Parents Television Council President Tim Winter Discusses New “Women in Peril” Report

This past weekend in Richmond, Calif., there was a horrific gang rape of a 15-year-old girl who was leaving her homecoming dance.  Police called it one of the most heinous crimes they’ve ever seen.  They haven’t even determined how many times the girl was raped.

Not long ago a high-profile celebrity allegedly beat up his high-profile girlfriend.  And sadly, she is now releasing a song about suicide.

Almost routinely we hear about a pro athlete beating up a girlfriend or a spouse or a fan.  We even hear of football coaches beating up one another.

I don’t think that these are just ad hoc examples of random violence.  The nation is gripped by a culture of violence. 

Countless millions of dollars and human effort is being poured into violence abatement and intervention, be it at the local, the state, the federal or the international level.  But something even more powerful is working to undermine the noble work being done on so many levels.

A wave of media violence is hitting the public like a tsunami.  And according to the weight of medical experts, the effect is particularly devastating to children. 

You’ve all seen the research:  3,500 studies have looked at the relationship between media violence and violent behavior. Only 18 of those studies failed to find a relationship between the two.  And of those 18, some were underwritten by the entertainment industry; and some were performed not by medical experts, but by economists.

In the past, the Parents Television Council has undertaken its quantitative and qualitative content analysis of TV violence from a “macro” level.  This is the first time that we sharpened our focus on a “micro” level where we look at the victims of violence as a particular theme.

Violence has been part of entertainment for literally thousands of years.  But the manner in which violence is being depicted on television today is more graphic, more gruesome and more frequent.

From a 50,000 foot level, let me cut to the chase:  Our research shows that, while violence in general on primetime broadcast television has remained relatively unchanged over the past five years, the instances where females are portrayed as victims of violence has increased by a very troubling amount – 120%.  And instances where teenage girls are portrayed as victims of violence is up 400%.

Let me be very clear about the findings:  The raw number of instances is not what I would consider to be of epidemic proportions.  Thirty instances of a female teen as a victim do not an epidemic make.  But what is beyond sobering to me is the trend the data is showing. 

When I say sobering, I mean it with every fiber of my being.  I say it not just as a parent of a 12-year-old daughter; I say it not just as someone who has important women in my life who have been victims of sexual violence; and I say it not just as a person who happens to be president of the Parents Television Council.  I say it out of grave concern for what is being impressed upon a whole generation of American children.

I don’t know what specific role media violence played in the horrific rape of the girl up in Richmond last weekend, but I believe a media environment saturated with violence is having a devastating effect.  And we don’t even know yet what the impact of all this media violence will be on today’s children as they grow into adults.

My sincere hope with this particular study is that the industry – and the advertisers – will look at the data and be as shocked as I was.  This trend must not continue. 

I actually believe the industry will hear our clarion call today.

I take great pride in the fact that the PTC has helped advertisers to become more attuned to the nature of the content that their media dollars make possible.  I cite for example the announcement by Microsoft this week not to sponsor the Seth MacFarlane special on Fox. 

And Mr. MacFarlane himself will, I hope, reflect on the data of our study.  Much of the comedic violence against women exposed by our report was created by him.  And as Tom Shales wrote a couple weeks ago in the Washington Post, it is a “hypocritical myth that his shows are cartoons for adults…Cartoons, if aired at an hour when they are easily accessible, always attract children; and MacFarlane's leaden efforts are no exception.”
 

We heard Nicole Kidman testify just last week before the Congress about this issue, and we hope that her peers – both men and women – will follow her lead in refusing to take on roles where graphic media violence raises a potential for harm to the public. 

I’m sure you’re going to be asking me if the PTC will be calling on the Congress and the FCC to step in and regulate.  You’ve heard me say this before and I will say it again:  If the industry does not do better, then our last remedy is for government involvement – at least where they have the regulatory authority to do so.

But I believe a private sector solution is realistic on this one.  I believe that this data, showing this very disturbing trend, will be something carefully considered by the Hollywood creative community and by Madison Avenue.