Dead Tree Alert: Ugly, American

It's been a silent week at Tuned In (speaking of which, what gives, people? I turn my back for a week and you give O. J. Simpson a freaking TV show?), but in the print edition of Time magazine, Tuned In Enterprises continued churning out product: this week, on the immigration wars (or lack thereof) in primetime TV. In which we ask, if Americans are really so resentful of illegals and anxious over immigration, why do 14 million a week watch Ugly Betty, whose heroine is the daughter of an illegal, and thus--to hear the fence-builders tell it--a usurper, sucking this country economically dry? For that matter, why is it that reality TV, of all things, is a welcoming haven for immigrants, from the winner of last season's Apprentice to superproducer Mark Burnett to William Hung? Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses yearning to cover She Bangs!

This is actually one essay I recommend you check out in the print edition, if for no other reason that the illustration is better than the article. Er, I mean, even better, if you can possibly believe that, than the article!