Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, August 2, 1993 TAG: 9311250309
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LYNN ELBER ASSOCIATED PRESS
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
Broadcast and cable TV networks air shootings, stabbings and thrashings. Viewers watch them. And Congress strikes a stern, statesmanlike position but blurs the details of who the worst offenders are.
The complexity of the issue itself is daunting.
Cigarette advertising, once a mainstay of TV, is barred after the product is shown to be a health risk. The industry is criticized for glamorizing drug use; it turns cartwheels to show its anti-drug fervor.
But how to grapple with violence, a classic mainstay of drama - and a surefire ratings winner. Viewers tell polls they want to see less violence, but a new Chuck Norris series kicks its way to popularity.
What measure of mayhem is acceptable? How much blame, if any, should the networks shoulder for escalating murder rates and urban atrocities?
Hundreds of industry members were gathering today in Beverly Hills to mull the problem. Not many fights, or solutions, were likely to break out at what is essentially a daylong consciousness-raising session.
More cynical label have popped up, including dog-and-pony show and photo opportunity.
But CBS President Howard Stringer said recently that ``meeting with the Hollywood community to discuss whether what's on the screen is healthy'' is a valuable exercise.
Writers and producers must consider means of storytelling besides violence, he said: ``It's much easier to shock people than it is to write a good play or write a good screenplay.''
CBS, ABC, NBC and Fox Broadcasting, however, already have shown the high card they're playing: warning advisories on violent programs. One series thus far - Fox TV's ``Cops'' - will carry such an advisory.
Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., who has helped lead Congress' charge against network violence, said Thursday he wants further action, not just talk.
The networks, Markey says, should be ready to take the next step: agreeing to participate in technology that would allow parents to block violent programs from their TV sets altogether.
``The key here is the empowerment of the parents. That's the issue that has to be dealt with,'' Markey said.
That's not how industry figures necessarily frame things. Trying to avoid waving a red flag at an already irate Congress, they delicately note there's more to the violence equation than broadcast TV, or TV itself.
``The TV shows Americans watch are the same TV shows viewed by Canadians, Japanese and the British,'' Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America, said in a speech Friday.
``Yet, homicide rates in the U.S. are three and a quarter times higher than those in both Canada and Britain, and nine times higher than Japan,'' he continued. ``Why? Is there something else out there?''
What's out there, he said, are poverty, social disintegration and lack of gun control. Television may be part of the equation, but cannot be the sole focus.
Broadcast executives also resent that the more-graphic cable TV stations are not subject to federal control, though they emphasize that there are larger issues with which they must contend.
``Am I upset that cable has a free pass, that cable wears violence and nudity as a badge of honor ... that's not really the issue,'' said Stringer.
``The issue is that people out there are concerned and terrified and fed up with the situation in the streets. That gives me an obligation, I believe, to develop some kind of leadership position.''
Fail at that, the executives say, and there's the specter of government censorship floating on the horizon.
Congress could gloat that the value of its intervention so far has been proved.
A new study found that broadcast violence has dropped since enactment of the federal Television Violence Act, and researcher George Gerbner of the University of Pennsylvania credits the 1990 legislation.
Markey suggests the industry may not have the discipline to reform.
``Forty years of history says no. They've tried to change many times, but each time they've slid back,'' he said.
In other words, we're all in this together. Whether the networks like it or not.
\ Elsewhere in television
HEAR ME ROAR: The cable network Comedy Central is airing 30 new episodes of the comedy series ``Women Aloud,'' hosted by Mo Gaffney. Blending talk and stand-up comedy, the series takes on issues such as bisexuality, sexual stereotypes and single motherhood. Scheduled guests include Lauren Hutton, Wendy Wasserstein and Merrill Markoe. The half-hour series airs Monday through Friday at 9 a.m. and 6:30 p.m. and Sunday at 7:30 p.m.
by CNB