It’s been fifteen years since the cultural elite ridiculed Dan
Quayle mercilessly for criticizing the glamorization of unwed
motherhood in sitcoms like Murphy Brown. Through
innumerable press accounts and Hollywood asides, the message was
clear: Only someone irremediably stupid would actually confuse a
television program with reality!
A decade and a half later, however, the press is finally
admitting that television role models may indeed have an impact on
real-life behavior. Not surprisingly, however, the concern is
highly selective. For most of the cultural elite, television’s
influence seems relevant only when it comes to violence — and
never when it comes to sex.
In recent days, the press has taken aim at 24 — the
one massively popular television program known to be written and
produced by people who hold conservative views. According to
accounts in the New Yorker, the Associated Press, the
Los Angeles Times and elsewhere, Human Rights First — a
left-wing “human rights” group — is seeking to prove that the
torture scenes depicted in 24 are affecting the behavior
of American soldiers.
The audacity of the claim is remarkable. To charge that soldiers
will ignore their training, risk criminal prosecution and jettison
basic notions of morality based only on the influence of a single
television show far exceeds any claim that Dan Quayle ever made
about the power of television. What’s more, it plays into a
stereotype — beloved by too many on the left — of soldiers as
stupid, easily manipulated, and/or barbaric. Nevertheless, the
coverage of the allegations has been widespread.
Now contrast that with the rampant glamorization of teenage
sexuality — not in one program — but routinely. While the press
focuses on the depiction of torture in a single prime-time
television program, it’s worth noting that a 2005 Kaiser Family
Foundation study found that 77% of the programs aired in prime time
on the major broadcast networks contain sexual content; those that
do include such content feature more of it than ever before. What’s
more, the programs most popular with teenagers have an even higher
number of scenes with sexual content than television programs
generally. Fully 45% of the programs most frequently watched by
teens include some portrayal of sexual behavior, according to the
Kaiser study.
Even so, the press and the cultural elite remain conspicuously
silent about this phenomenon. That’s a shame, given the damage to
young lives (both of parents and unwanted children) that giving too
much, too soon can cause — not to mention the daunting social
costs associated with unwed and youthful motherhood.
If the media believes that a single program can incite
disciplined, adult soldiers to acts of savagery, surely the
onslaught of sex on television can influence the behavior of teens
— who lack much of the training and life experience that can serve
as a bulwark against bad decision-making. So why the media
reticence? After all, the creators of 24 make every effort
to demonstrate the toll that Jack Bauer’s behavior takes on him.
Shouldn’t the creators of television’s sex-laden fare be held to
the same standard?
