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HILLARY RODHAM CLINTON
IT TAKES A VILLAGE
271
what happens all day on our television screens, both be-
15,000 and 20,000 hours watching television,
cause that is where most people see the movies Holly-
compared with 11,000 in school; every year the
wood makes and because its presence and influence so
average American child watches more than a
pervade our society.
thousand stylized and explicit rapes, murders,
Former Federal Communications Commission chair-
armed robberies, and assaults on television.
man Newton N. Minow sounded the alarm long ago. In
1961, Minow decried television as a "vast wasteland" and
Since the 1950s, a steady stream of articles, books, and
urged that the networks be held to a high-standard of
studies have documented the harm television does to
public interest. Since then, Minow has devoted himself
children. The American Psychological Association's Com-
to this vitally important issue in a variety of communica-
mission on Violence and Youth points to three major
tions and public service positions. Most recently, in
reports, each a decade apart-by a surgeon general's
Abundoned in the Wasteland: Children, Television, and the
commission in 1972, by the National Institute of Mental
First Amendment, he and Craig L. LaMay catalogued the
Health in 1982, and by the American Psychological As-
overwhelming evidence of television's negative effects
sociation's Committee on Media in Society in 1992-
that has accumulated over the past three decades and took
which reviewed hundreds of studies to arrive at the same
broadcasters to task for evading the consequences of
unshakable conclusion: that "viewing violence increases
their decisions by hiding behind the First Amendment.
violence" and "prolonged viewing of media violence can
Minow's portrayal of how deeply televised violence
lead to emotional desensitization toward violence."
has ernbedded itself in our national psyche is as shocking
Ninety-eight percent of American homes have at least
as the violence itself:
one television set, which is watched each week for an
average of twenty-eight hours by children between the
So routinely do Americans accept television's
ages of two and eleven, and twenty-three hours by teen-
version of their lives, that on January 18, 1993,
agers. Children who grow up in lower-income families,
when scventeen-year-old Gary Scott Penning-
with fewer organized activities or places to play, watch
ton walked into his high-school English class
even more TV than their more affluent peers.
in Grayson, Kentucky, and fired a .38 caliber
Children themselves report that certain television
bullet into his teacher's forehead, killing her,
shows encourage them to engage in sexual activity before
one of the students who witnessed the mur-
they are ready, to behave aggressively, and to be disre-
der remembered thinking, "This isn't supposed
spectful to their parents. Eighty percent of Americans
to happen. This must be MTV." Must be.
responding to a 1993 Times-Mirror poll said that they
The average student in Gary's senior class had
believe TV is harmful to society and especially to chil-
already seen 18,000 murders on television. The
dren. And we know that saturating young minds with
average student in the class had spent between
increasingly graphic and sensational depictions of vio-
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