TV WATCH : Under the Gun

It’s obvious that even if the major television networks and cable systems were to wipe all violence from their programming, actual crime would not drop magically overnight. But what’s also obvious is that there is too much violence on dramatic and documentary-drama shows and the sooner something is done about it the better.

Monday’s so-called summit in Beverly Hills between Washington legislators and TV executives--nonviolently aired by CNN--did not solve the problem and produced no magic solutions. But the very fact that the conference took place--along with the networks’ proposal, introduced earlier this summer, to rate programs according the extent of violence--suggests that some people in the TV industry are now beginning to realize how serious the issue has become.

Just as many Americans are taking a new, harder look at the issue of gun control--with even many law enforcement groups now supporting more gun restrictions--so too is network and cable programming under new and, we would argue, welcome scrutiny. No surprise: Television is a powerful and influential mass medium. As Carole Lieberman, chairperson of the National Coalition on Television Violence, has said, “I’m dismayed and surprised that they (TV executives) don’t seem to realize how strongly a lot of legislators feel about this.”

It is far, far better for TV to regulate itself than to have government censors do it. But that is exactly what could happen if the industry does not take steps to cut the violence and bloodshed.