Television Violence Hearing Committee on Commerce
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S. HRG. 106–862 TELEVISION VIOLENCE HEARING BEFORE THE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION UNITED STATES SENATE ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION MAY 18, 1999 Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation ( U.S. GOVERNMENT PRINTING OFFICE 69–593 DTP WASHINGTON : 2001 For sale by the U.S. Government Printing Office Superintendent of Documents, Congressional Sales Office, Washington, DC 20402 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:40 Mar 27, 2001 Jkt 069593 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 69593.TXT SCOM1 PsN: SCOM1 SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION ONE HUNDRED SIXTH CONGRESS FIRST SESSION JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona, Chairman TED STEVENS, Alaska ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, South Carolina CONRAD BURNS, Montana DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii SLADE GORTON, Washington JOHN D. ROCKEFELLER IV, West Virginia TRENT LOTT, Mississippi JOHN F. KERRY, Massachusetts KAY BAILEY HUTCHISON, Texas JOHN B. BREAUX, Louisiana OLYMPIA J. SNOWE, Maine RICHARD H. BRYAN, Nevada JOHN ASHCROFT, Missouri BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota BILL FRIST, Tennessee RON WYDEN, Oregon SPENCER ABRAHAM, Michigan MAX CLELAND, Georgia SAM BROWNBACK, Kansas MARK BUSE, Staff Director MARTHA P. ALLBRIGHT, General Counsel IVAN A. SCHILAGER, Democratic Chief of Staff KEVIN D. KAYES, Democratic General Counsel (II) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:40 Mar 27, 2001 Jkt 069593 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 69593.TXT SCOM1 PsN: SCOM1 CONTENTS Page Hearing held May 18, 1999 ..................................................................................... 1 Statement of Senator Ashcroft ............................................................................... 9 Statement of Senator Burns ................................................................................... 9 Statement of Senator Cleland ................................................................................. 11 Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 6 Statement of Senator Hollings ............................................................................... 5 WITNESSES Abbott, William S., president, National Foundation to Improve Television ....... 13 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 15 Corn-Revere, Robert L., adjunct professor, Institute of Communications Law, Columbus School of Law, Catholic University of America, Hogan & Hartson, LLP ........................................................................................................ 23 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 76 Eron, Leonard D., Ph.D., professor of Psychology & Senior Research Scientist, Institute for Social Research, University of Michigan ...................................... 20 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 21 Hamilton, James T., Ph.D., associate professor of Public Policy, Economics, and Political Science, Sanford Institute of Public Policy, Duke University .... 88 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 90 Kunkel, Dale, Ph.D., professor of Communication, University of California- Santa Barbara ...................................................................................................... 81 Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 83 Article: Edwards, Harry T., Judge and Mitchell N. Breman, Judge, Article, 1487, Regulating Violence on Television ............................................................ 25 Decision: Action for Children’s Television v. FCC, 58 F.3d 654 (D.C. Cir. 1995) ...................................................................................................................... 95 (III) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:40 Mar 27, 2001 Jkt 069593 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 69593.TXT SCOM1 PsN: SCOM1 VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:40 Mar 27, 2001 Jkt 069593 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 69593.TXT SCOM1 PsN: SCOM1 TELEVISION VIOLENCE TUESDAY, MAY 18, 1999 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION, Washington, DC. The committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:10 a.m. in room SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Ernest F. Hollings, Ranking Democrat, presiding. Staff members assigned to this hearing: Lauren Belvin, Repub- lican senior counsel; Paula Ford, Democratic senior counsel; and Al Mottur, Democratic counsel. OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. ERNEST F. HOLLINGS, U.S. SENATOR FROM SOUTH CAROLINA Senator HOLLINGS. Good morning. The committee will please come to order. We appreciate the indulgence and cooperation of our chairman, Senator McCain, and others in permitting us to proceed. Momentarily, the other Senators will be along. This morning we are running right in the middle of the juvenile justice bill, impor- tant amendments, and various other measures to be considered. There’s a vote still going on on the floor, but in deference to you folks who have been waiting, we want to get underway on tele- vision violence. Obviously, there is no question in this Senator’s mind that it has gotten totally out of hand in the sense that for years, we have been working on this particular problem. It started with Senator John Pastore in this same committee in 1969, and Senator Pastore, I can hear him now, he came forward and he said just entirely too much. We have children, and television is just feeding their minds, poi- soning them, and everything of that kind. He had a bill that was ready to go. It was given what I now call the put-off, the stone wall, and that is what has occurred for almost 30 years, or more than 30 years. They said we would get the Surgeon General to con- duct a study in this issue. The Surgeon General study of 1972 really documented the vio- lence. Since that time this committee has had no less than 18 dif- ferent considerations and hearings. This being of course the 19th here this morning. Last week, with the leadership here of Senator Dorgan and others, we were able to finally get a vote but we were defeated 60 to 39. At least we had an opportunity to air our views and have some debate. One of the major points in the debate was the fact that others had committed to the proposition that we ought to give time for the V-chip to work, for the ratings system to work. We had abundant (5) VerDate 11-MAY-2000 08:40 Mar 27, 2001 Jkt 069593 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6601 Sfmt 6601 69593.TXT SCOM1 PsN: SCOM1 6 evidence and put it in the record that the ratings system was to- tally ineffective. On the one hand, the V-chip, is going to be inad- equate for years, if at all, due to the fact that the average TV set is not traded in for 8 to 12 years. With an average of three sets in a home, I can’t see people all going out and buying three new TV’s with the V-chip equipment. Then in the morning, I can’t imagine a mother taking the 64 chan- nels in the District of Columbia here and running around to the three TV’s to program them and trying to go to work and raise her children. It is so much easier to just use the on and off button and trust the child. I would just rather trust my child than get into all of that gymnastics. Having lost it, we still wanted to proceed with this hearing to get you folks of an expert nature to bring us up to date. Dr. Eron has written a book, and that was back 5 or 6 years ago. I want to hear him bring us up to date. We have one gentleman who still raises a question, and it is a valid one, with respect to the constitu- tionality. We labored over the constitutional question in the draft- ing of this particular measure because determining what is violence is subjective, and different in different minds. We wanted to tailor it down to the least restrictive means, as the court says. What we did was that it had to be gratuitous in the first instance. It had to be excessively gratuitous, and leaned on the finding, of course, in Act IV of the decision whereby the con- stitutionality of the Federal Communications Commission itself was held constitutional to determine indecency. If the court can de- termine indecency, they can certainly determine not just violence but more particularly excessive, gratuitous violence. Now, we have our chairman here, and I was hopeful that he would come. Conrad, I will yield to Senator Dorgan, and you come here and take over for us. Senator BURNS. Why? Senator HOLLINGS. Because you are the chairman. Senator BURNS. I am the chairman this morning? I thought this was full committee. Senator HOLLINGS. Well, it is full committee, but I would love you to come here. We want some interest in this thing. Senator BURNS. Are you guys really impressed by our organiza- tion up here, from the looks on your faces? [Laughter.] Senator BURNS. Senator Dorgan may go, and then let me get my thoughts about me here. I am not very well-prepared today. I spent all weekend in Montana. That causes that. What Senator Dorgan. What do you mean, today? [Laughter.] Senator BURNS. You know what North Dakota is. That is the DMZ between Montana and Minnesota. [Laughter.] STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA Senator DORGAN. My colleague and I were on an airplane last night coming back from Montana and North Dakota. I am glad to see my colleague is here at the hearing. I am pleased, Senator Hol- lings, that we have finally gotten this hearing.