Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: MONDAY, January 10, 1994 TAG: 9401200001
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: 1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOE KENNEDY STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
It occurred last month during a gathering of journalists, news producers, congressmen, lobbyists and think-tank members in the tony Arlington headquarters of the Freedom Forum, and at other sites, under the auspices of the Washington Journalism Center.
The subject was ``Violence and Society: Kids, Cops, Women and TV.'' The experts' opinions were crisp and authoritative. The journalists' curiosity was intense.
But real experiences with the topic were altogether absent. No criminals spoke to the group. Neither did any victims. The participants visited Capitol Hill, but toured no violent neighborhoods.
This was violence viewed from above and quantified in studies and statistics. Even obvious subjects, like violence in the media, seemed destined for the nebulous cure of self-regulation.
The conference's lack of paradigm-smashing approaches stemmed, no doubt, from the complexity of the subject and the simplicity of politics. In separate appearances two congressmen - a Democrat from Northern Virginia and a Republican from Florida - came out strongly in favor of building more prisons, which the voters will support, and hardly at all for preventive services, which the voters, at the moment, apparently will not.
Wayne LaPierre, the chief executive officer of the National Rifle Association, said America has sufficient gun laws, but they need to be enforced. A speaker from Handguns Inc., substituting for Sarah Brady, outlined plans to expand the recently passed Brady Law. Hours after they spoke, a gunman in New York boarded a Long Island commuter train and killed 17 people.
The most powerful impression came from Michael Rolnick, an emergency-room physician from the University of Maryland Hospital in Baltimore.
He showed color slides of the bullet wounds, knife slashes and children's injuries he repairs at the inner-city facility. The slides were so gory that members of the audience turned away.
Rolnick simply and convincingly described the stresses of living in poverty. He was the only speaker who seemed to have more than an abstract appreciation for his subject.
Legions of studies have shown a causal relationship between television violence and violence in society, said Brian Wilcox, director of the public policy office of the American Psychological Association. But, he said, the causes of violence are more numerous and complicated than that.
Network television, the target of lawmakers threatening to set standards, ``is not the major deliverer of violence in homes any more,'' he said, citing music and music videos, movie videos, video games and cable TV programming as other sources. Sales of some weapons have skyrocketed after they've been used in violent, popular films, he said.
Opinion surveys have shown that 82 percent of the American public consider movies too violent, said Joel Federman, director of research for MediaScope, a watchdog agency in California. Seventy-two percent feel that entertainment television has too much violence, and 57 percent think television news dwells excessively on violent crimes.
Less clear is what ought to be done about it, he said. The desire for a peaceful, secure society is offset by determination to preserve the right to freedom of expression.
``I don't feel responsible for terrible crimes,'' said Del Reisman, whose scriptwriting credits include ``Rawhide,'' ``The Twilight Zone'' and ``The Untouchables.'' He said he resented being categorized as one of the ``Hollywood people,'' who presumably are out of touch with mainstream values.
He said programming decisions come not from writers or even from famous producers, but from network programmers. And he defended ``long-form,'' fictional TV shows that focus on contemporary problems like child abuse. Even those that are poorly done at least shed light on the subjects, he said.
Federman of MediaScope reported that some other countries are much tougher than the United States in regulating media violence. Sweden cut four minutes of violent scenes from the film, ``Last Action Hero.'' In this country, the film received a PG-13 rating from the Motion Picture Association of America, without the cuts.
Federman said the Film Board in Australia regularly excises what it considers excessively violent material from American films, including ``Robin Hood,'' ``Lethal Weapon 3'' and ``Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.''
Federman said Britain, Germany, Sweden and Australia all have ratings systems for rental videos that mirror their standards for theatrical films. Ratings systems in Australia and New Zealand classify television programming according to their levels of violence, sexuality, profanity and adult themes. Programs with more restrictive classifications are shown only at times when children are unlikely to see them.
Other countries teach critical viewing skills, something that Brian Wilcox, the psychologist, recommended as a way for parents to help their children cope with what they see on TV.
``Stories can be told skillfully which are violent in context by writing around ... the violent moment - the shadow on the wall technique,'' Reisman said. The problem comes when programming executives tell writers their work is ``a little slow'' - one of the code words for insufficiently exciting. He noted that entertainment industry executives are concerned about the public's dissatisfaction with television content, and he said he thought self-regulation would be applied.
``For me, this is a time of network confusion ... and therefore creative confusion .. and I think a near-hysteria in our country on a situation that's complex and needs to be discussed on a very professional level,'' he said.
At least two studies show that the rate of violent crimes in America has dropped since the early 1980s.
Reisman recalled that congress has been concerned about television's effects, particularly with regard to violence, since the 1960s. The difference then was that the American people were ``not as exercised about real crime in real streets as we all are now.''
by CNB