Dial File: It’s just TV, not the Gospel

Friday, March 12, 1999 | 11:50 a.m.

Follow the bouncing baloney:

Absent fathers? Blame TV. Horny teens? Blame TV. Ignorance of contraception? Blame TV. Corrupted family values? Blame TV. Belittlement of blacks? Blame TV. Stereotyping of Asians? Blame TV. Obese kids? Blame TV. The Wrestlemania-zation of America? Blame TV. A Godless America? Blame TV. A blood-soaked America? Blame TV.

Got a zit on your tush? BLAME TV!

When does TV relinquish the role of One-Size-Fits-All Reprobate?

Excuse my exasperation, but the latest in a long line of laments about The Evil Box -- this one from the National Fatherhood Initiative bemoaning "the absence of good dads on TV" -- short-circuited my patience. (All the aforementioned cultural calamities have been tied to the tube, excepting, so far, pimply posteriors.)

Don't misunderstand: Holding TV accountable for its actions has largely been the purpose of this column since its inception nearly two years ago. If you're looking for an apologist for the medium, you won't find him here.

Never could.

And the survey-spewing statistical blizzard heaped on us by every civic, professional, political and ethnic advocacy group from the Christian Coalition to Cousin Bernie's Bridge Brigade has actually yielded ... some truth.

Who could deny television's enormous cultural impact -- negative and positive -- except, well, someone who doesn't watch TV? But what started as fair comment has snowballed into unfair carping: the swelling sense that TV has become the favorite fall guy for our national neuroses.

Powerful as TV is, one has to wonder: When did we abdicate responsibility for our own ideas, attitudes and perceptions of the world? Simple as it seems, here's a thought: It's TV, folks -- not The Sermon on the Mount.

Granted, TV's partner in pop culture power -- movies -- has two key advantages lost to the tube: 1) When movies end, moviegoers leave that darkened theater -- a physical manifestation of dreamland -- and re-emerge into the bright glare of the real world, a stark, jarring reminder of the difference between fantasy and reality; 2) Unlike TV, which mixes fact (news) and fiction (entertainment) into a seamless -- and sometimes indistinguishable -- tapestry, movies mostly remain rooted in make-believe.

But for all its influence, TV is, at rock bottom, a talking piece of furniture. Then there's us: Presumably reasoning, thinking human beings. On paper -- and, one hopes, in practice -- it's no contest.

If you think blacks are all funky goofballs from watching UPN sitcoms, open your eyes and look at the world. If you think all dads are good-natured incompetents from watching "Home Improvement," open your eyes and interact with a real family. If you know little about birth control because "Melrose Place" characters do the unprotected mattress mambo, open your eyes and do some research. If you think problems are solved by violence from watching "Walker, Texas Ranger," open your eyes and discover the wonders of compromise and calm reflection.

Overly simplistic by half? No argument. But it's a start.

Life is what you live. Not what you watch.