CONGRESS WATCH : A Way to Fight Trash

The moral crusade in Washington against television’s tabloid trash shows has the real possibility of improving TV fare.

For some weeks now, a coalition of politicians and self-anointed watchdogs have raised a legitimate brouhaha over the embarrassing parade of transvestites, adulterers and other exhibitionists on the daytime shows. In one particularly tasteless episode, host Jerry Springer had mothers confront their prostitute daughters.

All of this comes at the end of year in which Congress imposed deep cuts on the Corporation for Public Broadcasting and other government support for public television and radio--partly on the ground that commercial broadcasters were better equipped to serve the public.

One might argue that with Congress, one hardly needs trash TV. Consider Sen. Bob Packwood (R-Ore.), who, before his resignation, was particularly liberal with unwanted kisses for female employees.

Nevertheless the crusade is timely. Its leaders are William Bennett, former secretary of education under President Reagan, Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman (D-Conn.) and Sen. Sam Nunn (D.-Ga.).

Thanks to the crusaders against trash TV, we now have graphic evidence of just what commercial TV has to offer. It is not a pretty picture. But if crusaders like Bennett and Lieberman really want to improve the quality of TV, they should stop tilting at Hollywood windmills and use their clout and energy to restore federal funding for the one reliable source of quality TV--public broadcasting.