Whose Children Are They, Anyway? : TV violence: Despite what the ‘research’ shows, parents must be responsible for their offspring.

Out of the avalanche of point and counterpoint in a day-long conference on television violence this summer came one remark by a so-called “research authority” which, if true, would exhaust the strength of this nation’s social webbing: “The notion of parental control is an upper-class concept. Passing the buck to parents is the greatest cop-out of this industry!”

This assertion cuts like a machete across the nation’s civic heritage and permanently consigns its citizens to a procession of opposing certainties. If parents do not set values for their children, if a child’s gauge of the assumed social normalities is not fortified and informed by parental teaching as well as scolding, if the notion of parental responsibility is indeed a cop-out, then who, for God’s sake, will assume that role? Big Brother in Washington?

By his theorem, the research authority collides with a “therefore.” Therefore, the nation-state becomes the surrogate parent through some government-appointed commission set loose to escort youngsters through life according to its lights. This alternative has been tried, and history hides its eyes. The fact that aches to be revealed is a simple one: No nation, no society, no aggregation of tribes or clans can ever achieve greatness and stability unless there is the acceptance of responsibility by parents for their children.

Where does the nation’s broadcast-programming industry come out on this issue? First, the research on TV violence is loose-fibered, even contradictory, and gets a bit dotty when it equates road-runner cartoons, “The Three Stooges” and “Rowan & Martin’s Laugh-in” with “violent programs.” Second, TV is an easy target. It’s in every home, and so the call goes forth, “Get rid of violence on TV and surly streets become tranquil.” The most uninformed of the public is not buying such certitude. They know better. Third, if television causes even the tiniest jot of antisocial conduct, then broadcasters and programmers have an obligation to reduce whatever gratuitous violence inhabits TV. That is what the broadcast industry and the creative community have pledged to do. And that is what we will do.

But what frightens the industry and should chill the blood of every citizen is the heavy hand of government slowly, steadily, remorselessly intruding into the outer perimeter of the First Amendment.

The real cop-out is a view that “something else out there” will shape the regularities of conduct and social behavior of children other than parents or those who in the family act as parents. The real cop-out is the failure of parents, not their absence or the substitution of parents by some government commission.

It’s up to the Congress to deal with the abrasions of person and spirit that cause mayhem in the streets and fear in the neighborhoods. We all know what they are and how hard they are to deal with: Poverty. Loss of hope and family ties. Easy access to weapons. Breakdown of discipline in schools. Slackening interest in church. The tattered, scattered remnants of old-fashioned words like honor, duty, pride, compassion, sacrifice, love.

Oh yes, and parental responsibility.