The horrific, execution-style killing of three teens in Newark last weekend has sparked widespread outrage and promises of reform from politicians, religious leaders, and community activists, who are pledging a renewed campaign against the violence that plagues New Jersey’s largest city. But much of the reaction, though well-intentioned, misses the point. Behind Newark’s persistent violence and deep social dysfunction is a profound cultural shift that has left many of the city’s children growing up outside the two-parent family—and in particular, growing up without fathers. Decades of research tell us that such children are far likelier to fail in school and work and to fall into violence than those raised in two-parent families. In Newark, we are seeing what happens to a community when the traditional family comes close to disappearing.According to

2005 figures from the U.S. Census Bureau, only 32 percent of Newark children are being raised by their parents in a two-adult household. The rest are distributed among families led by grandparents, foster parents, and single parents—mostly mothers. An astonishing 60 percent of the city’s kids are growing up without fathers. It isn’t that traditional families are breaking up; they aren’t even getting started. The city has one of the highest out-of-wedlock birthrates in the country, with about 65 percent of its children born to unmarried women. And 70 percent of those births are to women who are already poor, meaning that their kids are born directly into poverty. City Without Fathers: Behind Newark’s epidemic violence are its thousands of fatherless children.

This fall, just in time for a slate of new TV shows sure to insult the tastes of millions of viewers, watch for congressional action on a list of potential new television legislation circulating on Capitol Hill to address the public's outrage. The fastest-moving item is a congressional fix for the bizarre Second Circuit court ruling that the networks can't be fined by the Federal Communications Commission for fleeting profanities, since expecting TV executives to employ their own seven-second delay system is supposedly "arbitrary and capricious" regulating, and never mind that a) that is the only reason for which to have a delay, and b) it is the "technology" solution the industry claims makes federal intervention unnecessary. Sen. Jay Rockefeller has swept this bill through the Senate Commerce committee and analysts expect it to pass soon after Congress returns from the August recess. A similar version in the House, sponsored by Rep. Chip Pickering (R-Miss.) should follow. In the Senate, a key player in advancing this remedy for the "accidental" deployment of F-words and S-words is Sen. Sam Brownback, a Republican presidential contender. (An aside: Why is it that until just a few years ago, Hollywood had no problems with these "accidents"?)

A few weeks back in the Senate Appropriations Committee's consideration of a financial-services bill, Brownback attempted to add an amendment tightening up the rules on the drive-by expletives.  The Fall Season in TV Legislation