Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, June 26, 1993 TAG: 9306260056
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-8 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium
Turner, accompanied by his wife, actress Jane Fonda, advised the House Energy and Commerce telecommunications subcommittee not to let up its campaign against TV violence.
He wasn't optimistic that an entertainment industry-sponsored meeting in Los Angeles on Aug. 2 would make progress in quelling the violence on TV.
"Unless you keep the gun pointed at their heads, all you'll get is mumbly, mealy mouthed BS," he said. "They just hope the subject will go away."
He admitted that more violence than he wished has been creeping into programming on his own TNT cable network.
"We've eased up because we are being forced to by the competition," he said. "They're guilty of murder. We all are - me, too."
"As a parent with five children, I don't need experts to tell me that the amount of violence on television today and its increasingly graphic portrayal can be harmful to children," he said.
"Television violence is the single most significant factor contributing to violence in America," he said. A rating system, coupled with TV sets equipped to block violent programs, would be the solution, Turner said.
"Parents can push a simple little button and get the garbage out of their homes. If it's not done voluntarily, Congress should act and ram it down their [the TV industry's] throats."
Fonda, who sat quietly behind her husband during the hearing, told reporters afterward that she agreed with what Turner said and praised congressional pressure on the industry as "the first step toward the answer."
by CNB