Television Just Keeps Getting Worse

Unenlightened boor that I am, I downloaded a copy of a special report from the Parents Television Council.

The report is titled "What A Difference A Decade Makes - A Comparison of Prime Time Sex, Language and Violence in 1989 and '99."

Frankly, I thought the report was pretty depressing.

I have been fighting this stuff at home with my kids - both teen-agers - for a long time. Of course, I am beginning to look completely uncool.

"Oh come on, Dad, everybody watches South Park."

The report points out quite clearly that as networks increasingly attempt to reach relatively small-niche audiences, television's largest audience - parents and their kids - winds up on the short end of the stick.

Parents, face it. We're fighting a losing battle. The only way to win is to get rid of the television set - or watch ESPN all the time.

The PTC survey took a look at network programming only. That means the cable channels - which are notoriously some of the most raunchy - don't figure into the averages.

The report compares and contrasts four weeks of prime time programming from fall 1989 with four weeks of programming from this past fall.

The findings include:

• On a per-hour basis, sexual material was, overall, more than three times as frequent in '99 than in '89.

• Homosexual references, rare in '89, were mainstream in '99. They became more than 24 times as common during the decade.

• Reference to genitalia were more than seven times as frequent in '99.

• The rate of foul language in '99 was more than 5-1/2 times higher than that of '89. Words like "bitch" and "son of a bitch," seldom used in '89, were common in '99. Forbidden words in '89 ("dick," "a--hole") were used several times each.

• Violent incidents occurred at about the same rate in both years. Yippee! Good news!

• In terms of sexual content, coarse language and violent material combined, the per-hour figure almost tripled from '89 to '99.

What a difference a decade makes. How truly enlightened we have become. Just think how enlightened we'll be in 2009.

Lots of people considered the prime time of 1989 inordinately sexual. PTC points out that's when Detroit housewife, Terry Rakolta, made headlines with her protests to the sponsors of Fox's "Married With Children."

A Boston Globe article in 1989 stated, "The deploring use of language, nudity and those 'sexual situations' on the three major networks is being heard again ..." and "Today the networks pay only lip service to the notion of 'family hour' (8 to 9 p.m. Eastern). Programming indeed tends to change as the evening progresses. Tune in at 9 for silly double entendres, at 10 for heavy breathing."

But viewers in 1989 hadn't seen anything yet. By the mid-'90s, even casual observers had to notice that sex and foul language were becoming more common not only at 10 p.m. and 9 p.m., but also at 8 p.m., as networks began to schedule shows like "Melrose Place," "Friends" and "The Nanny" in the first full hour of prime time.

PTC offers up a recent quote from People magazine:

"Faced with nightly sex, violence and a smut glut, parents, critics - even kids - wonder: Just how low can TV go?"

What does it all mean?

Television is everywhere. There is a television set in 98 percent of American homes. Seventy-five percent of U.S. households have more than one - an average of 2.89. This means there are approximately 235 million television sets in American homes. That's almost one for every viewer.

And these TVs are being watched. The average household watches seven hours and 15 minutes of TV a day.

That type of access to the minds of viewers is highly prized by people marketing products. That's why advertisers spent $47.5 billion to advertise in 1998.

They're willing to spend that kind of money because of TV's well-documented power to influence perceptions, attitudes and behavior.

And influence it does.

The Los Angeles Times reported in in 1999 that "A review of almost 1,000 studies presented to the American College of Forensic Psychiatry in 1998 found that all but 18 demonstrated that screen violence leads to real violence, and 12 of those 18 were funded by the television industry. In 1992, the American Psychological Association concluded that 40 years of research on the link between TV violence and real-life violence has been ignored, stating that the 'scientific debate is over' and calling for federal policy to protect society."

A 1995 poll of children ages 10 to 16 showed that children recognize that what they see on television encourages them to take part in sexual activity too soon, to show disrespect for their parents and to lie and engage in aggressive behavior. More than two-thirds said they are influenced by TV. Seventy-seven percent said that TV shows too much sex before marriage and 62 percent said sex on TV influences their peers to have sexual relations when they are too young. Two-thirds also saw certain programs featuring dysfunctional families as encouraging disrespect toward parents.

And this is just TV.

Toss in movies, magazines and music and you've got some serious cultural influences pressing in on the youth of America.

It drives me nuts when I see the handwringers staring in disbelief when kids rebel. When kids use cigarettes or dope. When kids get each other pregnant. When kids shoot up the school.

It drives me nuts because it is those very same handwringers who are quick to deride anyone who might suggest that TV is too sexually oriented or violent.

I don't advocate the government swooping down on the networks. I advocate Americans spending more time doing things and less time sitting in front of a television.

The only way we'll ever send a message to the networks is if we stop watching.

You know, I used to think that there was this vast silent majority of Americans who were fed up with stuff like this but just didn't speak out or take action.

I'm beginning to wonder.

As the cultural decline continues, I wonder if the networks aren't giving us exactly what we want.