Do we really need the increasing reddening of our television and movie screens?

Many Americans are disturbed, perturbed and disgusted by the growing amount of âÂÂblood and gutsâ being featured in our television and film fare. The trouble is, too few media people covering âÂÂentertainmentâ are willing to step forth, condemn such offerings and call for something better.

One analyst who has done so is Ellen Gray, who covers the television scene for the Knight Ridder Newspapers. She recently discussed a particularly distasteful occurrence on the critically acclaimed âÂÂThe Sopranosâ of television infamy and wrote: âÂÂWhat I do know is that for once, âÂÂ’The Sopranosâ isnâÂÂt so much pushing the envelope as licking it, body parts being all the rage this season.âÂÂ

Bear in mind, of course, how many are singing the praises of the Mafia-insight offering on HBO.

Gray then details a number of other TV shows that recently have spent unneeded coverage of such things as severed arms, decapitations and massive numbers of bleeding, twisted corpses. She is equally critical of films which feature âÂÂheroesâ such as Hannibal the Cannibal.

Adds Gray: âÂÂWhat worries me âÂÂ: is that itâÂÂs getting easier and easier to look at this stuff. I may have missed RalphâÂÂs head (a âÂÂSopranosâ victim), but I caught a lot more of SundayâÂÂs carnage than I did of the last 15 minutes or so of âÂÂ’Braveheartâ years ago. And knowing that IâÂÂm a bit of a wimp Ãi¿½” as a mother of sons and as a former emergency-room volunteer IâÂÂve always been better with real blood than fake Ãi¿½” I figure a lot of people are growing all too accustomed to the bloody bits and pieces.âÂÂ

Is that what we want? How many others, particularly those among us with children and grandchildren, feel the same way? Yet the blood-and-guts beat goes on as one producer and director after another enters the grisly game of âÂÂcan you top this?âÂÂ

Ellen Gray wonders if, in the light of how the bloodiest shows seem to be getting higher ratings, the more benign offerings will steadily join the grisly chorus and redden our screens even more. You know, whatever the traffic will bear?

Periodically, producers of âÂÂfare for the massesâ need to take into account that more often than not, the lowest-rated (R and below) films for all their critical acceptance make less money than the PG-rated-and-up productions. ThatâÂÂs simple. Families can, and do, given the chance, share the experience.

Yet we continue to get more and more tasteless murder, mayhem and slaughter because somebody somewhere in those front offices has concluded that is what we want.

Not!