Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 13, 1993 TAG: 9305130036
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
"The parent could just push the `v-block' button on the remote control and keep violent programming out of the home," suggested Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass.
Markey, chairman of the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on telecommunications, said Congress could require manufacturers to build sets with a computer chip that would block out programs somehow coded as having violent content.
Even if only 10 percent or 15 percent of all homes started blocking the programs, broadcasters would get the message, he said.
Markey also said Congress should consider forcing cable operators to end the practice of occasionally unscrambling the signals, for promotional reasons, of premium or pay-per-view channels containing adult programming.
Regular networks also should stop showing promotions for violent shows during breaks in children's programming, he said.
The subject of TV violence has long been debated by lawmakers. In 1990, the Television Violence Act was passed to give the networks an antitrust waiver so they could talk among themselves about reducing the level of violence in their shows.
Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., who sponsored the law, told Markey's subcommittee that a meeting toward that end will be held Aug. 2 among broadcasters, cable television and the motion picture industry, which creates most TV programming.
If the entertainment industry can't come up a voluntary reduction of TV violence with government guidance, the country may go the way of Britain, Canada and France with some form of censorship, Simon said.
"It's like an agreement not to have nuclear weapons," he said. The networks know people will tune in to violent shows. They have to all agree not to show them.
"Violence sells," said William Dietz of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Nonviolent shows can attract an audience, too, but they cost more to produce because they have to be good, he said.
"With violence, you can put anything out there and people will watch," he said, because of the emotional charge violence creates.
The effects of such programming have been studied for so long there is no doubt that it leads to violent behavior, he and other witnesses before the panel said.
by CNB