• by George Simpson , Featured Contributor, December 1, 2004

One would think that Robert Scheer--a journalist with over 30 years of experience, a college professor, a nationally syndicated columnist, and the author of six books--by now would have heard of H.L. Mencken and Detrick Bonhoeffer.

Both had something to say that would have helped Scheer reconcile how 70 percent of Americans can believe that mass culture is responsible for debasing our moral values--at the same moment they are rewarding the trashiest programming on TV with high ratings (among his issues: "Desperate Housewives" and the various iterations of "CSI").

On November 30, Scheer expended nearly 800 words in this effort, among them:

"It's much easier for... national moralists (dominated these days by evangelical Christians)... to politicize the moral decay of our culture than to admit that its wellspring is the domination of media corporations," writes Scheer.

"The real engine at work here, for better or worse, is the profit motive. If this patently obvious point is absent from the complaints of social conservatives, it is because the truth of the matter is inconvenient to their agenda." He ends his commentary with the highbrow admonition: "So if you're upset with what's on the boob tube tonight, just ask yourself: What would Jesus watch? My guess is PBS."

Which I suppose means Muhammad would watch BET, Confucius would tune in to IFC, Krishna would TiVo Bravo Hi-Def, and Buddha would watch nothing... but we digress.

It's hard to guess who gets lied to more in this country: spouses ("No, really, you don't look like you've gained an ounce!"); priests ("Uh, I think the worse thing was some bad thoughts about my, um, boss."); journalists ("Our business is right on target, this is just a little accounting glitch.") or polltakers. Does Scheer really think that folks ever tell pollsters the truth about anything that might reflect badly on them? Especially if the blame can be conveniently laid on a corporation?

Pollster: "I can tell by little Bobby's behavior that you are a pretty lousy parent. Would that be your fault--or say, Viacom, for broadcasting programming with characters like Angelica Pickles?"

And so it is, "mass culture is responsible for debasing our moral values."

While Scheer plays coy about Americans saying one thing while doing another, he is entirely correct in his implication that the public wants it both ways--a wholesome entertainment industry with access to trash. And that is exactly what we have in this country, thanks to cable TV and the Internet. Nobody holds a gun to your head and says you MUST watch "Desperate Housewives" or "The OC" or drop in on an occasional porn site.

Which brings us to H.L. Mencken--who, as you probably know, wrote: "No one ever went broke underestimating the taste of the American public."

You can't condemn the broadcast or cable networks (or the film or music or Internet industries) for producing horrid programming if that's what fills the public appetite. And if audiences are there, where is the crime in monetizing them? How can anyone complain about what's on TV when there are tools to block offensive channels, remotes to switch to shows that meet your moral standards, and that penultimate opinion tool: the off button.

As Scheer says in a gentler moment: "There's not much money to be made off children's piano recitals, songs sung around the campfire, or performances by your local orchestra, but the choice to consume such fare is always there."

Which brings us finally, and most importantly, to 20th-century theologian Detrick Bonhoeffer, who writes somewhere in the "Cost of Discipleship" that "...the God you want - is the God you get."

While it is easy to blame media companies for dreaming up stuff like "Coupling," "Skin," "The Mullets," "Commando Nanny," and "Who Wants to Marry My Dad?," not to mention anything by 50 Cent, you and I are complicit by our consumption of their output. Without us, there would be no DMX, no Bone Thugs-N-Harmony, no "Sopranos," no "Saw," or "Battlefield Earth."

But as history has proven, one man's "Tropic of Cancer" is another man's "Deep Throat."

In the end, we must ask ourselves if indeed we aren't getting the God we want.