When Bertolt Brecht said, "Art is not a mirror held up to reality but a hammer with which to shape it," well, he was just being an egomaniacal auteur. But it's quite possible that he was right — if you're willing to classify network television as art, that is. Consider the case of two recent seemingly unthinkable societal shifts — Barack Obama's presidential nomination and the recent decision to legalize gay marriage in California starting today. Both were the plots of popular television shows before they actually happened. Could the paranoid social conservatives be right? Does what people see on TV actually change their opinions? Do Kiefer Sutherland's powers of persuasion extend beyond Defamer? Consider the evidence after the jump.

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Because we know that it's probably been at least ten minutes since you've tried to kill some time at your strike-stalled place of business by looking at images of thousands of picket-sign toting, red-shirt-clad writers chatting up their new celebrity best friends, we're happy to pass along these photos generously sent in by some readers who were part of today's WGA-sponsored Striking Man event at Fox Plaza. Among the famous faces awaiting you after the jump: Tom Arnold! The Reno 911 guys! A fictional president and a onetime presidential candidate! (Make sure you scroll all the way to the bottom to see some bonus pictures sent in by shadowy strike correspondent "Nick Counter," who was reminded of another historic day by the sight of some Fox employees taking refuge on a rooftop high above the throng.)

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