Transcripts

SPEAKER 1: Warning labels, are they making any difference whatsoever?

SPEAKER 2: Well, I guess in my personal observation, they haven't made a whole lot of difference in the reduction of violent entertainment on television, broadcast, or cable. In fact, I think that it's almost as if it's given permission for them to produce more and broadcast and cablecast more violence as long as it has a parental warning before it. And I think in a lot of cases, that's a helpful tool for parents who are paying attention and for parents who are there to regulate what their children are watching on television.

But for a lot of kids, those at-risk kids, if you want to call them that, who are perhaps the ones that we need to be most concerned about with all kinds of violent and violence issues-- for a lot of those kids, I think those parental warnings are more of an enticement.

SPEAKER 1: Would it be better if the networks dropped the labels?

SPEAKER 2: Well, I don't know about that. I guess it would be better if they'd reduce the amount of violence that they're broadcasting and cablecasting and producing. And then the question comes, how do you define violence? And I think right now, when we talk about violence on television and movies and even in music, we're talking about the really explicit stuff, the blow 'em up, shoot 'em, stab them kind of stuff.

And what we need to also be including in that is any entertainment that makes disrespect for other people, look humorous or exciting or macho, because those are the kind of attitudes that foster violence in our country.

SPEAKER 1: What, if anything, do you think agencies like the Federal Communications Commission should do about this issue?

SPEAKER 2: Well, turn off the violence really doesn't advocate for legislation. What we advocate for is that people become educated about how violence in entertainment affects our attitudes and affects our behavior, and then people start turning it off and voicing their opinions. Because I think there's a lot of people in this country that really do believe.

And the discussion proves that, that there's a lot of people that understand how the violent entertainment affects behavior. And we need to start speaking up and being heard.

SPEAKER 1: So it's more a question of people's attitudes rather than government action?

SPEAKER 2: Well, that's what we're advocating for. There's this old Italian proverb that says "A book whose sale is forbidden, all men rush to see, and prohibition turns one reader into three." And I think with that theory in mind, once you start censoring things-- a lot of people don't believe in censorship in our country. And I think it's probably better to educate people and get them to really make the choice to turn it off.