You can protect yourself from the permeating, and possibly contagious 'stupid' by blocking all channels except Discovery, History, History Intl, Animal Planet, Science, NatGeo, and possibly Outdoor, if you must have a non interwebz news-source CNN, MSNBC, and FOXnews, however you must watch all three simultaneously to actually get a centrist newscast.
If you are a southern baptist, please block all of the above mentioned channels and stick to the "Big 3" faith based networks.
Either way you have stopped the Full Frontal Reality Craptasm Assault, and you may recover in time to save your brain afterall.
Oh and you can DVR 30 Rock ... cause that shit rules.