Good comment at Brad DeLong's

The belief that our media problems are the result of the coincidental incompetence of a very large number of separate individuals is quite a silly one, no?

As long ago as 1984 I starting realizing that the vast majority of bright Ivy Leaguers think of school primarily as a place to have fun and to "network". They had only a moderate work ethic and no high intellectual ambitions, but definitely wanted the good life. They may have respected a Nobel physicist earning $200,000 a year slightly more than a TV personality earning the same amount, but they knew they were too lazy and dumb for physics.

But they were verbally fluent and quite rightly felt that they would be able to figure out what the audience wanted and what the bosses wanted. The best of these floated to the top, and the American hive mind is, in fact, being massaged very effectively. And that sells a lot of advertising.

And even smart, hardworking people often would rather be celebrities than scholars. I blame the counterculture and drug use.

I agree with everything the commenter says, except the last sentence. I blame the culture of America: capitalism.