Rick Kushman: How TV can reflect society's tolerance

If you want a sense of the kind of open-mindedness you can see on network TV these days, ABC's "Brothers & Sisters" is a good place to start.

It ended its season this month with a commitment ceremony between two gay men, but that's only part of it. "Brothers & Sisters" also features – unironically and as complete human beings – a conservative Republican senator who opposes gay marriage and his wife, a staunchly right-wing talk-show host.

I know. What is Hollywood coming to? Seriously, it's hard to know what was more rare on television two decades ago, gay characters or arch-conservative ones.

Both are all over entertainment now, and despite politically motivated grumbling from groups on both ends of the ideological spectrum, the reason is simple. It's because as a whole, American society is generally that open-minded, too.

Despite the rancor and, often, screeching from campaigns, from legislative bodies and before courts throughout the country, that open-mindedness is an easy thing to see if you understand how popular culture, and particularly TV, works.

Put simply, pop culture – and, again, especially TV – does have influence on attitudes and ideas in America, but much more, TV reflects the ideas that have been accepted by society.

That runs counter to the arguments of the blame-TV-for-everything crowd, but it's a near- universally agreed-upon principle among network programmers, advertisers and academics who study this sort of thing.

More accepting culture

And in light of the California Supreme Court's ruling last week that gay couples can marry, and with a constitutional ban on gay marriage possibly moving toward the November ballot, that notion – the idea that Americans are far more comfortable with the concept of "live and let live" than their political leaders – adds another layer to the national conversation.

The first thing that's obvious is that TV and all of popular culture are more accepting of a broader range of images and ideas than they've ever been, and that includes showing gays and les- bians as fully rounded people.

That's why "The Ellen DeGeneres Show" has been a top-rated daytime program for five seasons, why "Brothers & Sisters" is a Top 20 show and why CBS' soap "As the World Turns" started a story line about a gay couple to draw younger viewers.

It's of course simplistic to say that if media images are out there, then Americans are not bothered by any of them. All sorts of Americans are bothered by all sorts of media images.

But as Syracuse University professor of popular culture Robert Thompson says, TV and movies and every part of the entertainment industry are first of all businesses. And for any show or movie to succeed, it needs to connect with a fairly mainstream audience.

"It's not a clear calculus," Thompson said in a phone interview. "Media and popular storytelling are doing a dance with the real world, and nobody's leading.

"But you could make a strong argument that popular culture is a great barometer of attitudes, because it has to come out of the marketplace."

That marketplace includes TV's complex business model, which won't let it lead attitudes too much or lag too far behind. It's built on a complicated, shifting, hard-to-track tangle of entertainment, news, ratings and advertising.

Advertisers cautious

Advertising, actually, is the cornerstone of it all, and advertisers are, in a way, the canaries in a coal mine – the first to feel any controversy. Mass media advertisers are mostly careful, skittish companies that want no part of a culture war. Instead, they're looking for shows that put viewers in a mood to be persuaded, and protests, controversy or emotionally charged issues don't make consumers particularly receptive to pitches for Pepsi or iPods.

"If there's something in a show that puts off large groups of Americans, that's when advertisers pull out," said Jack Myers, a respected advertising and media analyst and the publisher and editor of JackMyers.com.

About the writer:

• Call The Bee's Rick Kushman, (916) 321-1187. Listen to him Thursdays at 8:40 a.m. on NewsTalk 1530 (KFBK) and 8:50 a.m. on Armstrong & Getty, Talk 650 KSTE.