Irish Examiner view: Springer TV show ‘amused us to death’

The US television personality was the perfect ambassador for the dumbing-down age

Jerry Springer was the grand master of what became known as tabloid TV. File picture: PA

The US television personality Jerry Springer, who died this week at the age of 79, was the perfect ambassador for the dumbing-down age prophesied by the New York educator and cultural critic, Neil Postman, in his influential book, Amusing Ourselves to Death.

Postman foresaw, with great clarity, the impact of technology and screen-based entertainment on the intellectual capabilities of its target audience, and warned of a future where people would be more oppressed by addiction to amusement than by state violence. He cautioned that the danger for citizens “was not that they were laughing instead of thinking, but that they did not know what they were laughing about and why they had stopped thinking”.