Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, July 2, 1993 TAG: 9307020172
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 2 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By RAY RICHMOND
DATELINE: LOS ANGELES LENGTH: Medium
The warnings, which will begin this fall, would cover only prime-time programs on ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox and allow cable networks and independent stations to broadcast violence-filled programs without a content warning.
Further, officials acknowledged, none of the prime-time series programs currently on network TV are deemed violent enough to qualify for a warning.
"NYPD Blue," ABC's new police drama, will carry a warning each week, said Tom Murphy, chairman of Capital Cities-ABC. It's the only regular series on any network that routinely will be labeled for violence.
Cartoons won't carry such warnings, nor will any athletic events. It is expected to apply primarily to TV movies and miniseries.
"We have no plans to label the cartoons violent at this time," said Howard Stringer, president of CBS Broadcast Group.
Added Jack Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Association of America: "Millions and millions of American children grew up on cartoons, and millions and millions of American children today have their values intact, their integrity preserved, and they're good citizens. And the idea that Willy the Whale, or Road Runner or Superman is having anything to do with the causing of violence I think takes the whole arena of research and expands it into an area where it becomes distended and distorted."
The advisory warnings, announced at a news conference in Washington attended by Sen. Paul Simon, D-Ill., representatives of the four major networks and Valenti, got a lukewarm reception from critics of televised gunplay and car crashes.
"At least it's a start," David Abbott, executive director of the Boston-based National Foundation to Improve Television, said Wednesday.
"This is the first time the TV industry has implicitly acknowledged that this type of violence is harmful. Yet at the same time, this does not free the networks from addressing the greater problem of the level of violence in their programs."
NBC Entertainment president Warren Littlefield called the plan an example of the networks "taking a major leadership position" in television's congressionally pressured mandate to adopt more rigorous controls in their depiction of violence.
Abbott added that he feared a warning system not accompanied by more stringent violence controls "may wind up being a waste" and feared that the network action "is only being done to stave off the threat of government intrusion."
Indeed, the network announcement comes amid a growing outcry in Congress about the violent content in network programming and its harmful impact on impressionable viewers such as children.
To that end, a hearing of the U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Telecommunications and Finance dealing with TV violence - including a proposal for an industry-sponsored ratings system for violence - is scheduled for this morning.
Rick Feldman, vice president and general manager at Los Angeles independent station KCOP (Channel 13), said Wednesday that his station has been providing disclaimers for excessive violence before certain feature films for years and believes the "hysteria over violence has grown out of control."
"There is very little violence in what the networks air on a regular basis," Feldman said. "It's cable that has most of the problems with violence, and they have virtually no standards at all."
While Feldman acknowledges there is a need to be vigilant about violent content, "It's still up to parents to decide what kids watch and what they don't."
The new network warning system for violence will find programs deemed excessively violent to carry the following standardized disclaimer: "Due to some violent content, parental discretion advised."
It is being left to each network's broadcast standards department to determine which programs require the labeling, based upon the following criteria:
- The overall level of violence in a program, the graphic nature of the violent content or the tone, message or mood of the program.
- The content of the violent depiction, the composition of the intended audience and the time period of the show.
Network warnings will appear not only just prior to the broadcast of a given program but also in any print ads or promotions for same, NBC's Littlefield said. A notation also will be provided newspapers and magazines to alert parents that particular programs depict brutality that may be inappropriate.
Littlefield said that the warning system is not being adopted in lieu of greater responsibility and increased vigilence, simply as an "additional warning to parents" who may want to exhibit more control.
At the same time, however, Littlefield maintained that not all societal violence can be pinned on broadcast television's role.
by CNB