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August 9 Remember Lionel Tate? In 1999, he was arrested for beating a six-year old playmate Tiffany Eunick to death. Tate - 12 at the time - said he didn't intentionally hurt the young girl. He insisted that he was playing around, imitating wrestling moves he'd seen on TV. A jury didn't agree and convicted Tate of first-degree murder in little more than three hours. The conviction made him the youngest American ever to be sentenced to life in prison. After years of debate, Tate's conviction was overturned, and he was allowed to plead guilty to second-degree murder. He was sentenced to one year of house arrest and ten years probation. His case appeared to be done, but the bashing of professional wrestling was reaching a crescendo. While the original jury felt that Tate's "I was just playing wrestler" excuse was bogus, it didn't prevent groups from like the Parents Television Council (PTC) from ramping up the attack on anything related to professional wrestling. The World Wrestling Federation (WWF), now called the World Wrestling Entertainment (WWE), was a primary target. The PTC hit the WWF right where it hurt - in the pocketbook - eventually costing them the advertising revenues of Coca Cola a major national sponsor at the time. A subsequent University of Indiana survey claiming that thousands of incidents involving simulated sex and fake drug abuse appeared on the company's wrestling shows, Raw and Smackdown, added fuel to the fire. By the dawn of new century, however, criticizing pro wrestling for its violence and other alleged child-endangering aspects had pretty much taken a hiatus. Until a few days ago. Researchers at the Wake Forest School of Medicine claim in a new study that teenagers who watch professional wrestling on television are more prone to violence than their peers who don't watch. In North Carolina, researchers randomly sampled 2,228 students during a seven-month period. According to the report, adolescents who watched wrestling on TV had more outbursts of dating violence and other antisocial behavior than non-watchers. The report also claims that children who watch the programs are likely to be exposed to frequent man-on-woman violence, alcohol abuse and the verbal denigration of women.  Whose TV images actually cause greater harm to the development of our youth, Ken Lay's or Hulk Hogan's? "The very clear impression that I have is that most of these fine, upstanding families really don't have a clue of the effect it's having on their children," said Robert DuRant, a professor of pediatrics and social science at Brenner Children's Hospital and the study's lead author. "There really is no safe dosage of wrestling for these kids." Many of the young men polled reported that watching wrestling led them to start fights with a dates, binge drink, and arm themselves with weapons. According to the study, even the young ladies aren't immune to the demonic effects of wrestling, as they too beat up their dates, drank too much and came to the party strapped with a gat. DuRant believes the solution is simple: Don't let your kids watch pro wrestling. "This study shows that the incidence of fighting with dating partners and other violence increases when the exposure to violence increases," said DeRant. "Wrestling doesn't in itself cause violence, but when combined with overall socialization, violence on television can affect what is perceived as socially acceptable behavior." Read the opening of that second sentence again: "Wrestling doesn't in itself cause violence." So, for the point of my own research, I'm going to substitute the words "Soap Operas" for wrestling. My grandmother lived with us when I was growing up, and soaps were all she watched, and I got hooked. Still am. I'm a big fan of All My Children, One Life to Live and General Hospital. And I still watch re-runs of the prime-time soap Dallas whenever I can. I'll bet, conservatively, I've seen 50,000 instances of murder, drug and alcohol abuse, beatings, and infidelity during the years on the soaps. And to this day, I've never killed anyone, beaten anyone, abused drugs or alcohol, or cheated on my fiancé (Although she's given me a one-time free pass should Charlize Theron or Drew Barrymore ever temporarily lose their minds. I don't know what I'd do if the situation arose, but I probably would pass it up.) Would you like to know why? Because my parents actually took the time to raise me with morals and teach me the difference between right and wrong. It's a simple premise that has been repeated millions - maybe billions of times: "It all starts at home." If parents - whether single or coupled - take an interest in showing their children the right path in life, chances are the kids will avoid many of the problems associated with the Wake Forest study.
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