WHEN IT COMES TO TELEVISION AND FILM VIOlence, according to Joseph Lieberman, a U.S. senator and the 2000 Democratic nominee for vice president, "the question most Americans seem to be asking is not whether the romanticized and sanitized vision of violence the entertainment media present to our kids is in fact harmful, but what we as a national family are going to do about it." Lieberman's sentiments are echoed by many policy makers, parents, and critics who are convinced that movie and television violence present a grave threat to America's youth.

The Controversy

At a 1999 Senate hearing on media violence, Donald E. Cook, president of the American Academy of Pediatrics, warned that exposure to violent entertainment "results in increased acceptance of violence as an appropriate means of conflict resolution." In his book Hollywood vs. America, film critic Michael Medved states that Hollywood "glorifies violence as an enjoyable adventure...