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Show Your Man In Washington By U.S. Senator Orrin G. Hatch What About TV Violence? During the second season of prime time, "family hour" programming program-ming last year, the Senate Subcommittee on Communications Com-munications held public hearings in Salt Lake City on the effects of televised violence on children. Concerned Con-cerned citizens at that hearing expressed distrust for the national television networks' stated objective, "to limit the quantity of violence during the viewing view-ing time of children. " The statistics are now in, and apparently the mistrust expressed by Utahns in Salt Lake City were well founded. Dr. George Gebner and Dr. Larry Gross of the An-nenberg An-nenberg School of Communications, Com-munications, in an ongoing ongo-ing television violence profile, pro-file, report, "The level of violence on television has not decreased, but in fact remains constant even with the institution of the so-called 'family-hour' in prime time." University of Utah professor Neil Hickey in his study, "Does TV Violence Affect Our Society? Socie-ty? Yes," which was first published in TV Guide, says children can become desensitized. The report concludes, "Normal emotional emo-tional responses to human suffering become blunted and (this) desensitization may easily cause not only major increases in personal per-sonal aggression but also a growing-attitude of indifference indif-ference for victims of real-life real-life violence." Dr. Robert Liebert, a psychologist at the State University of New York, says, "The more violence and aggression a youngster sees on TV, regardless of his age, sex or social background, the more agressive he is. . ." The television industry in-dustry counters the mounting moun-ting evidence connecting anti-social behavior and the television violence by stating, "The complexity of the human animal and the variety of stimuli that bombard him make it impossible im-possible to judge the impact im-pact of violent television." A good faith effort on the part of the networks being improbable, vigi-lence vigi-lence by the Salt Lake television stations at screening objectionable material seems to be the only immediate answer while the U.S. Congress wrestles with legislation. |