FCC: Crack down on TV violence
The Federal Communications Commission recommended to Congress April 25 that action be taken to address violent programming on television, which research indicates can increase aggressive behavior in children.
In the release of a long-awaited report, the FCC responded to a request from a House committee to consider whether television violence should be regulated similar to the ways the government regulates sexual content and profanity.
The commission reviewed numerous studies conducted by the medical and social science communities, and found that research on whether watching violent programming actually causes aggressive behavior in children is inconclusive.
“However, major studies, including those by the Surgeon General and the Federal Trade Commission, have found that exposure to violent content on TV is associated with an increase in aggressive or violent behavior in children,” chairman Kevin Martin said, adding that some of the effects of exposure to violence are emotional desensitization toward violence in real life and having a higher tendency for violent behavior later in life.
“In other words, the evidence does not prove causation, but it does demonstrate a strong correlation,” Martin said. “These findings make clear, and the commission today affirms, that exposure to violent programming can be harmful to children.”
The Parents Television Council applauded the FCC report and noted the increase in gratuitous violence on television in recent history. PTC studies found that violence on prime time broadcast television has increased 75 percent since 1998, and the television season that began in the fall of 2005 was one of the most violent ever recorded.
Cancer points Tony Snow to God
White House press secretary Tony Snow returned to work April 30, one month after learning his bout with cancer had returned to his liver.
Now that he has recovered from surgery to remove a cancerous growth, Snow will begin chemotherapy and try to balance work at the White House with the treatments.
Snow’s ability to deal with the uncertainties of cancer stems from his deep faith in God, as he told a group of journalists in Washington earlier this year.
“In many ways, having cancer was the very best thing that ever happened to me, other than marrying my wife,” Snow said in January when he was in remission from colon cancer.
The prospect of death made him realize the importance of faith and attitude, Snow said, because he had to make a choice about whether he wanted to live and how he would live. After his first cancer surgery, Snow said he had to stay in bed and began reading the Bible more and learning to pray, syndicated columnist Cal Thomas reported in March.
Snow also learned how to surrender his will to God during those difficult days when he feared leaving his wife and three young children without a husband and father.
“It’s not just saying, ‘God, it’s in your hands,’ but understanding whatever may come afterward is a matter of not trying to get God to do stuff for you, except maybe to mow down some of the barriers that separate you from God, because for all of us, our vanities get in the way,” Snow said.
Study: Moms should earn $138,000
If stay-at-home mothers really were compensated for the work they do each year, their salary would be about $138,000, according to a survey of 40,000 mothers by Salary.com that examined 10 typical job functions of full-time moms.
“Mom works multiple jobs and rarely gets a break from the action, working an average of 52 hours of overtime,” said Bill Coleman, senior vice president and chief compensation officer at Salary.com.
The study concluded that stay-at-home mothers work a 92-hour workweek with more than half the time spent in overtime, and mothers who work outside the home averaged a 49-hour workweek beyond their full-time paying jobs.
Job titles that moms often carry include housekeeper, day care center teacher, cook, computer operator, laundry machine operator, janitor, facilities manager, van driver, CEO and psychologist, Salary.com said. Using the salaries of people who actually get paid for each of those jobs, the website determined the would-be salary of a stay-at-home mom.