S-4128               _______________________________________________

                                           SENATE JOINT MEMORIAL NO. 142

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State of Washington                              49th Legislature                              1986 Regular Session

By Senators McManus, Talmadge, Garrett and Metcalf

Read first time 1/24/86 and referred to Committee on Judiciary.

TO THE HONORABLE RONALD REAGAN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES, AND TO THE PRESIDENT OF THE SENATE AND THE SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES, AND TO THE SENATE AND HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES OF THE UNITED STATES, IN CONGRESS ASSEMBLED AND TO THE HONORABLE MARK S. FOWLER, CHAIRMAN OF THE FEDERAL COMMUNICATIONS COMMISSION:

          We, your Memorialists, the Senate and House of Representatives of the State of Washington, in legislative session assembled, respectfully represent and petition as follows:

          WHEREAS, A congressional study on the psychological effects of violence on television is necessary to provide a collection of all data which has been researched in this area and to provide possible answers to this growing problem; and

          WHEREAS, Many individual researchers have come to the conclusion that violence on television has an enormous impact on Americans; and

          WHEREAS, Many acts of violence occur immediately after a given show which depicts violent acts is aired; and

          WHEREAS, The overall impact of watching violence on television over a period of several years, especially while growing up is substantial; and

          WHEREAS, The average American family keeps its television set on for forty-nine and one-half hours each week and the typical student graduating from high school will have spent almost twice as much time watching the television as the student has spent in the classroom comprising the equivalent of ten years of forty-hour weeks; and

          WHEREAS, The typical high-school graduate will have witnessed some one hundred fifty thousand violent episodes, including an estimated twenty-five thousand deaths; and

          WHEREAS, Violence on television desensitizes American children; and

          WHEREAS, Violence on television has been shown to erode personal constraints that family, church, and school have built up;

          NOW, THEREFORE, Your Memorialists respectfully pray that the Congress of the United States form a temporary commission to investigate and collect data on violence on television to provide answers to the problem of violence on television, such as restrictions on broadcasting, and formulate legislation based on the studies conducted.

          BE IT RESOLVED, That copies of this Memorial be immediately transmitted to the Honorable Ronald Reagan, President of the United States, the Honorable Mark S. Fowler, Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, the President of the United States Senate, the Speaker of the House of Representatives, and each member of Congress from the State of Washington, and the Honorable Booth Gardner, Governor of the State of Washington.