Report by US Senator on V-Chip
May 26, 1999
Lieberman Releases New Report Showing Television Trash Still on the Rise
WASHINGTON – Senator Joe Lieberman joined with the Parents Television Council today in unveiling a new study
on television content indicating that the amount of sex and vulgarity in primetime programming has risen significantly
since the adoption of the TV ratings system.
The PTC analysis, which looked at each of the last three November sweeps periods, found that the amount of
violence aired on the four major broadcast networks had not changed much since 1996. But it showed that sexual
content increased 42 percent in that period, and that profanities and foul language increased 30 percent.
Senator Lieberman, who sponsored the original V-chip legislation and now sits on the PTC’s advisory council,
commented on these findings at a Capitol Hill news conference this morning. What follows is the text of his remarks.
So much of our attention in recent weeks has been focused on the culture of carnage surrounding our kids -- all the
murder and mayhem they consume in their media diet -- and rightly so, given the recent string of school shootings
and the evidence implicating the entertainment industry’s bloodlust as a contributing factor in these tragedies.
But the study we release today reminds us that the problems with our culture, and the concerns of parents about its
corrosive influence, go much deeper than the question of violence, and extend to the larger vision of values that the
entertainment media presents and promotes to our children, which is helping to eat away at the boundaries between
right and wrong, and feed an anything-goes mindset in our society.
That distorted and disturbing vision is made all too clear by the PTC’s findings, which indicates that, despite years of
increasingly fervent complaints about the declining standards of television, and despite the unequivocal message of
concern we in Congress tried to communicate by passing the V-chip legislation, the Springerization of television has
been continuing apace.
Instead of raising standards, or at least taking a timeout in the race to the bottom, this study documents that the major
broadcast networks’ most visible output is growing ruder, cruder, and lewder. It is true that the broadcasters have
made some progress in reducing the amount of graphic, gratuitous violence aired during primetime, something I have
noticed and this report seems to reflect, and we should commend the networks for it. But sadly that is not the case
for sexual content and offensive language. The PTC has documented even more depictions of casual sex, more dirty
jokes, more profanities, more attempts to shock and titillate, and more material that in sum rejects rather than reflects
the basic values that most parents are trying to instill in their children.
In doing so, this report underscores the point that ratings and V-chips are ultimately not the cure for what ails
television or the whole of the culture. These tools are a good resource for the short term, a high-tech hardhat to help
protect kids from falling standards -- if families use them. But ask parents which they would prefer, to put a warning
sign up next to a polluted lake, or to clean up the contamination, and there is no contest. Parents clearly want more
than good labels on bad programs – they want higher standards.
If that is the case, and I believe it is, then parents have to do more to make their voice heard in the marketplace. If
they are going to demand more responsibility from cultural producers, then they have to exercise more of it
themselves. That means, for starters, using the V-chip and ratings to keep out unwanted TV visitors, and where
appropriate, turning off the television -- not to mention the stereo or the computer. And it means complaining to
networks and affiliates and movie producers and record companies and advertisers who are distributing and
sponsoring cultural pollution, to tell them their will be economic consequences for their degradation.
None of this, though, absolves the polluters themselves of their responsibilities as part of our national community to
help protect children from harm. The good news here is that this message is finally sinking in in some important
quarters. In the wake of the Littleton massacre, a number of leading figures in television and the other entertainment
media have begun to step back and reconsider the impact of all the violence they are washing over our children.
I was struck in particular by the recent comments of CBS President Les Moonves, who a few days ago announced
that CBS had opted not to pick up a new series about organized crime that apparently was going to include high
dosages of violence. In expressing his reservations about airing this show, particularly in the aftermath of Littleton,
Mr. Moonves said, “Anyone who doesn’t pay attention to what is going on and says the media has nothing to do with
it is an idiot.”
And just this morning, the New York Times reported that Barry Diller, the head of USA Networks, which owns the
Springer show, has tired of defending Springer’s degrading and exploitative program, and is taking immediate steps to
overhaul the show, starting with an outright ban on the daily brawls that have become Springer’s hallmark. While this
news is welcome, Mr. Diller has made similar gestures before, and I’ll believe it when I see it.
In the meantime, my hope is that the report we are releasing today, coming on top of the debate the Littleton
shooting has sparked about media responsibility, will put more pressure on the television industry to take a hard look
at what they are dumping into the public square and the repercussions for our children, and to ask these great
companies whether the damage they are doing is worth the extra rating points they are seeking.
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