Media

In a campaign launched this fall, Action for Children's Television has taken aim at what it calls the "TV news gap for children."

Charging that deregulation has encouraged the television industry to "abandon its obligation to provide educational programs for young viewers," the Massachusetts-based nonprofit group has asked broadcasters to use part of the growing segment of their air time devoted to news for programming that will help children understand "what's happening, where it's happening, and why it's happening."

The Columbia Broadcasting System's decision last March to drop its Saturday morning children's program, "In the News," act says in a new publication, "may have sounded the death knell for network news aimed at viewers under...