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PASTOR GENERAL'S REPORT, FEBRUARY 18, 1983
PAGE 10
attitudes of people high up in the news media in the United States. Now,
the same researchers have published a report on the attitudes of Holly
wood's most influential TV writers, producers and executives. Here is a
summary of the report, as received over our AP wire of February 15, 1983.
Top Hollywood creators of the entertainment fare on television
are predominantly secular in outlook, politically liberal and
shun relig�on a new study find � . It also finds that they� to
reform society toward their views.••says the report of findings
about Hollywood's most influential TV writers, producers and
executives.
"Their value orientation is fundamental! � different from that of
the general public" says the report published in PUBLIC OPINION,
a magazine of the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy
Research in Washington. "On such issues as abortion, homosexual
rights and extramarital
™
their views diverge sharply from
traditional values." Ninety-three percent of the Hollywood pro
fessionals turning out the main TV entertainment seldom or never
attend religious services the findings show, compared to 41 per
cent of Americans who attend weekly or more often.
The study involved detailed interviews with 104 key people who
make TV shows chosen on the basis of their prominence in the in
dustry, each of them associated with two or more successful
prime-time series. The three scholars who made the study•.•are
political scientist Robert Lichter of George Washington Univer
sity, professor of government Stanley Rothman of Smith College
and Linda Lichter, research associate both at Columbia and George
Washington Universities.
The study is part of a series being made about attitudes of
leaders in various fields. A previous phase found that key pro
fessionals in the news media are far less religious than the
general public. But those making TV entertainment were found to
differ � �°drastically withmost Americans inattitudes
toward religion and social and moral issues.
Among the TV . entertainment makers 80 percent do not regard homo
sexual relations� wrong and 51 percent do not regard adultery
as wrong. Of the 49 percent who do, only 17 percent feel that way
str � ngly. Nearly all--97 percent--believe� woman has� right to
decide for herself about having .!.!1 abortion, 91 percent holding
that view "strongly." In comparison to those v"Tews, studies find
85 percent of Americans consider adultery wrong and 71 percent
consider homosexual activity wrong.
On abortion, surveys of
specific views about it find 73 percent want it limited to cer
tain hard cases or banned.
Among the TV entertainment makers 75 percent call themselves
political liberals compared to 27 percent of the public that does
so. Most of the TV entertainment creators are white males from
urban centers, 82 percent being reared in metropolitan areas,
mostly in California or Northeastern cities.
"Very few have
roots in middle America" the report says.