Television is a progressive, not a liberal medium. The creative talent behind it is modern, and is moving us toward modernity. This has been true since Edward R. Murrow's programs and was taken up by Rod Sterling's Twilight Zone, which taught moral lessons with "The Monsters are Due on Mulberry Street" & etc. Star Trek gave us a black female engineer and so on. The falacy Mr. Shapiro supports is that it's OK to be racist or homophobic. The fight against ignorance is not a liberal social agenda, it's the progress of humanity toward the light.

What distinguishes Ben Shapiro is his dishonesty. He appeared on July 27 on the Canadian radio show Q with Jian Gomeshi, portraying himself as a writer who can't get work because he is conservative. What perhaps Gomeshi didn't know, but U.S. producers obviously do, is that Shapiro is an operative for smear artist Andrew Breitbart, and helped Breitbart make false allegations against the national Endowment for the Arts.

btw- primetime t.v., is basicly, amoral, banal, schlock. to ascribe a political ideology to it, is specious, if not moronic. though one could argue, that reality tv is much more about the mercenary single indiviudal, pulling themselves up at all costs. isn't that straight out of the conservative/republican playbook of today ? get a reality check ben,you make no sense at all.

this clown is so off base and delusional,he does not merrit a response.

I'm severely disappointed you gave this windbag time near the very top of the show - and, just frankly, at all.

I understand your impulse, but all the same, when the piece was fully produced and still shone absolutely ZERO light on this (ahem) non-issue, and being completely devoid of new content as it was - why, exactly, did you decide to still go with it?

As for his stance on gay marriage, he's a bigot. Period. What's next? Covering the entertainment component of a Klan rally?

I expect so much more from you.

Lauren:

You are right about NCIS being conservative, if by conservative you mean incredibly homophobic, at least when I was watching it. (I haven't watched it regularly since the first or second season.) I remember one episode where a man staged his own accidental death to conceal his suicide. The reason for his suicide? He was gay. Everyone nodded as if this made sense. In another episode, one character tells another character that his shirt looks gay. Right response? "That comment is really inappropriate for the workplace." Actual response? The second character is mortified, and changes his shirt.

"In it Friends co-creator Marta Kauffman talks about the show's famous lesbian wedding scene. 'These characters mirror who we are," she says, "and you write from what you know.' "

Ben, this says the opposite of what you say it does. She says that changes in society influenced her. If this is the best quote you have, it proves once again what your detractors say.

This odious, self-serving little man would have us think the acceptance of same-sex marriage results from brainwashing of the public by nefarious liberals in the entertainment business. It is not a matter of simple justice and decades of effort by civil-rights activists. This argument is beneath contempt.

Let's clarify something Ben Shapiro seems obsessed about in this interview: "All In The Family" wasn't always funny, or wasn't THAT funny.
Sure. Not on a Larry David-style "I'm going to pass out from laughing" level.
But people tuned in because the characters intrigued them. The episode in which Edith's cross-dressing cousin was beaten to death for being "different", thereby causing Edith to question her belief in God, wasn't funny at all, but thanks to Ms. Stapleton's range as an actress, it was one of the most compelling moments I ever watched on TV.

"Television has always reflected social controversy"

You're either very young or your ignorant. TV avoided controversy for many years, maybe until the 60's and then it was behind the curve. Now, its agenda driven and we all know the outcome of a gay character - they're are never bad anymore, they are always the preachy ones about how to be, they are portrayed as ultra-normal, in the right, in committed relationships, with children, educated, the list goes on.

And Mark from New Jersey, wow, you see things so black and white like so many people view through the gay-as-perpetual-victim lens. Even people who watch Glee complain about how preachy its become. As an alternative, how about a loving family that accepts a kid's struggle but gives him more options than just being out and proud and maybe posits that sexuality is not simply either you're gay or you're not and if you don't act on it, you're a self-hating homosexual.

Generally, TV does not reflect reality. Shapiro was absolutely dead on.

Oy! How did this nice Jewish kid become such a prig? Television has always reflected social controversy -- that's why people watch it. It isn't cutting edge, it's mainstream, reflecting the values and ideas of the majority. It may come as a surprise to Mr. Shapiro, but he is one at the cultural extreme.

I really wish that Mr. Shapiro had been asked for an example of what a "conservative" alternative would be, to something such as the "Glee" excerpt in which a parent accepts a child's sexual orientation.

Does he want counterprogramming where a parent is applauded for throwing the kid out? Maybe he's the kind of conservative who thinks that more gay characters should be portrayed as child molesters?

Shapiro doesn't mention how conservative the most popular drama is--NCIS. I was married to a conservative and he loved that show, so I've watched almost all of it, sometimes more than once. It may not counter the "liberal agenda" point for point, but there were many conservative elements. It mocked the idea of sexual harassment. It tended to valorize the military and demonize terrorists more than it questioned what the military was doing in the Middle East. But it does this very skillfully and subtly, just like Shapiro says should be done.

I've also read about how many crime drama shows are conservative in that the arch of the show supports societal stability. It'd be interesting to question how the CSI dramas, which introduced many of sexual minorities (like furries), also supported a conservative force. Certainly, it is not as obvious as old school crime dramas, in which the detective always won. Thoughts of others?

Funny... I haven't kept a television in my home since 1995, and yet I suspect I've become more liberal in the intervening 16 years.