Yeah, I think the ethical values of this popular reality show star are…wanting. I’m going to go out on a limb here and state that.

Taylor Frankie Paul, the TV reality star who had been tapped by…Disney! You know, that paragon of virtues that parents want their children to be inspired by?— to lead the new season of “The Bachelorette” slated to premiere this weekend, was featured in a viral video sent to social media showing her attacking the father of one of her children. She is facing a domestic violence investigation; Paul had previously pleaded guilty to aggravated assault years ago.

Annette Funicello she isn’t.

Disney made the decision to pull the premiere. Good call.

It amazes me that popular culture has reached such depths that a women capable of behaving like this could be a star of a television show, even one as stupefyingly cretinous as “The Bachelorette.”

In 1958, Edward R. Murrow gave an eloquent and angry speech about how the TV networks were failing the American public, society and the culture, and how a great opportunity was being squandered. Near the end, Murrow said,

“This instrument can teach, it can illuminate; yes, and even it can inspire. But it can do so only to the extent that humans are determined to use it to those ends. Otherwise, it’s nothing but wires and lights in a box. There is a great and perhaps decisive battle to be fought against ignorance, intolerance and indifference. This weapon of television could be useful.”

The hilarious part, and also the tragic part, is that the television fare that Murrow was deriding in 1958 looks like “King Lear” compared to the “Three Stooges” level of culture being offered today, and the 1958 schedule was loaded with crap like insipid panel shows, too many Westerns and lame sitcoms with names like “Love That Jill.” (Disney also offered a series called “Annette.”) TV news, naturally the main focus of Murrow’s aspirations and lament, today has sunk to the Disney sponsored muck of “The View.”