In the heated national debate over broadcast standards, Tommy Schenck dares to speak the R-word: Responsibility.

"I'm trying to be a responsible broadcaster," says the manager of Raleigh's WRAZ television station. "We have an obligation to our community."

The Greensboro native received national attention for his decision not to air the Fox network's "Who's Your Daddy?" adoption game-show. Previously he passed on other "reality" programs as well, including the one where the woman married that rich guy who turned out to be a creep.

Now, you've got to understand that when we were growing up, Tommy Schenck was known less for his fealty to community standards than for his fierce wit and ardent appreciation of Jimi Hendrix. I asked if he'd grown prudish in middle age.

"I don't think so, although having kids does make you look at your values," he laughs. But his programming decisions aren't based on an aversion to salacious content. Fox 50 runs most of the shows offered by its network, and Tommy says he'd show racy stuff like ABC's "Desperate Housewives" if it were available. "This is not any sort of legal concern over indecency," he says. "We have a broadcast license that carries with it a mandate to be responsible. We're obligated to our community, not just entitled to show what we want."

The difference between the shows he runs and those he doesn't, he says, is that the programs he rejects have an impact in the real world. "These aren't scripted shows; they involve real people and have consequences. They involve things like marriage and adoption that are very important to people. They could be damaging to the participants; they could hurt people," he says.

So when it turned out that one of the couples on the let's-try-to-break'em-up show "Temptation Island" had a child together back on the mainland, he pulled the plug on the series after two episodes. That was an expensive decision. "Temptation Island" had been bringing in good ratings, and WRAZ replaced it with reruns of "Cheers" that brought in about 20 percent of its revenue. But even when shows have an impact only on adults who are acting of their own free will, and even though we're all free to click the remote if we don't want to watch, Tommy says the broadcaster has to live up to its own standards.

Responsibility. Obligation. Consequences. Who talks like that in 21st-century America? If he's not careful, they'll throw him out of the television business.

Actually, his freedom to operate as he sees fit says something about the state of the TV industry -- WRAZ, along with the powerful Raleigh CBS affiliate WRAL, is owned by a North Carolina company, Capitol Media. In an era of consolidation, with more and more media properties owned by vast corporations, the kind of local decision-making practiced by Tommy and his boss, Jim Goodmon, is increasingly rare. Until recently, Fox affiliates didn't even have the opportunity to see programs before they aired. "We should look at things before we put them on air, shouldn't we?" he says.

If I had Tommy's job, I might have run at least some of the shows he pulled, although his point about the kid being involved in the "Temptation Island" scenario is pretty compelling. I'm a big believer in viewers making their own choices. But I welcome his message about responsibility and obligation and find the willingness to put principle above profit particularly compelling in a business where they apologize so profusely for Janet Jackson's nipple-slip before selling the next dozen ads for erectile dysfunction drugs to run during the sporting events I watch with my fifth-grade daughter.

Those spark some fun conversations, let me tell you.

The real lesson to learn from Tommy Schenck is that you, too, can exercise responsibility, even if there is a price to be paid for doing so. Tell your children no if you don't want them to watch something, get rid of cable, don't let them play Grand Theft Auto during dinner.

Who's your daddy? You should answer that question for yourself.

Edward Cone (www.edcone.com, efcone@mindspring.com) writes a column for the News & Record most Sundays.

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