Higher Standardization Dept.

What with one thing and another, I can never be sure if I have made myself surpassingly clear on a given point or not, so here goes. Part of why I pound as much as I do on the pop-culture pap machine (here, here, here, here, and here, just to cite a few recent examples) is because its effect on creators is all the more baneful and baleful than its effects on plain old audiences.

My opinion — prejudiced, pretentious, and self-important as it is — is that creators ought to hold themselves to a h...