Is Television to Blame?

Television, we are told, is to blame.

When children shoot children--and it has happened often in recent days, in Colorado, Kentucky, Arkansas, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Washington and most recently in Oklahoma--the search for explanations inevitably leads to the tube.

An Associated Press poll finds that most Americans think the most effective deterrent to school violence would be to reduce the amount of violence portrayed in TV shows and movies.

But just how consuming is TV?

Ask the residents of Moses Lake, Wash., and Salmon Arm, British Columbia--two towns very much alike, each with about 15,000 people, each with similar incomes and ethnic makeup.

Both see the same television shows. And yet one has been riddled with violence, and the other has not. In one town, parents traditionally have spent time with their kids; in the other, they’re just learning how.