TVs at a sports bar is the point of a sports bar. A place to go to watch sporting events with other sports lovers and where you can go with your friends and you don't need to clean up, prepare food, etc.
Restaurants aren't sports bars, and yes, yes, yes to the comment about art work and music adding 1 million times more to learning about a culture. (As if most of the restaurants that do this bother to pipe in satellite TV from another country).
Frankly, I think most restaurant owners who adds TVs to the restaurant probably have rocks in his or her head.
On a side note though, I actually don't mind the TVs at the Jackson House diner. They are on mute, up high (usually not in your line of sight), and air the news. I don't go to the Jackson House for its ambiance. I go for quick diner fare and the TVs don't disrupt the experience.