[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 6 (Tuesday, February 1, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: February 1, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
EMPOWERING PARENTS AND THE PUBLIC: THE KEY TO A SOLUTION FOR TELEVISION 
                                VIOLENCE

 Mr. DORGAN. Mr. President, today the cable television industry 
announced a plan that will--it says--stop the violence that cable 
operators have been pouring into the American home. The broadcast 
networks have expressed an intention to follow suit on some of the 
initiatives.
  The details of these plans are still fuzzy. Basically, they are, 
among other things, proposing to contract with outside experts to 
review their programs and possibly assign ratings to them.
  We should all applaud the industry for coming this far. We should 
especially applaud the leaders in the industry who have dragged along 
their reluctant cohorts--the ones who prefer to keep their heads in the 
sand. These leaders have opened a dialog that may make it possible to 
truly address this problem.
  I also think that we need to commend our colleague, Senator Simon, 
whose leadership was critical to these developments. The Senator from 
Illinois has helped bring this issue to the forefront of the Nation's 
attention and I am sure that many of my colleagues share my admiration 
and gratitude for his work in this area.
  But we need to remember too that nothing has happened yet. The 
industry has declared its good intentions, nothing more.
  The history of this issue provides a cautionary tale. Time and again 
over the last four decades, parents and clergy have expressed dismay 
over the violent fare that broadcast corporations were offering to 
young children. Time and again Congress has held hearings. Each time 
the industry has made earnest promises of reform.
  Yet each time, those executives went back to New York or Hollywood 
and soon the violence was getting worse again. During the 1980's, while 
the administration in Washington was looking the other way, the gore 
and mayhem reached record levels. It probably is not a total 
coincidence that the inner city children who absorbed that onslaught of 
media violence in the 1980's, are now repeating it as teen-agers in the 
1990's.
  We all know that crime has many causes. But we also know, if we are 
honest, that the mayhem in the media isn't helping. The problem is 
imply too important to leave to good intentions. Public pressure, 
focused through Congress, has brought the media this far. Our 
colleague, Senator Paul Simon, raised this issue onto the national 
agenda, almost by himself. He deserves the gratitude of all of us, and 
of the entire nation.

  The job is not done, and we in Congress have to stay on the case 
until the job is done
  I do think we should meet the industry half way. If they show real 
progress, and put in place a mechanism that truly stems the violence 
and will continue to do so, then to that extent--and only that extent--
we should let them alone. But we still need guard-rails to keep the 
industry from slipping. We still need to bolster the responsible voices 
in the industry who, without our pressure, never would have gotten this 
far.
  The question is how to do so. As I have said time and again in this 
Chamber, it is not the role of government in this country to tell the 
media what it can portray nor individuals what they can watch. Our 
Nation just doesn't work that way. It is the role of government, 
however, to provide information to parents and others--information that 
they could not gather themselves--to help them make their own informed 
choices.
  That is the approach I have taken. Under my bill calling for a 
television violence report card, there would be no censors, no ratings, 
no attempt to judge the ultimate value of individual shows. Instead, 
the Federal Government would support the production of a simple study 
that showed parents the number of acts of violence in each show, and 
the sponsors of those shows.
  This information would come out quarterly, including at least one 
sweeps week. It would serve as an early warning system, a signal to 
parents regarding the shows they might want to take a closer look at. 
It would boost their efforts to monitor their children's viewing and to 
make their own judgments.
  But it would not put the Federal Government into the role of judge or 
censor. It would give more power to parents, not to the Federal 
Government.
  Because the industry has taken a first step toward cleaning up its 
own act, I intend to modify my bill in two important ways. First, the 
original version would have given the job of conducting the surveys to 
the Federal Communications Commission. Industry people have complained 
that regulators should not have this role, and I have decided that 
there is some validity to their concerns. For that reason, I am 
redrafting the bill to provide that the surveys be carried out by a 
private entity, contracting through the National Telecommunications 
Industry Administration under the National Endowment for Children's 
Educational Television program.
  In addition, in light of the industry initiative, my modified version 
would sunset after 2 years. Then Congress could assess the situation. 
If the media shows it can restrain itself, and provides a real, 
effective mechanism to warn parents of the violence in different 
programs, then Congress could decide to stop the surveys that I am 
proposing.
  For the last 40 years, America has developed technology of incredible 
sophistication for projecting images of violence into the American 
home. It started with the TV sets of the early 1950's, with the tiny 
black and white screens. From there we went to big screens, color, 
stereo sound, and VCR's. High definition television and the 
communications superhighway are just over the horizon.
  The technology for producing media violence has become incredibly 
sophisticated as well.
  Yet through all this, America has done virtually nothing to give 
parents more tools to cope with this violence--to control the flood of 
it into their homes. Most parents try. But they simply aren't able to 
sit by the set all day and monitor every show.
  My television violence report card is one way to address that, but 
there is another as well.
  That's why I introduced S. 1811, the Television Violence Reductions 
Through Parental Empowerment Act in the Senate yesterday. This is a 
companion bill to the V-chip legislation that Congressman Edward Markey 
has pioneered in the other body. The V-chip is an effective way to 
address TV violence that gives more power to parents rather than to 
government. It would enable parents to lock the set, just as they lock 
their cars or their front doors. For the first time since the invention 
of television, it would enable them to eject from their living rooms 
the shows they don't want their children to see.
  Television has done something that never occurred before in human 
history. It has given adults a way to bypass the parents, get past the 
front door, and speak directly to children. The V-chip would enable 
parents to lock the front door again. With it, they could send a 
message to the networks and cable channels through the free 
marketplace, without bureaucracy or government censorship of any kind.
  The V-chip will be an important part of a solution. For the first 
time in this country, it would provide a boost for parents who want to 
keep portrayals of violence out of their homes. It is not censorship. 
It simply gives parents a tool to help supervise their childrens 
television viewing.
  I want to commend Congressman Markey for his leadership on this 
issue. Without his efforts, it would not be on the national agenda the 
way it is today.
  The media have turned the living rooms of this country into arenas 
for the display of bloodshed and gore. They have taught our children 
that violence is glamorous and cool and is the way that adults solve 
their problems. Parents are outraged, and rightfully so. Now we have an 
opportunity to address this problem. It is part of the unfinished 
business of the media age.
  The technology of media violence has become ever more sophisticated. 
Very soon, high definition television will crank it up to yet another 
level. We simply have to right the balance, give parents more tools to 
restrain this invasion of their homes--one that no parents in history 
have had to confront.
  We welcome the desire of the media to get its own house in order. To 
the extent that it does, then our efforts will be unnecessary. But 
until it does, we in Congress must keep pushing.

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