Big 3 Networks Agree to ‘Limit’ Violence on TV

The three major television networks, after years of criticism that they glamorize violence, appear to be ready to clean up their act.

In an unusual joint letter sent by ABC, NBC and CBS to Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), the three networks said they will “limit the depiction of violence” in entertainment programs.

The letter represents a victory for Simon, who has pushed hard for legislation to curb the level of violence depicted on TV.

“You will see a difference in the 1993 programming” next fall, Simon predicted at a press conference Friday.

But network officials said any new guidelines are likely to be meaningless unless they are embraced by the entire industry, including cable TV and the burgeoning syndication market. So far, other segments of the industry have not signaled their intentions.

And network producers, responding to news of the agreement, said the guidelines would have little or no effect on their programming. The new guidelines will be drawn from each network’s own set of standards, which are very similar.

“I don’t see why we’d really have a problem with any of that,” said Walon Green, co-executive producer of NBC’s “Law and Order.”

Green said programs currently running on TV would not be affected by the agreement because they “have backed away from showing people being beaten up at random and women being abused just for the effect.”

He said only shows in the 1970s, such as “Starsky and Hutch,” were excessively violent.

Although Simon hailed the agreement as “a first big step,” he conceded that the guidelines “lacked teeth” because they cannot be enforced by law and are subject to loose interpretation by the networks.

In recent years, the network officials said, the Big Three broadcasters have moved away from the kind of high-violence programs once symbolized by such hits as “The A Team” and “Hill Street Blues.” Cable television and syndication producers, which have looser standards than the networks, frequently show programs that are more violent in nature.

Still, the networks, because of their high visibility and long association with the issue, believe that they have to lead the way if the industry is to sign on to guidelines for curbing violence on TV.

“It is not insignificant that the three networks, who cannot agree on the color of the sky, have gotten together on this one issue,” said a senior network executive who asked not to be identified.

Simon, who authored an antitrust exemption that allows TV broadcasters to collaborate on industrywide standards on violence, said the agreement outlined several broad areas where the networks can reduce the harmful effects of TV on audiences.

The guidelines include banning repeated depictions of violence for its own sake, prohibiting the glamorization of violence, banishing excessive gore or suffering and barring violence that is used simply to shock or stimulate the audience.

Each network previously had its own set of guidelines, and the new voluntary standards represent their consolidation--with the overall effect of slightly stricter rules for all.

Simon’s TV Violence Act, passed by Congress in 1990, exempted the television industry from antitrust limits for three years to allow self-regulation on TV violence. The law, which called for common standards among all broadcasters, includes the cable industry.

Simon had shown increasing restlessness with the networks’ lack of progress in reaching an agreement over the last year. He had even suggested action by the Federal Communications Commission to force an agreement.

“I’m a card-carrying member of the American Civil Liberties Union. . . . I don’t want to encourage government censorship,” Simon said. He said he hoped that the agreement could be endorsed by the rest of the industry by the time the TV Violence Act expires in December, 1993.

Simon said the networks have called a meeting next spring to recruit others, such as the cable networks, to agree to an industrywide standard. The conference is designed to bring together the networks, the cable TV industry, TV program producers and others to discuss the issue and the latest research.

Simon cited a recent study by the Journal of the American Medical Assn. that he said showed homicides doubled in the United States, South Africa and Canada only 15 years after TV was introduced into those countries.

“There’s no question that TV causes violence,” Simon said.

Marshall reported from Washington and Lippman from Los Angeles.