Beating the same old dead horse.

• Author: Saltzman, Joe

WHENEVER everything looks the bleakest and there seems to be no political way out of the severe social and economic problems facing the nation, Congress always can be counted on to come up with a crusade against sex and violence on television. It has happened repeatedly for the last 40 years and undoubtedly will again in the future. It's a safe and popular subject, one that doesn't involve taking away benefits from voters or increasing taxes. It's foolproof, especially when wrapped in a patriotic campaign to save children. Everyone wants to do something good for the kids, to protect them from the evils that men and women do and no one but adults seem to know about.

Nobody seems to want violence or sex on television except the viewers. Humanists and moralists abhor violence because they say it inures young viewers to the pain and suffering of others, and they abhor sex because they say it promotes promiscuity and, in the age of AIDs, a dangerous lifestyle. Feminists say they hate both because they feel all of it is anti-female. Ministers and educators say they hate both because they believe TV should provide healthy, life-affirming experiences to the young, not sordid, vicious experiences. Publicly, Congressmen and women don't want sex or violence on TV for all of these reasons. Privately, they adore it because, for four decades, it has given them a safe port free from the real horrors--government taxes and spending, the deficit, health care, gun control, and crime prevention.

The latest wrinkle, labeling violent programming--and undoubtedly sexual programming in the future--is as absurd as the debate itself. All any kid who really wants to see sex and violence has to do is turn to cable, run down to the video store, or go to the movies.

Watching a female police officer being attacked by a burglar on TV before she shoots him in the face is nothing compared to monsters murdering everyone in sight with axes, chain saws, butcher knives, sawed-off shotguns, and explosives. If you want real violence, take a look at the biggest-grossing action films: "Lethal Weapon" (and all of its sequels) or any Arnold Schwarzenegger, Sylvester Stallone, or Chuck Norris pectoral extravaganza. Want to really be grossed out? Take a look at any in the "Alien" or "Robocop" or "Terminator" series; those martial-arts films with soundtracks guaranteed to catch every breaking bone and body in sight; "Halloween" or Freddy Krueger in any of his vicious incarnations; or...