The FCC's not our mommy and daddy

Why the Federal Communications Commission is wrong to recommend regulating violence on TV.

the FCC issued a report last week on "violent television programming and its impact on children" that calls not just for expanding governmental oversight of broadcast TV but extending content regulation to cable and satellite channels for the first time.

Despite its sober tone, the study rests on the demonstrably false idea that violent TV breeds violence in reality, and it also fails to take seriously the vast increase in child-friendly programming and parent-empowering viewing tools.

If fantasy violence translates readily into its real-world counterpart, then why have juvenile violent crime arrests dropped steadily for 12 years? The same trend is true for violent crime among the larger population. There seems little question that depictions of violence in media have become more frequent and more graphic since 1994. If Adelstein's thesis were true, the facts on the ground would be otherwise.

The ultimate goal of the report is not simply to empower parents who worry about what's on TV in their house but to change "the media landscape outside our homes" and to increase "the amount of family-friendly, uplifting and nonviolent programming being produced."

It's safe to say that when a quartet of do-gooder, pizza-chomping cartoon reptiles has become a predicate for federal regulation, American governance has gone seriously off the rails. More to the point, the FCC seems to be wholly unaware that, in recent years, cable TV has become jampacked with channels dedicated to the sort of fare Tate demands. Cartoon Network, Disney Kids and others devote most or all of their hours to kid-friendly culture.

At the same time, parents have gained unprecedented control over the tube. Since 2000, all new TV sets have come equipped with a government-mandated "V-chip," which allows parents to automatically block specific programs based on violence, language or sexual content ratings. The typical TV or cable/satellite box includes other controls as well that allow the blocking of channels and restrict access to the set. And, of course, all TVs come with an on/off switch.