Violence Report Leaves Questions

TV VIOLENCE TOUGH TO CURB DESPITE FCC'S NEW PLEA
[SOURCE: The Christian Science Monitor, AUTHOR: Amanda Paulson]
The Federal Communications Commission, which released its long-awaited recommendations on TV violence last week, is strongly urging that Congress can and should regulate the degree of violence that can be shown during prime-time hours. The FCC has also proposed to regulate cable TV for the first time, attempting to reduce the market for violent images by requiring cable companies to offer consumers more flexibility in which channels they choose to purchase. While such regulation may prove politically popular, it will be a tough sell to the courts, experts say. "There is very little chance that a bill attempting to define violence and regulate it would ever pass constitutional muster," says Clay Calvert, codirector of the Pennsylvania Center for the First Amendment at Pennsylvania State University. "It would be a huge shift for [the FCC] to regulate content on cable and satellite, and this is probably not the best issue to do it on…. Violence is going to be even harder to define than indecency." Despite that, many advocates say that evidence of harmful effects of media violence on children, combined with a significant increase in the degree of violence that makes it over the air waves, means that the government needs to try. If Congress does write legislation, a major challenge will be coming up with an acceptable – and narrow – definition of excessive violence.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/0430/p02s01-ussc.html

VIOLENCE REPORT LEAVES QUESTIONS
[SOURCE: TVWeek, AUTHOR: Ira Teinowitz]
Few if any of the legislators and interest groups who responded to the Federal Communications Commission's long-anticipated report about violence on television last week defended the level of rough content on the air. Instead, they disagreed on how to address it. Some say leave it to Congress, others say leave it to the viewers, but most expect members of the TV industry will step up self-policing to handle it themselves. The FCC offered a list in its report of potential actions Congress could take for both broadcast and cable, but didn't recommend one over the other. Among those it included were limiting violent programming to certain times of day, creating a family hour, imposing government labels for violent content and creating a la carte cable tiers.
http://www.tvweek.com/article.cms?articleId=31867
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