Ignore the Risk at Your Peril : It’s self-regulation--or government regulation

It’s a frightening thought, but Congress is actually considering proposals to monitor, or even regulate, TV violence. And the film industry increasingly is being held accountable for the content of movies. The old argument that media images aren’t harmful washes no more.

Now, better late than never, two prominent providers of programming for young people seem to have gotten the message. The Walt Disney Co. is taking the unusual step of removing a scene from the film “The Program,” now playing in theaters. In two incidents, one teen-ager was killed and two others were injured as they apparently imitated a scene in which drunken football players lie in the middle of a busy road.

For its part, MTV eliminated the early showing of its controversial “Beavis and Butt-head” cartoon and deleted all jokes about fire after a 2-year-old Ohio girl was killed when her 5-year-old brother set a fire, allegedly after watching the show.

Now comes Big Brother. Atty. Gen. Janet Reno said in Washington Wednesday that if the networks didn’t clean up their act, the government would. Oh, no. . . .

That’s a very unattractive option. It’s true that some other proposals for government intervention don’t seem like the end of the Earth. For example, it’s possible that simply keeping track of the number of incidents of violence on TV won’t amount to much, whether an industry monitoring group or the government keeps the score. But make no mistake: A motivated government, goaded by an angry public, could make things tough on the industry.

A word to the wise from the Justice Department should be sufficient. It should be clear by now that Hollywood, which prospers from its easy access to American hearts and minds, cannot say it has no influence whatsoever on its customers’ behavior, however unintentional the consequences. Disney and MTV both did the right thing, but both were responding to very specific circumstances--and after the fact. Good judgment needs to be exercised earlier on --rather than doing damage control after release or broadcast.

Self-regulation by the entertainment industry is no longer debatable. Nor is the eternal obligation of parents to carefully monitor what their children watch. We live in a society where the pressure for change is often produced from interest groups. This time, the message is coming from the largest interest group of all--consumers. And Congress is listening.

If the programmers don’t understand by now that many Americans are deeply concerned about the deteriorating fabric of society, and whatever role films and TV shows may play in the problem, then the politicians who are attuned to public sentiment simply will take control. And that is something that all of us who believe in freedom of expression should avoid at all costs.