Too Much Junk On TV

I remember the age of innocence on TV. When I was a kid there was no sex or vulgarity, no filthy language (not even suggestive words), little violence (you had to sue your imagination because the violence was only suggested), and much less stupidity in programming. In short, I liked TV a lot then. The idiot box was simple and programming never contrived (no Reality TV, no Survivor or any such mindless shows). Sure, the shows were often portraying an image that was an ideal and too good to be true, but they were not negative and hateful as so much programming is today.
There is too much junk on TV today because that's what people want to watch. It is probably because so many shows are made for the very young and because the education and taste level TV appeals to has sunken so low. Now we are exposed to stupidity and bad taste as a regular staple, and this is why here in the U.S, TV ratings have fallen. It appears that most of TV is no longer interesting or enlightening enough for the educated viewer.
TV is now a mishmash of specialty channels, some good, some bad, and some ugly. The few channels or programs that appeal to the educated draw a consistent, if small audience, and the dumbed down, crass channels and programs and networks draw huge audiences. What does this say about society? Is our TV selection and preference a reflection of the popular culture? I am not sure if TV is really a microcosm of society (It may just reflect the lowest level of society's members), but I know little on TV interests me. I find the news, sports and some specialty channels enlightening, but there is fewer and fewer of that now as the Paris Hiltonization of TV continues.
In the U.S were have what is called PBS TV. That is, a network that is sponsored partly by the government and partly through private donation, that shows more thoughtful and higher level programming than is found on regular TV. PBS struggles, partly because it sells no commercials (which is why garbage like American Idol are never shown on it) and partly because the U.S. Congress gives to little to PBS that it has great budgetary limitations. Too bad, because the programming on PBS would surely raise the level of the culture if it replaced some of the garbage shown on regular TV. I guess you never see our PBS shows, and it is a shame. Instead, the U.S exports the most vacuous of TV and movies and the world thinks we are as we appear in those shows.
It's no wonder foreigners think Americans are "stupid". But Alas! Your own TV is being corrupted by the same shows and, for all I know, may closely resemble our troubled one. In my view the savior of American culture is our literature. It has yet to be dumbed down and is resistant to the appeal TV succumbed to- that is, try to attract the masses by producing simplistic and mindless works. I do see the Harry Potter books (Thanks England!) and the like as assaults on that higher standard and wonder if the success of such "literature" will create more of the same and weaken the higher standard we have in literature. I am optimistic it won't and that the mostly higher level of readers will never American idolize itself.
Any opinion on this? Do you have a similar phenomenon happening in TV there?