August 4, 1999
EDITORIAL: Hollywood
appeal: All thumbs up
___Hooray for ex-presidents. Jimmy Carter and Gerald Ford are fronting a movement to get Hollywood to clean up its act.
___They're leading a group of about 60 prominent Americans who have issued "An Appeal to Hollywood," a plea to media executives and electronic-media advertisers. They're asking for "a new social compact aimed at renewing our culture and making our media environment more healthy for our society and safer for our children."
___And none too soon.
___The Parents Television Council confirmed what you already know: Television is getting worse. The council compared surveys of TV content from November 1996, shortly before the current TV ratings system was instituted, to the comparable period last year. The incidents of sex, violence and foul language increased by more than 30 percent. Ask any parent who has monitored movies, music and other electronic media, and you'll learn those forms of media also have descended precipitously.
___"An Appeal to Hollywood" (reprinted on the Internet at www.media-appeal.org) seeks to turn back the tidal wave of sleaze, particularly in media aimed at teens and children.
___It states: "The code we envision would (1) affirm in clear terms the industry's vital responsibilities for the health of our culture; (2) establish certain minimum standards for violent, sexual and degrading material for each medium, below which producers can be expected not to go; (3) commit the industry to an overall reduction in the level of entertainment violence; (4) ban the practice of targeting of adult-oriented entertainment to youth markets; (5) provide for more accurate information to parents on media content while committing to the creation of "windows" or "safe havens" for family programming (including a revival of TV's "Family Hour"); and, finally, (6) pledge the industry to significantly greater creative efforts to develop good family-oriented entertainment."
___The document points to results from a poll conducted by CNN, USA Today and the Gallup Organization. It reveals 76 percent of U.S. adults believe TV, movies and pop music negatively influence children. It finds that 75 percent of adults try to protect their children from these influences, and 73 percent say the task is "nearly impossible."
___"Children of all ages are now being exposed to a barrage of images and words that threaten not only to rob them of normal childhood innocence, but also to distort their view of reality and even undermine their character growth," the appeal claims.
___It points to Exhibit A: The two teenagers, sated on violent movies and video games, who killed 12 students and a teacher in Littleton, Colo., this spring.
___"There is a growing appreciation of the link between our excessively violent and degrading entertainment culture and the horrifying new crimes we see emerging among our young," the document observes.
___"Among researchers, the proposition that entertainment violence adversely influences attitudes and behavior is no longer controversial; there is overwhelming evidence of its harmful effects. Numerous studies show that degrading images of violence and sex have a desensitizing effect. Nowhere is the threat greater than to our at-risk youth--youngsters whose broken homes or disadvantaged environments make them acutely susceptible to acting upon impulses shaped by violent and dehumanizing media imagery."
___The appeal appropriately holds parents responsible for monitoring their children's media appetites. It prudently refrains from calling for government censorship. Yet it forthrightly calls for the media to exercise restraint for the good of society.
___You can join the effort by adding your name to the appeal. A form is located at the Internet site: www.media-appeal.org. Or you can write to Media Appeal, Institute for Communitarian Policy Studies, George Washington University, 2130 H Street, NW, Suite 703, Washington, D.C. 20052.
___If you're a parent, renew your efforts to guide your children through the media maze. You know them; you know what's appropriate. Use media discussions to help your children develop Christian moral values and a strong sense of right and wrong.
___And whether or not you're a parent, pray for our young people and their moral well-being. They will shape our future.
___ --Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@flash.net
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