For all their glitz, glamour and good intent, so-called reality shows are generally more entertaining than truthful.

We see so many alleged “real life” productions on television and in the movies that we become hypnotized to the prospect that “that’s the way it is.”

Seldom so.

Americans watch popular productions such as television’s “West Wing” about the White House and its frailties and foibles. And we marvel at how adept and articulate the actors involved are in given situations. But for all their topical natures, these productions and others like them are fictional, they are entertainment, maybe even docudramas. But they still are reel-life and not real-life.

One show, CBS’s “First Monday,” is designed to depict the inner workings of the U.S. Supreme Court. So is ABC’s “The Court.” And there will be grains of truth and enlightenment in time.

James Garner, veteran actor with a long string of successes, put it quite well recently in discussing “First Monday,” in which he stars. “All these lawyers from Yale, and whoever said it can’t be good because we’re not going to tell the truth, you know, about what goes on in the Supreme Court. In other words, we will embellish. Of course we will! That’s why we call it entertainment. We work from scripts, and while there may be touches of reality and truth, we never can nail it down just right. People have to understand that and accept it for what it is.”

The goals of such productions are commendable and can provide a good deal of education and enlightenment. But the raw truth is a difficult animal to bag.

Even the “serious,” “objective” media such as newspapers, magazines and network-type news and analysis entities never get it quite right, life being the elusive commodity it is.

One media expert once said, “We’re engaged in the inexact science of trying to tell the truth.” Oh, how inexact that science is!

Said the late Kay Graham of the Washington Post: “What you see in the average news story or analytical piece is a rough first draft of the truth.”

So why even expect “reality” entertainment to hit the mark?