In 1997, American adults (age 18 and above) watched an average of 1,561 hours of television per year-more than four hours and 15 minutes per day.  This is an increase of 50 hours per year from just 1992, with projections adding another fourteen hours by the year 2002.

(Source: Veronis, Suhler & Associates, Communications Industry Report, annual, New York, NY, 1997 in U. S. Census Bureau, Statistical Abstract of the United States: 1999 [119th edition] Washington, DC, 1999, p. 580.)

"IBelieve, launched in January, bills itself as "a site for Christians of all denominations to learn how to apply their faith to all areas of their lives." 'Jesus,' whose two parts will air May 14 and 17, tells the story of the man from Nazareth, from birth to crucifixion. You might forgive iBelieve's John Nardini for considering the opportunity a marriage made in heaven.

'30 million people with an interest in Jesus watching for four hours,' says Nardini, who handles marketing at the Grand Rapids, Mich. site. 'It's a perfect audience for us.'

Or would have been.  Last week, after several months of negotiations, CBS informed iBelieve that it would not air its ads during 'Jesus.'  Citing a disclaimer that neither iBelieve nor its ad agency Hanon & McKendry had ever heard before, the network proclaimed, 'CBS will not air a commercial if the product or content relates too closely to the content of the prime-time entertainment program.  If this is the case, the program becomes a program-length commercial.  It then proselytizes the show or commercializes the programming.'

Which, in this case, translates to: No Christian advertisements during a program about Christ. (What the h--- were those guys at iBelieve thinking?)"

(Source: Sean Elder, "Godless Television: CBS Drops Christian Web Site from 'Jesus' Miniseries," Salon Magazine www.salon.com, May 11, 2000.)

When the television comes on at mealtime, chances that children will be well nourished grow dim.  So suggests a team of nutritionists at Tufts University, authors of a study recently published in Pediatrics.  In their study of ninety-one parent-child pairs from suburbs adjacent to Washington, D.C., the Tufts scholars uncovered a clearly inverse relationship between mealtime television viewing and good nutrition for children.  That is, meals eaten around the TV were likely to be deficient in nutrients children need, and likely to be high in foods of dubious nutritional value.

"Children from families with television on during 2 or more meals per day," report the Tufts scholars, "consumed grains, fruit, green and yellow vegetables, potatoes, beans, and nuts less frequently than did children from families in which the television was either not on at meals or was on only for one meal."  On the other hand, the researchers found that, compared to families who did not generally make TV part of their meal hour, familieswith a mealtime TV habit consumed more soda and more "pizza/salty snacks." Statistical analysis of the meals consumed by the TV watchers also established a "tendency toward higher fat."  Consequently, children from households where television viewing was a regular part of the dinner hour "derived less energy from carbohydrate and more from total fat and saturated fat than did other children."  Remarkably, "children from high television families...consumed twice as much caffeine as children from low television families."

What kind of family is overdosing on television and junk food while skimping on good nutrition?  According to the authors of this new study, "Televisions were more likely to be on during meals in households with lower incomes, less educated mothers, or single parents."

Besides the retreat from marriage, the Tufts researchers implicate another social development in households in which television viewing takes priority over good nutrition: "Television's role in contemporary American food culture," they remark," is intricately linked to the entry of women into the paid labor force."   The movement of women into paid employment has naturally meant "reduced time spent cooking," causing many families to adopt "behaviors that minimize the work of feeding children."  Such families typically pay attention to "television advertising and prime time shows [which] promote and model the use of ready-to-eat cereals, snacks, convenience foods, shortcuts for home meal preparation or ready made sauces, and fast foods."

In a nation where the likelihood that a mother will have a husband is decreasing, and the likelihood that she will have a job has been increasing, pizza makers and TV advertisers have prospered, while America's green grocers have lost out--though perhaps not as much as the country's poorly nourished children.

(Source:  Katherine A. Coon, et al., "Relationship Between Use of Television During Meals and Children's Food Consumption Patterns," Pediatrics 107 [2001]: e7.)