CONTENTS Opening statement by the chairman_. Goldenson, Leonard U., president, American Broadcasting Co., Inc--- Goodman, Julian, president, National Broadcasting Co., Inc. Rule, Elton H., president, ABC Television Network_. Stanton, Frank, president, Columbia Broadcasting System, Inc.. Stewart, William H., M.D., Surgeon General, Public Health Service, Dudley, Richard, president, Forward Communications Corp., Wausau, McGannon, Donald H., president, Group W, Westinghouse Broadcasting Co., Inc., accompanied by Joseph Baudino and John D. Lane............. Wasilewski, Vincent T., president, National Association of Broadcasters, Livesay, J. Ray, president, Mattoon Broadcasting Co., Mattoon, Ill Michaels, William, president, Storer Broadcasting Co., Miami Beach, Fla.. Page 334 338 497 492 466 ADDITIONAL INFORMATION Ervin, Thomas E., NBC, letter to Senator Pastore_-_. Gilmore, James S., Jr., president, Gilmore Broadcasting Corp., "Know Notice procedures proposed by Commission for broadcast renewals, 465 Pastore, Hon. John O., letter to Robert H. Finch, Secretary, Department 337 The Storer story, "Something To Think About" by Terry H. Lee, vice 509 TV Code Review Board, NAB, list of members.. 373 (II) FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION POLICY MATTERS AND TELEVISION PROGRAMING WEDNESDAY, MARCH 12, 1969 U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SUBCOMMITTEE ON COMMUNICATIONS, Washington, D.C. The subcommittee met at 10 a.m., in room 5110, New Senate Office Building, Hon. John O. Pastore (chairman of the subcommittee) presiding. Present: Senators Pastore, Hartke, Hart, Cannon, Moss, Inouye, Cotton, Scott, Prouty, Pearson, and Griffin. Senator PASTORE. The hour of 10 having been reached, the hearing will come to order. OPENING STATEMENT BY THE CHAIRMAN I have requested Mr. Vincent Wasilewski, president of the National Association of Broadcasters; Mr. Stockton Helfrich, director, Television Code; Mr. Leonard Goldenson, president of the American Broadcasting Co.; Mr. Frank Stanton, president of Columbia Broadcasting System; Mr. Julian Goodman, president of the National Broadcasting Co.; and Dr. William H. Stewart, Surgeon General of the United States, to meet with the committee this morning. With the exception of the last-named gentlemen, all of you have been, in one way or another, directly or indirectly associated with the television. industry and television programing for many, many years. And, as you gentlemen have recently become aware, Dr. Stewart is now a member of the fraternity. Originally I had planned to ask the representatives of the advertisers and advertising agencies to be present also. Since our concern here today is with programing, however, I decided to limit participation to those who are immediately concerned and make the decisions in this particular area. If it proves necessary, the committee can also call the others in later. My concern with crime and violence on television has been long and continuous. We have talked about this many times before, publicly and privately. You are aware, I am sure, of my most recent effort leading up to the request I made to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare. For many months I have had my committee staff consulting prominent psychiatrists, psychologists, communication experts and doing extensive research on what has been said. on the subject of crime and violence. Many of these authorities distinguished in the sciences and disciplines relating to social behavior Staff members assigned to this hearing: Nicholas Zapple and John D. Hardy. (335) have taken the position that the amounts and types of crime, brutality and violence now being portrayed on television may have a deleterious effect on the mental and social attitudes of our children. There have been a number of experiments carried out by prominent psychologists which suggest the possibility of short-term harmful effects on children. One psychiatrist based his findings on the clinical studies of children over a number of years. On the other hand, there are those that contend that the limited experiments conducted produced no scientific proof for or against the proposition that crime and violence adversely affect children. They question the methods used in certain surveys and experiments. As a consequence they assert that the conclusions reached in these experiments have limited value. Now, I can appreciate that there are different views on this subject matter but I am exceedingly troubled about the lack of any information that would help resolve this question once and for all. For what is at stake is no less than our most valuable and trusted resource, the minds and moral behavior of our young people. For all of these reasons, on March 5 I officially requested the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare to direct the Surgeon General to assemble under his supervision a committee comprised of distinguished men and women from whatever professions and disciplines he deemed appropriate to devise techniques and conduct a study using those techniques which will establish scientifically so far as possible what harmful effects if any these programs have on children. I hope the report and conclusions will be available as expeditiously as possible. When it is, we can all sit down together and determine what, if anything, is necessary to protect the American public. At this time I am making public my letter to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare, you gentlemen, of course, are all aware of its contents. It is not my intention to go into specific programs. But it is my considered opinion that this business of violence is being unnecessarily overdone. I am trying to put to rest once and for all this most critical question. The answers we get will be of benefit to all of us, to the broadcasters, the networks and most importantly to the youth of our country. Now, I know you gentlemen, I admire, I respect and I have affection for you all. You are decent men, you are concerned with the public interest; you are in a sensitive business, a lucrative business. I know you to be men of good will. For that reason I don't see any reason why we can't get together and work out something that will be beneficial to the American public. Now, I know that you are interested in children too. Many of you are engaged in civic affairs in your own community. I know of your backgrounds and your records. I don't think we are going to have any trouble if we will only reason together as we must if we are going to resolve this sensitive problem. I think we all have a very unique opportunity before us. This is all I have to say at this time. I think the next person who should speak should be the Surgeon General who expects to leave by a quarter of eleven because he has another engagement. If there is no objection on the part of my colleagues, I am going to ask the Surgeon General to address himself to the letter that I sent to the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare; No. 1 as to what he thinks of the idea; No. 2, what he plans to do about it. (The letter referred to follows:) Hon. ROBERT H. FINCH, U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE Washington, D.C. March 5, 1969. Secretary, Department of Health, Education, and Welfare, DEAR MR. SECRETARY: Recently a distinguished educator and noted semanticist compared television to a powerful sorcerer who snatches a child away from his parents for three or four hours a day, or about 22,000 hours by the time he reaches 18. Whether or not one agrees with this characterization of television, everyone would agree that television viewing occupies a substantial portion of a child's waking hours. Because they spend so much time watching this medium, there has for some years been a growing national concern over the possible harmful effects that portrayal of crime, brutality, and violence on television might have on our children. Various Congressional committees over the years have conducted extensive investigations into the relationship between television and the mind, attitudes, and actions of the child viewer. In December 1963, a Joint Committee for Research on Television and Children-made up of representatives from the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, the three major television networks, and two university professors-awarded planning grants to work up a planned research design directed to assessing the influence of television on children. Unfortunately, for whatever reason, no reports or recommendations have been forthcoming. More recently, on June 10, 1968, the President of the United States in a statement to the members of his newly created National Commission on the Causes and Prevention of Violence, said: "Are the seeds of violence nurtured through the public's airwaves .. that reach the family and our young? I am asking the heads of the radio and television networks and the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission to cooperate wholeheartedly with you." This Commission has extensively studied and has conducted a series of hearings and is currently in the process of preparing its report and recommendations. I do not know when they will be issued, however. Many authorities prominent in the fields of psychiatry and other disciplines related to social behavior have publicly taken the position that the amount and types of crime, brutality, and violence now being portrayed on television may have a deleterious effect on the mental and social health and attitudes of children. Nor has the protest been limited to these scientists. Educators, clergymen, writers, and parents have spoken out as well. There have been a number of experiments carried out by prominent psychologists which suggest at least the possibility of short-term harmful effects on some children. One psychiatrist bases his assertion that these television programs have undesirable effects on clinical studies of hundreds of children over a period of twenty some years. Yet, on the other hand, there are others who contend that the limited experiments that have been conducted produced no scientific proof for or against the proposition that crime and violence on television adversely affects children. Various questions have been raised with respect to the methodology used in certain surveys, experiments, and clinical analyses and, consequently, it is suggested that the conclusions reached in such experiments have limited value. In spite of the different and divergent views on this subject matter, I am exceedingly troubled by the lack of any definitive information which would help resolve the question of whether there is a causal connection between televised crime and violence and anti-social behavior by individuals, especially children. What is at stake is no less than our most valuable and trusted resourcethe minds and hearts of our young people. I fully realize that the answer is not a simple one, and I am also aware that television is only one of many environmental factors that may influence behavior. Moreover, I know, too, that there is considerable honest disagreement about which, if any, methodology is the proper one to study this question. |