When Republican and Democratic Senators or MoCs give a press confrence on something, my uncle informs us, “it's either silly or bad. They're lucky when even half of them get something right.”

Which is true enough. After all, when Hillary Clinton and Rick Santorum give a joint press conference, it's time for our elected representatives to bitch about things they can't change. Let's watch!

This week, the good folks at the Kaiser Family Foundation managed to raise our collective anxiety to new heights with the news that not only are kids glued to the telly, they're combining their tube time with all other manner of "new media." ...

A heartbeat after the study's release, a bipartisan quartet of senators--Sam Brownback, Rick Santorum, Hillary Clinton, and Joe Lieberman--leapt into the spotlight, introducing legislation to fund government research into, as Santorum's press release so grandly put it, "the effects of viewing and using all types of media--including television, computer games, and the Internet--on children's cognitive, social, physical and psychological development." For anyone wondering about the lawmakers' preconceptions as to what these effects are likely to be, it bears noting that Senator Clinton, speaking earlier that day at the very event at which the Kaiser study was unveiled, inveighed against the sex-and-violence-soaked media "contagion" plaguing our children.

That's The New Republic's Michelle Cottle, who points out that our esteemed—or at least elected—representatives aren't just pointlessly griping, but being hypocritical as well.

Kaiser estimates that, since 1999, kids spend nearly 4 hours a day (28 hours a week) watching TV. That number sounds ghastly, shameful, unbelievable--until you consider that, according to data complied by Nielsen Media Research in 2000, adult women in this country watch close to 5 hours of TV a day (35 hours a week), while adult men watch four and a quarter. (By comparison, Nielsen had kids and teens watching only between two and three hours daily.) Even allowing for a fat margin of error on Nielsen's part, the basic point remains: Mom and Dad would have a lot easier time convincing Junior of the hazards of excessive TV if they could tear themselves away from "SportsCenter" and "Oprah" once in a while.

the damage to our young children caused by watching to much T.V. is far more serious than the crap that is filling their heads and impacting their abiliy to function as healthy individuals... its affecting their bodies. There is a direct link between T.V. watching and childhood obesity in which the U.S. has achieved epedemic proportions. It gets sicker still... there are childeren being placed on weight control drugs as well as anti depressants.. thats right sucidal pre schoolers who suffer from depression. The FDA has ONLY approved prozac for children. Hillary C. supports a delegated 5 million to go towards drug research for FDA approval of drugs for children... how about we stop selling things to easily confused and manipulated parents and support life style changes...L

Posted by  Anonymous @ 6:34 PM

 

The sex and violence probably do some harm but the most damaging thing to children shown on TV is "love," the tv version of love that is.......GUY

Posted by  Anonymous @ 6:10 AM

 

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