From:      <Worlds.iac.co.jp@info.fcc.gov>
To:        A4.A4(ssegal)
Date:      12/10/95 10:28am
Subject:   Chairman's Column Comments

Ian L. Parker (Worlds.iac.co.jp) writes:

  Television is an extention of human consciousness.  It provides
a visual, auditory  experience which imprints itself on the mind
and thus effects the development of  character.  Just as a child
picks up values, principles, language and attitude through his or
her direct experience in a particular physical environment, so
too, are they  conditioned by the tele-experiences brought to
them on screen.
  Mr. Hundt is absolutely right when he speaks about the consumer
driven  influence of the sponsor on the tele-experience fed to
America's children. Each television show is a small piece of art
and like any art it contains the  values and vision of its
creator.  If a television show is contructed to promote  specific
lifestyles and their coresponding products, not only will the art
form be debased but children, given a commercially promoted
world, may learn to reject the  world they live in at present and
their identities within it.
  Constant images of murder and crime, numb a child's natural
sense of horror and outrage at what should be considered highly
abnormal aspects of a healthy society and constant  injections of
an advertiser's perfect world can create self-hatred on a
national level.
   At it's best, television can offer, vision.   A world vision,
a vision of nature, a vision of civilization, a vision of history
and possibility. No matter how it's labeled all television is
education.  In the interest of the American public and thus the
nation, the FCC has a duty to oversee the mass education of
America's children.  Freedom is  nothing without responsibilty,
and this is definitely one area of American society where someone
needs to be held responsible.           
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