Is reality television evil?

(PA)

First there was Big Brother, then The Only Way Is Essex and currently Jewish Mum of the Year. Every new reality television show comes complete with it's own wave of hand-wringing commentary. But do they actually make the world a worse place?

That's the debate the New York Times is hosting this morning. Contributors include Jezebel's Tracie Egan Morrissey who argues that criticism of reality TV is based on snobbery "After all, you'd think that those who buy into this line of thought would at least be grateful that reality TV exists — it provides solid evidence in proving their own superiority. People can pretend that they don't like seeing other people act like idiots, but schadenfreude is more real than reality TV itself."