"In 1988's 'The Zero Medium; or, Why All Complaints About
Television Are Pointless,' [Hans Magnus]
Enzensberger
concisely lays out and
coolly demolishes four reading variations on that thesis,
namely, that television 1) manipulates our opinions (a belief,
he notes, equally attractive to the left and the right), 2)
forces us to imitate immoral behavior, 3) destroys our ability
to distinguish fantasy from fact, and 4) numbs our critical
faculties. Enzensberger nails the condescension underlying
these theories, deadpanning that their proponent either 'makes
no use of the media at all, in which case he doesn't know what
he's talking about; or he subjects himself to them, and then
the question arises, through what miracle he has escaped their
effects . . . unlike anyone else.'"
-- James Poniewozik. Salon