Rita Colorito

About the author: Rita Colorito is a freelance writer who lives and works in Bloomington, Indiana.

Although rates of violent crime fell throughout most of the 1990s, television news coverage of violent crime rose. Television newsmagazines such as 20/20 and Dateline often feature stories on horrific crimes, sometimes showing grisly crime scene photos or frightening re-enactments of stalkings, rapes, and murders. By devoting so much coverage to murder, television newsmagazines give the false impression that violent crime is rampant. As a result, heavy viewers of TV news are more likely to be worried about becoming victims of crime themselves.

During the 1980s, sex sold everything from bar soap to underwear and even saturated the news. The American public heard ad nauseam of the sexual exploits of politicians, ministers, and...