, which the author charges has failed dismally in its shrilly self-proclaimed role as a Bethlehem star of enlightenment, its influence continuing to widen in circles that value tabloid over truth. Mr. Rosenberg records how this has happened-not overnight. The crud has been creeping forward for years. Oh the horror.