Valenti Attacks Link Between TV, Violence : Senate hearings: MPAA president offers a spirited defense of industry practices yet includes some criticism of news shows and programming designed for children.

The movie industry’s top spokesman warned Tuesday that depictions of violence on television should not be blamed for most of the mayhem in American society.

While acknowledging that “some gratuitous violence” on television should be eliminated, particularly during the hours viewed by children, Jack Valenti insisted at a Senate hearing that “the great majority” of the most popular television programs cannot be labeled violent.

“None of the top 25 most popular prime-time TV programs can be described as violent, although the self-anointed experts would label them so,” said Valenti, president of the Motion Picture Assn. of America.

He said the central problem is that “we live in a violent society, born in violence, worn by violence--running through our history like a twanging scarlet wire.”

Valenti’s testimony, presented during the third in a recent series of congressional hearings on the subject of television violence, was the most spirited defense to date by any industry executive. Members of Congress have threatened tough new government measures bordering on censorship unless the content of television shows viewed by children is improved.

Sen. Paul Simon (D-Ill.), who sponsored 1990 legislation that waives antitrust laws to allow industry officials to try voluntary self-regulation, told the hearing Congress has expressed concern about television violence since the first Senate hearing occurred in 1961.

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While serious studies were incomplete at the time, “today the research is overwhelming,” Simon said. “There is no question that violence on the screen contributes to violence in our society.”

Simon, chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee on the Constitution, said Tuesday’s hearing was to allow the movie industry to express views for the first time. Last month, television executives pledged to work harder to reduce depictions of violent acts that often are imitated by young viewers. But some said they had little control over feature-length movies that are shown on television.

Simon, noting that the three-year waiver to allow voluntary self-regulation expires in December, said he was hopeful an industrywide conference scheduled for August in Los Angeles would make further strides toward cutting down on-screen violence.

Sen. Herb Kohl (D-Wis.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee’s juvenile justice subcommittee, which co-sponsored the hearing, told Valenti and others that “the American people are going to demand that you step up and do what you must do to resolve the problem.

“What children see on television and in the movie houses around the country has a great impact on them,” Kohl said. “Too often what they see leads them to form a set of values and act out those values in a way that is dangerous to society.”

Challenging the assumptions of Simon and Kohl, Valenti said “whether or not there is ample, confirming scientific evidence that violence on a TV screen is the major villain begetting real violence in the real society can be debated.”

But he added, “We can agree that trying to soften and shrink gratuitous violence wherever it appears on TV is a worthy and even achievable aim.”

Attacking television news shows as part of the problem, Valenti said “it’s a bit ironic that these local news shows are increasingly illuminated by carjackings, rapes, murder--most of it ‘live as it happens,’ most of it in our neighborhoods and all of it drenched in the garments of hot crime stories.”

However, Simon interjected that “there is a difference between scenes from Bosnia which do not glorify violence” and entertainment programs that often do.

Another witness, Kerry McCluggage, chairman of Paramount Pictures Television Group, said, “We share your concern for the welfare of our children.”

McCluggage added that “I know there is a great sense of frustration in Washington that the entertainment industry is not moving fast enough or effectively enough to address the important issues of violence on television.”

But, he said, “there are ongoing efforts to heighten the sensitivities of the creative community to the impact and portrayal of violence, and these efforts are not merely belated responses to the threat of congressional action.”

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The Senate hearing was preceded by announcement Monday of a national petition drive by the newly formed Citizens Task Force on TV Violence.

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), who is coordinating the effort, said the petitions will be forwarded to industry executives before their Aug. 2 meeting in Los Angeles.

Members of the task force include the National PTA, the American Medical Assn., the National Sheriff’s Assn., the American Psychological Assn., the American Academy of Pediatrics, the National Council of Churches, the American Psychiatric Assn., the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatrists, the American Nurses Assn.-American Academy of Nursing, and the National Assn. of Elementary School Principals.