
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: WEDNESDAY, June 9, 1993                   TAG: 9306090212
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A2   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON                                LENGTH: Medium

TV EXECUTIVES DENY BLAME, BUT PROMISE TO CURB VIOLENCE

Hollywood will act against gratuitous TV violence with the same social conscience that took cigarettes away from TV characters and put seat belts on them, television production executives said Tuesday.

But the industry executives testifying before a Senate panel refused to accept TV violence as a leading cause of actual violence and said television is less violent than some people choose to believe.

One organization, for example, named "The Young Indiana Jones Chronicles" as the most violent prime-time show last fall, said Kerry McCluggage, chairman of Paramount Television Group, the co-producer.

"This, quite frankly, stunned us and is flatly wrong," he told the Senate Judiciary Committee's subcommittee on the Constitution.

He said the show has been praised for historical depictions of the early 20th century by institutions ranging from the Boy Scouts and Children's Television Workshop to the United Federation of Teachers in New York.

Some studies of TV violence "simplistically and mechanically add up the number of allegedly violent acts without reference to the overall context of the program or the nature of the acts themselves," McCluggage said.

"None of the top 25 most popular prime time TV shows can be described as violent, although the self-annointed experts would label them so," said Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America.

The industry knows viewers often turn the channel away from violence, the executives said.

Industry executives said they are working with writers, directors and producers to make sure TV violence is handled with sensitivity.

They said Hollywood consciously reduced the incidence of cigarette smoking in the 1980s and recently began deglamorizing alcohol and drug use.

"From seat belts to the wearing of helmets by motorcyclists, the television industry recognizes its potential impact on society and the positive social obligations that creates," McCluggage said.

But calming real violence is more complex than developing more wholesome shows, said Leslie Moonves, president of Lorimar Television.

"How on Earth is violence in the real society to be . . . brought to tolerable levels when there is no limit to guns of every size, muzzle velocity and killing qualities?" Valenti asked.

by CNB