1977 SPECIAL REPORT: "VIOLENCE IN AMERICA" (PART I)

NBCNEWS spends three hours this evening examining “Violence in America” From 8 to 11, the survey, produced by Stuart Schulberg, bombards its audience with statistics, special polls; newspaper‐headlines, film features, footage from movies and television shows and cautious speculation. The result is vague on possible solutions, but specific in establishing the existence, and continued growth, of violence in this country.

Preceded by a warning that the program deals with such subjects as murder, assault, rape and child abuse. and that some viewers, “especially children, may be disturbed by portions of it,” the barrage of evidence is overwhelming. Nothing new is uncovered, but the sheer quantity of material may constitute therapeutic shock value.

‘With Edwin Newman as host, the program dabbles briefly in the formal sociology of comparing primitive tribes. The broad question of whether aggresdive tendencies are inherited or acquired is posed, but then is left largely unexplored, as the focus is narrowed to enumerating instances of violence in the family, in urban areas and, increasingly, in formerly “safe” rural settings.

Linda Ellerbee is the reporter for the family section. The statistics are predictably unsettling: Half of all murders are family affairs; parents kill more of their children than do accidents or such diseases as leukemia or cerebral palsy; abused children are likely to become ohild abusers, programmed into violence like computers.

Carl Stokes analyzes the “subculture of violence” in major cities, concentrating on Detroit. Members of this subculture are generally young, poor and black. Outside the normal boundaries of money and power, according to Mr. Stokes, these people tend to prove their “being a man” by means of violence. One result: “Black men kill and are killed at 10 times the national rate.”

Travelling to the small town of Friendship, Wis., Floyd Kalber finds that “seemingly senseless murders are happening in rural areas at a phenomenal rate.” Criminals are becoming more brazen and vicious, and younger and younger. The townspeople blame their new troubles on “outsiders.” Some see television as a factor, creating the impression that other people live differently—that is, more affluently—than they do.

The last major section deals with “violence for fun and profit,” for entertainment ranging from sports to movies to television itself, and its widely noted addiction to “action” shows. As Joseph Wambaugh, the writer, notes: “We never use the word ‘violence’ in this industry—it’s called action.” A couple of the NBC polls in this area, though, are intriguing. Are sports too violent? 65 percent of the respondents say no. Are television and the movies too violent 72 percent say yes. Furthermore, 70 percent believe that television and movies encourage violence.

If all this basic material generates its own peculiar fascination, the production context tends to be uneven. An opening collage, moving from an elderly man feeding pigeons to brief glimpses, of contemporary violence in its myriad forms, set to the sounds of Paul McCartney’s “Live and Let Die,” is visually stunning. But a recording of a Tom Lehrer satirical song on Brotherhood Week and a dance sequence about a classroom, while pleasant enough in isolation, are pointless within the overall essay.

And, finally, the important questions raised are answered with generalities.

In some cases we just don’t know, but “we should be able to learn.” In others, the message is gently implied. “You buy the tickets, read the books, turn the dials,” Mr. Newman reminds the audience, “you are the ones paying for it.”

A concluding essay offers a profile of an attractive 14‐year‐old boy named Benjy, who “don’t feel nothing about” the possibility of killing someone, or who talks about pouring Drano down a lady’s throat like a character in the film “Magnum Force.” Why are there so many Benjys, the program asks. “If we don’t want a violent society, we’d better find out,” it warns.

Coming from a medium that is probably very much part of the problem, that warning and this three‐hour treatment of “Violence in America” is significant and encouraging. Following the 11 o’clock news, the violence special will be used for a live panel discussion on the subject and the program runs from 11:30 to midnight.

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