The latest report by the Parents Television Council on violence against women in prime-time broadcast TV drew major-media attention – some of it flagrantly incorrect. Washington Post TV writer Lisa de Moraes complained that PTC should have studied cable shows instead of broadcast shows, and only mangled statistics by a favor of...a million:
The PTC report brings us no closer to understanding the situation. In Feburary 2004, 2.9 children ages 2 to 11 watched those four broadcast networks that PTC whomped on in this study. Meanwhile more than 5 million children watched prime-time cable TV. And, in May 2009, 1.5 million children watched ABC, CBS, NBC and Fox in prime time, while more than 7 million children chose cable programming instead.
Let’s hope the Post corrections box fixes this tomorrow – and the online version gets fixed any minute. The Post writer’s larger point is aimed at dismissing the study, rather than real curiosity in violence on cable. It’s easiest to study the major networks, and not try to evaluate fifty smaller ones.
By the Post's logic, studying newspapers by looking at the Washington Post, the New York Times, and USA Today is unrealistic when millions more read tinier newspapers like the Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star. Can’t a study of the major channels represent a trend on TV?
Lisa deMoraes also doesn’t tell the reader the relevant point that the Federal Communications Commission has no jurisidiction over regulating the content of cable TV, only broadcast.
—Tim Graham is Director of Media Analysis at the Media Research Center.
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C'mon, Tim. "only mangled
October 29, 2009 - 07:26 ET by HockeyKidC'mon, Tim. "only mangled statistics by a favor of...a million"
I think you meant "FACTOR of...a million". But hey, it's just a typo.
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
ouch
October 29, 2009 - 10:01 ET by OuttaMyWayi would hate to be that .9th of a child, that could hurt.
Kinda the Wisdom of Solomon
October 29, 2009 - 10:44 ET by HockeyKidKinda the Wisdom of Solomon gone horribly wrong...
"Beauty is only skin deep, but liberal's to the bone." - me
Where's your beef?
October 29, 2009 - 09:44 ET by CO2MakerI'm having a hard time locating the million-child error in those numbers. For one thing, the numbers come from two different years, 2004 and 2009, so the populations will be different.
thats just dandy!
October 29, 2009 - 10:36 ET by Patriot IIKeep showing this crap to little kids.....destroy their youth, don't let them have an innocent childhood...that way you control their little minds.........God help us!!!!
Does It Matter Since These Studies Never Prove A Thing?
October 29, 2009 - 22:15 ET by The7SticksHow many times do I have to tell you? There is no direct correlation between media violence and real-life violence. I explained to you that if Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris were motivated by media violence in causing the Columbine High massacre, then how come they had planned a terrorist bombing of the high school that ultimately was stopped by shooting the perpetrators to death? These things are not as simple as that.