Senator Inouye has asked me to open this morning’s hearing on the Impact of Media Violence on Children.  I am pleased to welcome our witnesses today.  I know many of you have traveled from across the country to be here today. 

 

Before I start, I would especially like to welcome Chairman Martin, who continues to show strong leadership and courage on addressing violent programming.  After years of this issue languishing at the FCC, I am pleased that the Chairman has moved to find solutions to this vexing problem.  I know his wife, Catherine, just had their second son, William, a week ago and I want to thank him for taking the time to testify before the Committee today. 

I must also recognize the work of Commissioner Copps on this issue.  Unfortunately, Commissioner Copps could not be here today due to other pressing FCC business, but he has been a genuine leader and advocate on this issue. 

 

The issue of protecting children from indecent, violent, and profane content is a deeply personal and important issue to me.   Last Congress, I introduced legislation to address this issue, and will do so again in the coming weeks. 

 

After years of inadequate and ineffective voluntary efforts by the industry, we are no closer to solving the problem of indecent and violent programming for children despite claims that parents have many tools at their disposal to address unwanted programming.

 

Children today are being subjected to an unprecedented level of violent television content.  There is no doubt it is coarsening our culture.  I fear, too, that it is weakening our society. 

 

For too long, we have heard promises to do better, to put better tools in the hands of parents, to provide more options for families.  But none of this has yielded results.  Instead, we have the industry blaming parents for their lack of oversight of children’s television viewing.  This is cowardly.  We have a responsibility to do better, a responsibility the government must take seriously. 

 

I hold the entertainment industry responsible.  Decades of scientific research have shown that violent television programming has a detrimental impact on the development of children.  Yet today the content industry is in a never ending race to the bottom.  It makes you wonder if there even is a bottom anymore. 

 

I am not sure that all of my colleagues know how violent television has become.  At my request, the Parents Television Council has put together a CD with clips from broadcast and cable channels that show shocking violent images.  These images are inherently disturbing to adults so we can only imagine their impact on children. 

 

I know some of our witnesses will go into far greater detail, but let us consider these facts

 

 

When I am home, I meet with West Virginia parents and educators and they have told me that children’s behavior is becoming more aggressive and at times crude or explicit, and that they blame television for much of the problem.

 

I have met with many representatives from the entertainment industry representing – broadcasters, cable, movies, and others.  The one thing every CEO I meet tells me is that they are personally appalled by the violent content that is on television and they personally they agree with me.  And, if they could change it they could.  But yet, I never get a reason as to why the industry will not stop showing violent content.  I think we all know the answer.  Violent content is cheap to produce and profitable.  It sells. 

 

The entertainment industry could change what we watch on television but it chooses to sell sex and violence instead.  I reject the notion that television merely reflects our society, but rather I believe that television can and should be a positive force.  

 

To be blunt, the big media companies have placed a greater emphasis on their corporate short term profits than on long term health and well being of our children. 

 

Instead of addressing the problem – too much violent programming on television – the industry seeks to hide behind ineffective band aids of voluntary action and providing parents more “tools”.  Parents do not want more tools.  They want the content off the air. 

 

It is no big secret that the industry has hoped that its latest voluntary campaign will stave off Congress from establishing common sense content and ratings regulations for television.  I know that we will hear their now familiar arguments here today.  The entertainment industry will claim that voluntary actions are sufficient and that they are only giving the public what it wants to view while giving parents all the tools necessary to block unwanted programming. 

 

But, none of these arguments are persuasive enough to convince me to abandon a serious effort to protect children from unconscionable levels of sex and gratuitous violence, on what, remains the most pervasive inescapable means of communication in America today -- television. 

 

We now know that the entertainment and broadcasting industry has proven itself unable and unwilling to police itself. 

 

I fear that graphic violent programming has become so pervasive and has been shown to be so harmful, we are left with no choice but to have the government step in. 

 

I know that Congress has been reluctant to take on the issue of violence because defining decency is difficult.  I will again reintroduce my legislation, because we must address this issue.  I understand that these are hard lines to draw, but just because they are difficult doesn’t mean that we should stand by and do nothing.  For the sake of our children and grandchildren, we have a moral obligation to tackle television violence and arm our parents with the tools to make their children safer.

 

The real question for all of us here today is “What are we going to do about protecting our children from the pervasive and escalating level of television violence”.  Doing nothing is not an option.